County, city planners are considering options for public transit to get to Red Rocks

By Karen Morfitt

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    DENVER (KCNC) — Plans are in the works to develop public transit to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre as well as other mountain parks to the west of Denver.

Red Rocks was the best-attended outdoor venue in the country last year with 1.65 million tickets sold. The vast majority of concert attendees drive there, and there’s often a traffic jam getting in and out of the world-famous venue as well as parking lots that get filled quickly.

Neighboring parks in the Colorado foothills are also very popular, and the parking lots at trailheads there can get crowded with cars quickly on nice days.

Jefferson County Commissioner Andy Kerr says their open space department has a long-standing goal of connecting public transportation lines with different places of interest in the area.

“Certainly we are talking about the hundreds of thousands of people who go to Red Rocks for a concert, for a movie, for Easter sunrise, but also there are hundreds of people that work at Red Rocks and work and live and play in this area that we don’t have accessible transportation for,” Kerr said.

Red Rocks is owned by the City and County of Denver, and Denver City Councilman Darryl Watson says the council is also looking into public transit improvements.

“Our target is 2025 Red Rocks season to have an option from the W Line,” Watson said.

Right now the Regional Transportation District’s W Line leaves from downtown Denver and heads west into Jefferson County. But it ends at the Jefferson County Government Center in Golden.

The idea is to have a connector there that then moves people into Matthews/Winters Park, Apex Park, Dinosaur Ridge, Red Rocks and downtown Morrison. What that ride looks like is still to be determined.

“It would probably be some kind of a shuttle,” Kerr said. “Certainly we want to make it as green as possible.”

Watson says on top of lessening the carbon footprint, there is a safety concern that currently isn’t being addressed.

“There are many accidents from folks who are coming from a very nice concert that they’ve enjoyed themselves at and then literally driving all the way back to Denver. That’s not safe at all,” Watson said.

There are a lot of questions to be answered, particularly when it comes to funding. But Watson says they’re not letting it slow them down.

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