Someone's Delaying the Departure of This Train: Happy Thanksgiving!

Forget getting to the airport by the A-Line; because of an accident at Colorado Boulevard, passengers are being transported by bus. And don't worry about that traffic jam on I-270...because even once you arrive at Denver International Airport, you won't be going anywhere fast. There's a problem with the trains,...

By Patricia Calhoun

November 22, 2017

Denver International Airport at 7:35 a.m. Special to Westword

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Update: As of 11 a.m., the A-Line is back in business, as are the airport's trains. Here's our original report from 7:47 a.m.

Forget getting to the airport by the A-Line; because of an accident at Colorado Boulevard, passengers are being transported by bus from there to Quebec. And don't worry about that traffic jam on I-270...because even once you arrive at Denver International Airport, you won't be going anywhere fast.

There's a problem with the trains, and only two seem to have left the station between 7:15 and 7:45 a.m. "Sensor issue has slowed but not stopped the trains," says spokesman Heath Montgomery. "We are working on it."

One traveler, a former air-traffic controller who knows his airports, reports that the situation is a "total clusterfuck, getting worse. Elapsed time from boarding platform to C was 31 minutes; saw two trains total during that time." Adding insult to injury, he adds, there's "no information or personnel presence from DIA giving any information re: status."

Here's some info that the airport just tweeted about the trains: "They're not down, they're running slower than usual."

Much slower than usual. Perhaps the would-be travelers stuck in the crowd above can put their wait to good use coming up with new messages for that train; the airport is hosting a contest to find new announcers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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