GDT > Blog > It’s Stock Show Time!
It’s January and for the most people the holiday parties are over, the presents are unwrapped and work beckons again. It’s hardly the best time of the year and the often foul weather doesn’t help things. That said, in Denver we are lucky enough to have a great event that helps chase away the seasonal blues – it’s National Western Stock Show time!
The festivities kick-off by literally transforming Downtown Denver back into a cow town. Today (January 9th), the traditional National Western Stock Show Parade will drive over 30 longhorn cattle down 17th Street from Union Station to Glenarm Place before returning via 18th Street to MacGregor Square, where a Stock Show Fair is being held. RTD is also taking part by “adding a horse-drawn buggy” to their network – you can find out how to catch up with their team here.
The parade does result in some disruption to RTD services, as trains can’t run on the Downtown loop and buses on 17th and 18th Streets need to be detoured due to cattle. What other major transit agencies can use that as a reason to alter service, I wonder?
Getting The N Line to the Show
When the N Line opened, one of the stations on it was the much trumpeted 48th & Brighton at National Western Center. Located behind the National Western Center (NWC) and a block away from the northeast extremity of the Elyria neighborhood, it’s fair to say that until significant transit orientated development occurs, traffic at this location will mainly depend on events at the NWC.
Taking a look at the Stock Show website, despite being found under ‘Parking and Maps‘, information on the N Line is pretty easy to find. For most the walk from the station is reasonable should the organizers of the stock show do their bit by making an effort to sign the shortest route to and from the NWC.
Currently the N Line operates from 5:30am to 11pm, 7 days a week with two extra late night round trips being operated at 11:26am and 11:56pm on Saturday nights. Frequency is 30 minutes at all times. The question is whether this frequency is enough to encourage large amounts of people to choose rail as a way to travel to the Stock Show. My guess is possibly not…
A 15 Minute Frequency Stock Show Shuttle?
The N Line has an interesting operating arrangement, where 5 Hyundai Rotem ‘Silverliner V‘ multiple unit trains from the commuter rail fleet are are made available to RTD each day by Denver Transit Operators (DTO). RTD then supplies the operators and conductors to operate the service. Usually 3 trains are needed in service, a fourth train is kept as a spare at a siding located at 31st St (just behind RTD’s District Shops / Platte Garage) and a fifth is held in reserve by DTO at the Commuter Rail Maintenance Facility.
During major events at the NWC, it should be possible to use either the fourth or fifth train to operate NWC shuttle ‘fill in’ services between Union Station and 48th & Brighton Station to create a roughly 15 minute frequency service. This could be done by scheduling the NWC shuttle trains to pass regular N Line trains on the double track section between the Union Station ‘throat’ and Washington Street and then using the single track layout to turn the shuttle trains at 48th & Brighton Station. NWC Shuttle trains would need at least 4 minutes here to allow the operator to ‘cut out’ the cab, walk to the opposite end of the train, ‘cut in’ the new cab, initialize Positive Train Control and be ready to depart.
One other consideration is A Line trains using the Union Station ‘throat’. While outbound A Line trains departing for the airport are not an issue as they are kept separate on Track 1, arriving trains do share Track 2 with N Line movements for a short section and thus need to be de-conflicted in the schedule. The schedules below indicate how such as service could be planned to provide a doubling of capacity and a service that is ultimately much more useful to Stock Show attendees.
Possible Northbound Schedule
| Station | N Line | NWC Shuttle | N Line | NWC Shuttle |
| Denver Union Station Track 2 | xx:56 | xx:08 | xx:26 | xx:38 |
| 48th & Brighton at NWC | xx:04 | xx:16 | xx:34 | xx:46 |
| Commerce City & 72nd | xx:10 | – | xx:40 | – |
| Original Thornton & 88th | xx:14 | – | xx:44 | – |
| Thornton Crossroads & 104th | xx:18 | – | xx:48 | – |
| Northglenn & 112th | xx:21 | – | xx:51 | – |
| Eastlake & 124th | xx:26 | – | xx:56 | – |
Possible Southbound Schedule
| Station | N Line | NWC Shuttle | N Line | NWC Shuttle |
| Eastlake & 124th | xx:43 | – | xx:13 | – |
| Northglenn & 112th | xx:46 | – | xx:16 | – |
| Thornton Crossroads & 104th | xx:49 | – | xx:19 | – |
| Original Thornton & 88th | xx:53 | – | xx:23 | – |
| Commerce City & 72nd | xx:57 | – | xx:27 | – |
| 48th & Brighton at NWC | xx:04 | xx:22 | xx:34 | xx:52 |
| Denver Union Station Track 2 | xx:12 | xx:30 | xx:42 | xx:00 |
And Finally…
While we can only hope that RTD takes note and considers introducing an NWC shuttle service in time for next year’s show, it should remembered that transit is still by far and away the best way to get there in 2025. Aside from the N Line, bus route 48 also connects Downtown Denver with the venue. The A Line and bus route 7 are also within walking distance. Check out Greater Denver Transit’s National Western Center page for full details and enjoy the show!
– Richard