Denver International Airport operators are modernizing their 30-year-old automated underground trains, a long-planned $148 million project to boost DIA’s people-moving capacity and shave 13 seconds off travelers’ wait times.
They just completed an initial $78 million partial fleet replacement, shifting from older steel cars dating to the airport’s opening in 1995 (those have 1.4 million miles on them) to 26 aerodynamic white cars made of recycled aluminum.
Passengers headed to catch flights can expect smoother, brighter, and potentially quieter rides in the new “Innovia Automated People Mover 300R” trains, airport officials said this week, with superior HVAC, gate information screens, and larger windows as the vehicles hum at 30 mph through DIA’s tunnels. Noise levels depend partly on the recorded onboard messaging voices.
But beyond comforts, an intensifying competition among major airports to offer faster internal connections hinges on “headway,” the amount of time between trains, said Matt Robb, DIA senior vice president for technical operations. In recent years, the best DIA could offer was 96 seconds.
The modernization, including an upgrade of the airport’s signal and control system, will reduce the headway to 83 seconds, Robb said. That 13-second improvement “adds up over an hour,” and over the 44,640 minutes in a month, to make DIA a faster and more competitive international hub, he said.
“By 2033, we want to be able to move 10,500 passengers per direction per hour. That means moving 10,500 people an hour from the terminal to the concourses, and 10,500 from the concourses to the terminal. We can increase our capacity by running more trains.”
Paris-based Alstom produces the Innovia 300Rs at a factory in Pittsburgh. Shifting from steel to aluminum increases energy efficiency, due to reduced weight, and is expected to shrink DIA’s electricity bill.
The infusion of 26 new cars has led to a capacity increase of 1,700 people per hour since Alstom and DIA rolled out North America’s first new Innovia car in June 2024, airport spokeswoman Courtney Law said. Instead of seven four-car trains, DIA has up to eight available. Next, airport teams plan to add 19 more cars to replace 15 remaining old cars, and then upgrade the signals, control system, and power lines.
DIA trains will remain vulnerable to Xcel breakdowns, such as the substation malfunction last weekend. “We are very reliant on Xcel to deliver us power,” Robb said.
Airport crews maintain a large battery system as backup and can use an Xcel “micro-grid” for emergencies to propel stalled trains to concourses and the terminal and let travelers off.
Trains remain the only way to move from DIA’s main terminal to the B Concourse and C Concourse. They carry more than 150,000 riders a day, airport data shows, and operate 24/7.
“Every airport is trying to provide its passengers with the best experience at the most reasonable cost in partnership with the air carriers,” Robb said. “Our train at DIA, beyond being a must-ride system, is something every passenger experiences. We want to make sure it is leaving the right impression.”
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