Nearly one million travelers will pass through Denver International Airport in the days before and after Thanksgiving, a weekend that is shaping up to be among the airport's busiest ever (via Fox 31). Which means highways will be packed with travelers going to and from the airport---a hassle that could ease up in years to come. The Regional Transportation District's interim manager, Phillip Washington, says the agency is finally expecting to award a $1.3 billion contract for the 23-mile-long passenger rail line from downtown's Union Station to the airport in July, reports The Denver Post. The work, conducted in a public-private partnership, would begin the following month. Washington lays out the goal, among several others, in RTD's first ever State of the District presentation, which can be read on Kevin Flynn's Inside Lane. Meanwhile, there's controversy brewing over the proposed redevelopment of Union Station, as Colorado Rail Passenger Association Vice President Bob Brewster highlights in an essay for Inside Lane. The plan, he writes, "violates fiscal prudence, it violates the historical character and protection of the station, and it violates the trust of the voters who taxed themselves for an efficient rail system for their future mobility requirements."