A “to-do” list of transportation projects that should be finished within the next six years in the Denver metro area contains few frills or bonuses for communities hoping for expansion of commuter rail.

“This is a very sobering document,” said Regional Transportation District board member William McMullen. “This is what we have for the here and now.”

The full project list is for FasTracks work that RTD believes it will finish by 2035. But nearly all the projects were in the 2013-2018 time frame.

Because of the district’s funding shortages, nothing was listed for 2018-2030. And only three projects — including finishing the widening of U.S. 36 — made it to 2030-2035.

Once the RTD board approves the list — which will be formally voted on Aug. 28 — it will be sent to the Denver Regional Council Of Governments for review.

RTD and other local governments have to submit plans to DRCOG to keep federal funding.

RTD staff members identified 10 FasTracks rail line projects that should be done or underway between 2013-2018. They include:

• A completed West Rail Line by 2013

• $120 million for U.S. 36 Bus Rapid Transit to 88th Street and $15 million for Managed Lanes to Table Mesa in Boulder,

• Completion of Denver Union Station by 2015

• Completion of northwest rail station in Longmont by 2015

• Completion of the Eagle Project by 2016

• Completion of the I-225 rail project by 2016

• Construction of rail to the National Western Stock Show by 2017.

RTD also plans a study of transportation options for the northwest corridor to be completed by fall 2013.

RTD staff members said the projects mirrored tight economic times and the assumptions there will be no new funding coming in the near future.

But RTD General Manager Phil Washington said the agency is always looking for new avenues for funding including public/private partnerships.

“No one should panic when they see these dates and years,” Washington told the RTD board. “We fully expect to accelerate.”

This new amended plan replaces a previous plan that assumed RTD could finish its FasTracks commuter rail line through the northwest corridor by no later than 2032, said RTD FasTracks spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas.

But RTD ran into funding difficulties for the northwest rail, including increased costs of using Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks, which went from $894 million to $1.7 billion.

The RTD board in April decided not to go to the ballot to ask voters to double the FasTracks tax to get the northwest corridor finished on time. The timing was wrong, they said.

Now, without further funding, the earliest the 41-mile stretch between Denver and Longmont would be complete is 2044.

Tuesday night’s amended plan “is really a short-term placeholder,” said Tonilas.