It wasn’t long ago that north-metro residents were envisioning the winter/spring of 2018 as a time they could hop on a commuter train at 104th, 112th or 124th avenues and ride into Denver unburdened by their cars.

Those people might now want to invest in snow tires.

The train isn’t coming early next year. It may not even come early the year after that.

The Regional Transportation District is looking at an estimated 18-month construction delay for the North Metro Rail Line, officials say. The first phase of the project, including six of eight planned stations, was originally scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2018. The delay puts the opening in late 2019, though RTD officials will not commit to that time frame and have vowed to make up the time as best they can.

“We’re not close enough to be able to provide a project timeline or completion date at this point,” RTD spokesman Nate Currey said, “but we are working diligently because we know people up north are super anxious to see this open.”

The N-Line delay is the latest setback for RTD as it seeks to finish the funded portions of its FasTracks rail system. The University of Colorado A-Line train to the airport has been plagued by persistent software issues at its crossings that have required millions of dollars in extra staff time as federally mandated flaggers work road crossings along the route.

The opening of the G-line to Wheat Ridge, originally set for last fall, has been delayed by similar issues, although federal regulators have approved final testing on it. The agency proposed service cuts on the R-Line through Aurora because of low ridership. In a bit of good news, RTD recently announced crossing attendants on the B-Line to Westminster’s single road crossing will soon be dismissed after federal approval.

The delay up north stems from a variety of complications in designing and building the 12.5 miles of track that will eventually carry electric, heavy-rail trains from Denver’s Union Station north to East 124th and Eastlake avenues in Thornton. RTD’s design-build contractor on the project is Regional Rail Partners.

The project is snagged over how it will impact the historic Riverside Cemetery at 5201 Brighton Blvd. RTD has proposed closing the cemetery’s existing entrance on Brighton and placing a new entrance off of Race Court.

A Colorado Public Utilities Commission administrative judge ruled this summer that permanently closing and moving the entrance would promote public safety at a crossing that would see more than 80 trains a day. Now, RTD is working with the Army Corps of Engineers on ways it can minimize or avoid impacts on the cemetery in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act.

Cemetery officials say they want to keep the entrance as it is.

Meanwhile, RTD is building a nearly 2-mile-long bridge to carry the single-track line over York Street, existing rail road tracks and Interstate 270 in Commerce City. The so-called Skyway bridge also passes over a portion of the Suncor oil refinery.

But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has deemed the refinery as important strategically, RTD’s Currey said, and mandated the agency add blinders on portions of the bridge so passengers can’t see down into the facility.

“It’s really long, it’s really high and it goes through some sensitive areas,” Currey said of the complicated bridge.

While RTD works to navigate the situation, north-metro leaders are working to remain patient.

Thornton Mayor Heidi Williams said her city has sped up work on public improvements and roadway projects to make way for the incoming train.

Financial problems constrained the scope of the FasTracks plan after the Great Recession — the Boulder line won’t be funded until at least 2040 — so RTD scaled back the N-Line, planning to end it at the National Western Complex in Denver. RTD received an unsolicited proposal in 2013 that convinced the agency that it could build north to 124th Avenue, although two further stops remain unfunded.

Williams said she is grateful that train service is coming to Thornton. Still, a delay with no end in sight is hard to swallow.

“We’d love to hear they’ve found a miracle, but we’re not going to count on that,” Williams said. “Hopefully, it’s still 2019. They haven’t told us.”

Commerce City Mayor Sean Ford said he is frustrated by the delay. His city will host a station at East 72nd Avenue and Colorado Boulevard. He noted that the economy is booming now and incoming mass transit infrastructure has the ability to attract major development. The prospects of such development lessen, though, when municipalities can’t give developers and employers clear answers on when that infrastructure might be put to use. He said it would help if RTD could provide a date certain when service will begin.

“I absolutely in no way want to bad-mouth RTD,” Ford said. “I want to encourage them … to find meaningful solutions and have some hard-set dates to be able to convey to our public. We can use that to benefit from economic development opportunities and also to be transparent and have a clear finish line for the people who want to do business here.”