A ruling is expected next week that could be pivotal to the long-awaited launch of RTD’s G-Line commuter rail service to Denver’s western suburbs as well as to the dismissal of costly gate attendants along the A-Line to the airport.

A spokesman for the Colorado Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday said the agency’s three commissioners are scheduled to deliberate on the matter March 28 before handing down a decision that same day.

An affirmative vote by state regulators would allow the Regional Transportation District to remove the human flaggers who have been working at the 11 crossings on the University of Colorado A-Line for nearly two years at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. It would also set the stage for passenger service to start on the G-Line connecting Wheat Ridge and Arvada to Denver Union Station.

The G-Line was originally to have opened in the autumn of 2016, and its delay has prompted officials in Arvada and Wheat Ridge to berate the PUC for taking so long to approve the line.

RTD spokesman Scott Reed said not to expect an immediate start of G-Line service following any “yes” vote from the PUC. RTD, he said, still has to conduct weeks’ worth of internal testing before commencing revenue service on the 11-mile-long line.

The G-Line’s debut, Reed said, would have to wait “at least two months” after RTD receives a written order from the PUC, which may not be issued for a week or two following the March 28 meeting. Provided any PUC ruling had no other stipulations, the earliest service could start would be in June.

Nadia Garas, a spokeswoman for private sector partner Denver Transit Partners, said that if a favorable ruling comes down from the PUC, the flaggers “would be removed over a period of weeks in a controlled, phased manner.”

“We want to make sure we communicate the removal of flaggers to crossing-users (motorists, etc.),” she wrote in an email Thursday.

RTD has spent the last several months trying to convince state regulators that its gate crossing technology on the A-Line and the G-Line is safe. RTD’s efforts culminated with a hearing last month before an administrative law judge, during which several experts testified as to its safety.

That judge, Robert Garvey, has forwarded a report to the commissioners that will serve as a finding of fact in the proceedings. PUC spokesman Terry Bote said the report “is an internal document for the commissioners” and would not be made public.

The commissioners expressed concern last year that the gates, which stay down a little longer than federal standards call for, could prompt impatient motorists to try and drive around the arms and potentially into the path of an oncoming train. They rejected RTD’s design in September despite the fact that federal regulators that same week ruled that the gates were sufficiently safe.