There are times that government officials need to tell the unvarnished truth, no matter how unpleasant that news may be. That time seems nigh for the Regional Transportation District, which faces a series of unappealing options with FasTracks expansion.

To put it bluntly, FasTracks cannot be completed on time by 2017 and within budget - a possibility we raised in September 2004, when we urged a no vote on the sales tax increase to fund the project.

Construction and materials costs are surging and sales tax collections haven't met expectations. The projected on-time completion cost of the entire project has exploded from $4.7 billion in 2004 to $7.9 billion - and that number could rise further, if the economy doesn't rebound, producer prices keep escalating, or some combination of the two occurs.

The transit district could face a shortfall of $2 billion if it attempts to finish a full buildout by 2017 - and that's if RTD secures $1 billion or so in federal transit funding.

To its credit, RTD's management is aggressively pursuing partnerships with the private sector to accelerate construction schedules and reduce costs. And when bids come in from private companies to build the commuter-rail Gold Line to Wheat Ridge and the East Corridor to Denver International Airport next year, FasTracks' costs should come down.

But at some point, RTD will max out any economies from privatization. So RTD's management will present board members with three options by early November: Build a scaled-down version of FasTracks that will be completed by 2017; finish the original FasTracks plan but stretch the construction schedule until the 2030s; or find new streams of tax dollars to complete the whole thing by a 2017 deadline.

Some of those new revenues could come from whatever tax plan for transportation emerges from the legislature in the coming years. But transit should be far behind highway and bridge construction as a priority for state transportation planners. There simply isn't enough new revenue likely to materialize.

So we see RTD's first option - a scaled-down FasTracks - as by far the most reasonable and realistic proposal. Under that plan, the West Corridor light rail to Golden would be completed on schedule. The Gold and East lines would be built, as would the U.S. 36 Bus Rapid Transit Corridor to Boulder.

There's good reason to proceed with the Gold and East lines: Projected ridership is high enough that they could qualify for federal funding. Ridership for the North Metro (Adams County), Northwest (Longmont) and Interstate-225 lines is too low to attract federal funding, and ground can't be broken for those or any other rail corridors until the financing is secured.

RTD has also landed some money for the U.S. 36 corridor - the most fiscally sensible part of FasTracks - which will run along existing highway right of way.

Between now and November, RTD will meet with mayors, council members, commissioners and other government leaders. It will also hold public meetings to solicit comment and gauge support.

A scaled-down plan will not be welcomed in communities that were promised FasTracks service. Longmont, Thornton and Brighton are shut out entirely.

But the Northwest rail line, in particular, never made any fiscal sense. It and others with the lowest ridership and highest subsidies should be the first to go. RTD should concentrate on the lines that are most fiscally defensible. Taxpayers are already digging deeply enough.