Robert Pumphrey pulled his RTD bus into the Westminster public transit station earlier this month, got out and faced a belligerent man who head-butted Pumphrey and punched him in the face.
An ambulance took Pumphrey, 68, to a hospital for treatment. His eye and the side of his face swollen, he was driving again three days later but wondered whether the attacker might return — “the first thing on my mind,” Pumphrey said during a break, ruling out retirement. “I’m a senior citizen. But in this day and age, you’ve got to keep working to make a living.”
In January, a Regional Transportation District driver at the end of her Colfax Avenue route went to the back of her bus to roust a rider who seemed to have fallen asleep, standard protocol. He popped up and assaulted her, leaving her bruised with broken ribs. She, too, was planning to keep driving after completing physical therapy.
As RTD struggles to fill its openings for bus and light rail drivers, violence and illegal drug use on public transit create an obstacle to attracting and retaining employees, despite wages that allow a driver to earn more than $80,000 a year.
“Would you want to work for an agency where, as an operator, you have to smell meth on your train? People have a choice in where to work. Nobody wants to work where they might be assaulted and have to smell meth,” RTD board member Paul Rosenthal said, referring to a bus driver who’d been exposed to drug fumes and needed medical treatment for headaches.
The violence targeting drivers “makes it difficult, a deterrent” in recruitment and retention, Rosenthal said.
RTD’s bus driver vacancy rate remains around 16% and, for light rail operators, 21%. RTD officials said they’ve budgeted for 850 full-time bus drivers and that 706 were working, with 50 in training. For light rail, RTD needs 200 operators and has 158. For commuter rail with 30 budgeted engineer positions, 26 were filled.
RTD lost 368 bus drivers and train operators in 2022 and 2023, agency data shows, including 63 retirements.
Shortages affect service
The shortages of bus drivers and rail operators for years have impeded RTD efforts to ensure reliable service, let alone increase the frequency of service. Maintenance disruptions this summer will reduce ride frequency on key routes, but RTD officials have said that due to the shortage of bus drivers, they’d be hard-pressed to provide temporary bus “bridge” shuttles to help riders reach their destinations.
RTD has not responded to an April 2 request under the Colorado Open Records Act for statistics on assaults, But abuses targeting drivers “happen daily at some level. They’re verbally threatened, yelled at, spit on, cursed at, and have things thrown at them,” said Lance Longenbohn, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents RTD workers. He relayed the case of the driver along Colfax, who asked not to be identified because she was embarrassed.
The abuse “is definitely a contributing factor” causing driver shortages, Longenbohn said. “It is not getting better.”
“If we collectively provide respect and security to folks on the frontline, they will take us everywhere we need to go,” RTD board chairman Erik Davidson said. “Anything that inhibits RTD’s frontline team from doing their job is a concern as it relates to retention,” Davidson said. “Personal security is indeed a top priority as it is one such factor.”
Other factors that keep RTD from getting and keeping enough drivers include schedules that require drivers to start before dawn and sometimes accept split shifts. Navigating heavy traffic can add to the stress of the job, RTD trainers and veteran drivers said.
But bus drivers say the violence has intensified over the past five years. A 60-year-old passenger whose leg was blocking an RTD bus aisle was fatally shot inside the bus on Jan. 27. A 13-year-old boy has been charged with murder in that shooting.
“I’ve been assaulted twice physically. I’ve been verbally assaulted. One time a guy told me if he had his gun he would shoot me,” RTD bus driver Jerry Jimenez, a military veteran, said. Violence “has become more rampant than ever in our society” and when he drives his routes – essential because “I gotta put food on the table” for five children — “I know it could happen anytime.”
The “good riders who appreciate me every day” sustain him, Jimenez said, pointing to a woman on the route he’s driven for the past 18 months who gave him a Christmas card and thanks him each time she boards.
“It’s getting worse,” said Barbara O’Donnell, who has been driving RTD buses for 11 years and is wary of pressing riders who refuse to pay fares for fear of setting off conflicts. When she asked a man to leave her bus one morning this year, he launched into verbal attacks, followed her when she left the bus and threw a soda can at her, O’Donnell said. She then ran to get back on her bus, closed the door, and began driving away as he banged on the door and threw a phone charger at the window. Drug users typically move to rear seats and cover themselves in blankets, she said. “It smells like a burned tire.”
At a recent RTD directors’ committee discussion of recruitment and retention, Debra Johnson, the general manager and chief executive, referred to “the behaviors we have seen, the assaults and the like” as a factor in recruitment and retention.
The RTD pay scale offers wages higher than those at metro transit agencies in Los Angeles and other large cities, starting at $25.96 an hour, increasing to $31 after four years, with a signing bonus of $4,000. RTD pays double for voluntary overtime work, up to 30 hours each week, agency recruiters said.
More police, de-escalation
RTD officials plan to increase the number of armed RTD transit police who patrol buses and trains across the service area, which covers 2,342 square miles in Denver and surrounding counties — from 58 currently to 119 officers by the end of the year. They’re installing safety barriers inside buses that separate drivers from riders, designed to withstand blunt force.
RTD bus operators will receive de-escalation training, according to RTD spokeswoman Tina Jaquez. The training has been updated to include coaching on verbal techniques to avoid assuming the role of “enforcer.” RTD officials have appealed to riders for help by notifying the RTD Transit Police Department (303-299-2911 or texts via 303-434-9100) of problems. In emergencies, riders also can call 911.
“Urgent” hiring
At their latest job fair at a hotel near Denver International Airport last month, RTD managers promised prospective new bus drivers a smooth process and said they could begin training as soon as the second week of April.
“We are down operators. We need help in all our divisions,” RTD recruiter Kay Blunt told a gathering of five potential applicants. “All overtime is double time. You cannot beat that. People are making a lot of money right now with RTD.”
The five listened and asked questions. The urine test for drugs was mandatory, Blunt said, adding that “if you ever fail a drug screen, you cannot apply to RTD for two years.” The agency receives funding from the federal government and must adhere to federal drug laws.
The criminal background check? A man raised his hand and said he was on parole for a crime committed two decades ago.
“It might have to go through our legal department,” Blunt told him. “It depends on what the charges were.”
She ran multiple orientation sessions and directed dozens of potential applicants to an adjacent room to complete paperwork. She was “optimistic,” she said around noon, that RTD would gain at least 40 trainees. The key to building the workforce, agency research has shown, is keeping new hires for at least 18 months, she said.
“This is so urgent – extremely urgent — to get our city moving again.”
For Simona Swearingen, 57, an applicant who already held a Colorado commercial driver’s license and had worked previously for an RTD contractor, early morning hours are no problem. But she anticipated unruly riders could be difficult. “You have to zone it out. You learn not to pay too much attention to the riff-raff,” she said, referring to her past experience.
Decent pay matters most. She’d been driving for Uber, she said. “I want to work just one job. I’ve got my CDL. I’ve worked 2 jobs all my life. A lot of people don’t like the hours but I’ve done night driving and I’m used to it.”
Fellow applicant Rob Potter, 51, a former business manager who also had been driving for Uber, said “inconsistent hours” looked daunting and that “fair and friendly managers” who would respect his needs would be a high priority.
The money looks good, he said. But dealing with potentially disruptive and possibly dangerous riders is a significant drawback.
“It concerns me, especially along the Colfax Avenue route,” Potter said. “A homeless person screaming at the top of their lungs?” If other riders were threatened, it would fall to him as the driver to take responsibility, he said. “You are the authority there on that bus.”
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