RTD officials have approved cuts in rail service that will mean one train per hour on some key routes starting May 26, far short of the 15-minute frequencies that public transportation advocates urge to entice more metro Denver residents out of their cars.
The temporary cuts, combined with other permanent scale-backs in service that the Regional Transportation District’s board approved 14-1 late Tuesday, are cast as crucial for catch-up maintenance along routes.
RTD board chair Erik Davidson said cuts to facilitate rail reconstruction downtown and wall repairs along the Interstate 25 corridor are painful but necessary for the future of the region’s taxpayer-financed transit system. RTD’s map includes 114 miles of rail tracks along with bus routes across a 2,342-square-mile service area, with 9,720 stops.
“The effort to shift more metro residents out of cars and onto transit is about playing an effective long game — one that requires RTD to maintain a safe and reliable system in a state of good repair,” Davidson told The Denver Post.
“Continual deferral of maintenance is plaguing aging infrastructure across the United States,” he said. RTD leaders are “committed to safeguarding the metro area’s transit system and not kicking the can down the road.”
But the shift to reduced train frequency this spring, lasting through the summer, rankles riders who say they’re already frustrated by RTD’s unreliability. The downtown rail reconstruction project also will result in the rerouting or suspension of some rail lines.
Family medicine physician Cat Gilligan, 30, lamented that she spends up to 40 minutes waiting for trains to and from work that fail to arrive on schedule. Driving to her work downtown takes about 15 minutes, faster than her RTD options, Gilligan said. She’s been trying to stay with public transit, if possible, to help reduce air pollution.
When she heads for flights out of Denver International Airport, Gilligan relies on the E-Line along the I-25 corridor to reach Union Station — one of the lines where the frequency of trains will decrease from every 15 minutes to one train per hour from late May until Sept. 2.
“The cuts would definitely lead me to drive and park at the airport or take an Uber or Lyft,” she said.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, RTD’s elected directors heard from residents who implored them to take a different approach and at least ensure bus alternatives this summer.
Former light rail operator Thomas Topero argued that it’s “quite possible” to keep trains moving at 15-minute intervals while conducting maintenance.
Light-rail lines see heaviest reductions
In the late-night vote, the directors finalized the following changes:
A reduction in rail service along the I-25 corridor. From central Denver to the south suburbs (on the E- and H-lines), the current 15-minute frequencies will be reduced to one train per hour this summer to accommodate a project to inspect and repair “coping” panels, which are caps atop retaining walls along the tracks. That project began in April 2023 and will resume this spring, with completion expected in September.
A suspension of L-Line trains that run between Five Points and the downtown loop from late May through Sept. 2.
The rerouting of trains along two other rail lines (D and H) to Union Station for the summer, temporarily ending service to RTD’s downtown loop and suspending stops on Colfax Avenue at the Auraria Campus and at the Colorado Convention Center — all to allow for the Downtown Rail Reconstruction Project.
Altered bus schedules along multiple routes. RTD is also reinstating the Free MetroRide bus route between Union Station and Civic Center during the rail construction project.
Shortened spans of rail service along most light rail lines, with most trains beginning service later, around 5 a.m. Those changes won’t affect commuter-rail lines like the A-Line.
RTD officials over the past week had faced an onslaught of objections over their initial light rail service proposal, which would have ended weeknight rail service after 10 p.m. and weekend service after midnight. They scaled back those reductions before Tuesday night’s vote, which approved service going through about midnight Sunday through Thursday for the D, E, H, R and W lines, with service until about 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays for all but the R-Line.
RTD director JoyAnn Ruscha , who voted against the service cuts package, said later starts on the R-Line amounted to “cutting off people’s access to work” and told fellow directors that she’d heard from northeast Denver residents in tears over this reduction.
“Permanent demand destruction” among riders?
For RTD, reducing bus and rail service for a long stretch could shake public confidence as agency officials struggle to regain ridership that has decreased over the past five years.
In 2019, RTD recorded 105.8 million boardings. That level plummeted to around 49 million in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ridership recovered to 65.2 million boardings in 2023, at just shy of 62% of pre-pandemic levels.
Transit ridership in some cities with rail mass transit, including Washington, D.C., and Seattle, has recovered more fully to more than 80% of pre-pandemic levels, though bus ridership has lagged.
Better bus and rail service is crucial to meet Colorado’s climate, environmental and affordable housing goals, said Matt Frommer, a senior transportation associate at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, a policy advocacy group.
“We built this amazing rail system, but in a lot of cases the trains only come once every 30 minutes. And people don’t feel they can rely on it. It can double or triple the time it takes to get where you want to go, compared with driving,” Frommer said.
“We need these trains and buses to run every 15 minutes or better,” he said. “You go to your bus stop and you need to have some assurance the bus is going to come sometime soon, rather than wait there for 30 minutes.”
He cited a SWEEP analysis that found only about 20% of RTD’s bus and train routes offer service every 15 minutes or better.
RTD officials this week couldn’t provide an overall average frequency for bus and rail. They reported a range, varying by route. For a high-demand corridor like Colfax Avenue, where the 15 and 15L routes run often, riders see buses arriving every 3 to 5 minutes, agency spokeswoman Pauline Haberman said.
But on a lower-demand route, such as Route 483 between Parker Road and Lincoln Avenue, buses run once per hour, Haberman said. Several bus routes through Denver also have had hourly frequency since the pandemic, including some that connect to Union Station.
Similarly, A-Line trains between Union Station Station and DIA run every 15 minutes at peak times. But the weekday peak rail service along the B-Line (between Union Station and Westminster) is one train per hour, she said.
The service changes that RTD directors consider three times a year are meant to improve on-time performance, align with seasonal travel patterns and accommodate maintenance projects, Haberman said.
“Service changes and scheduled adjustments take into consideration the needs of customers and the available staffing resources,” she said. “RTD, like many other large employers, continues to face people power issues.”
James Flattum, a cofounder of Greater Denver Transit, a grassroots advocacy group, said the cuts to help address maintenance along the I-25 corridor rail lines may be necessary for safety but risk a downward spiral for public transit.
Reducing rail service along the I-25 corridor to one train per hour will lead to “permanent demand destruction,” he said. “People who have relied on these rail lines as part of their daily routines are going to be forced to look elsewhere. Maybe they won’t come back.”
“We want people to be riding transit for environmental reasons and for economic reasons,” Flattum added. “But having a high frequency is the most important thing for making public transit competitive with other modes of transportation. We may be seeing the erosion of habits and routines that were built over decades in just a few months.”
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