DENVER — Regional Transportation District passengers say they’ll take less service if it means more reliability.
That’s the result of an RTD survey to address ongoing service issues stemming from a labor shortage. [See “Denver RTD faces light rail, bus cuts because of lack of operators,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 21, 2019.]
Given the choice of continuing service at current levels — although with continuing risk of short-notice cancellations because no operator is available — or reducing service but having a greater likelihood that service will operate, 59 percent of those surveyed at RTD stations, and 58 percent of those who took part in a Nov. 6 telephone town hall event, opted for the temporary service reductions. The information was relayed to RTD board members before a Thursday meeting.
The Denver Post reports that RTD General Manager Dave Genova told the board that passengers “just want to show up and have their trip,” and that board member Judy Lubow called the situation “an emergency … This is just creaming us in terms of status and reputation.”
The board will likely hear a list of possible service cuts at its Dec. 12 meeting, and would likely go into effect in spring 2020. It has not been determined how long the cuts would last.
The presentation to the board showed that more than 8,500 hours of bus service had been cancelled through September 2019, as well as more than 850 hours of light-rail service through October.
The survey results and presentation to the board are available at the RTD website.
