Light-rail riders fuming

Complaints soared after RTD canceled express bus routes

Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 6, 2006 at midnight

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Swamped with an "unprecedented" barrage of complaints about longer commutes that accompanied the startup of T-REX light-rail service, RTD is making changes to bus schedules and routes, but it won't bring back the popular express buses it eliminated.

"The commute times should be similar if the schedules are met," Tony McCaulay, customer service manager for the Regional Transportation District, told elected board members Tuesday night.

"The problems come if we don't meet the schedules."

What McCaulay described as "an unprecedented level of customer contacts" brought tales of travel times that have added 20 minutes to an hour to each one-way trip for many people.

"When you want to increase their commutes by 20, 30, 40 minutes a day, that is a tough sell," said O'Neill Quinlan, the board member from southeast Arapahoe and Douglas counties.

"We have done an exceptional job of screwing that up. We have given them shoddy treatment, poor excuses and insufficient feedback."

Board member Juanita Chacon, of Denver, said that in the past two weeks, she has received 10 times more complaints from constituents than the total she had received since joining the board.

RTD staff already has made many changes to what rolled out on the first day of the new system Nov. 20, even on the existing light-rail line where service was cut back to help supply cars for the new corridor.

But the source of many of the complaints - elimination of direct nonstop coach bus rides from far-out suburban park-n-Rides to downtown or the Denver Tech Center - remains. Regional Transportation District staff said with Southeast light-rail lines serving as the new spine of the corridor, it can't afford to compete with itself by adding some of the canceled bus routes.

Many commuters have complained that the need to transfer from buses to trains to buses again has added from 20 minutes to an hour - or more on bad weather days - to their one-way travel times. Some are going back to driving or forming car pools.

The complaints aren't only from the southeast area. Some north and northwest suburban riders lost their express buses to the Denver Tech Center. Instead, buses from Boulder, Westminster and Thornton that used to go down Interstate 25 to the Tech Center now end downtown for transfers to light rail.

Riders complain that easily missed connections and the need for another bus transfer from the rail stations in the Tech Center add more time and delay.

Bill Porter, RTD's scheduler, said glitches the first week or so contributed to the problems, but with schedule changes, connect times should improve.

"Each week we've been seeing major improvements in on-time performance," he said.

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