Evan Semón Photography
Audio By Carbonatix
Last week, Catie Cheshire shared the story of Sandra Mader, who works three jobs and doesn’t have a car. She relies on RTD to get her from place to place.
She walks to one of her jobs; for another, she takes the bus to Arvada. Both of those treks are usually painless, she says. But for her third job at a mail center, Mader must take the E Line, a light rail line that runs from downtown Denver to the Denver Tech Center. “I have to get up at 4:15 a.m., walk twenty minutes to catch a bus to get to the light rail, and wait another 25 minutes to get that,” Mader says. “Assuming the light rail isn’t canceled or thirty minutes late, I then sit on it for one to two hours – and even then, I still end up being late.”
Since last summer, RTD has been performing unexpected safety fixes along the Southeast Corridor rail lines; trains were cut back to once per hour in May of last year, but passengers reported that even with such a limited schedule, the trains were almost always late. “They just explained, ‘Oh, we’re adopting new standards,'” Mader says. “I don’t mind adopting new standards, but if it doesn’t help me get to work on time, I don’t see what the point is.”
Nor do many other readers, who share their own concerns with RTD on the Westword Facebook page post of Mader’s saga. Says Roman:
Commendable this woman’s effort to endure all the tedious public transportation.
Adds Joyce:
A transit system that is unreliable is not usable by people with a deadline. Something must change. Our planet needs us to use it, but no one can afford to spend so many hours on a commute.
Notes Kim:
I used to depend on RTD to get to work. They need to be more dependable in order to increase ridership. Enormous cities with more complicated systems and larger populations have more efficient and on-time buses and trains. This is fixable.
Offers Eve:
I’ve complained about this type of thing to my RTD rep, and no response. RTD is a disaster. (And I own a car. However, I like to be able to use the public transportation system that I and other taxpayers pay for.)
Suggests Robin:
Denver is a booming city with absolutely no good transportation systems, but it’s getting too expensive to own a vehicle. They need to figure out a transportation system that works. It will help so much with traffic and all the people who are driving without registration, plates, license, and/or insurance.
Responds Seth:
You’re not supposed to like public transportation. It’s not supposed to be convenient, on time, reliable, clean or safe. It’s supposed to motivate you to get a car or a bike so you don’t have to hang out with methheads.
So get a car, it’s that simple. It’s Colorado! You don’t even have to register it, have a license plate, or have insurance! It literally couldn’t be easier.
Recalls Chad:
When I first moved to Denver, I took two buses and a light rail to work every day, plus a fifteen-minute walk. You got to do what is needed.
Replies Michael:
Exactly why I will never ride RTD again. A few years back for the NBA playoffs, I rode the light rail downtown to the game. Because of delays or trains that never showed up, it took me 2.5 hours to get back home. I could have walked home in less time. I will never enter an RTD bus or train again.
Adds Audrey:
I looked into a possible bus route for my teenager to take to work. From my home it is a 5.3 mile drive and takes less than twenty minutes by car. If my teenager were to take the bus, it would have been a two-hour trip one way that required a transfer and they still would have had to walk the last mile to work. The mass transit system in Denver is a joke. I truly feel for those who have no choice but to use it to get to work, shop, go to the doctor, etc. The lack of affordable, reliable, and efficient public transportation is yet another “tax” the poor must pay. No one should have to deal with a four-hour daily commute just to get to and from work.
Concludes Justin:
I used to rely on RTD to get to work. That was a terrible idea.
When do you use RTD? What do you think of the service? Post a comment or share your thoughts at editorial@westword.com.
