RTD

Still dangerous, health risk, and a black mark against Denver. Many people visit Denver and use RTD, or plan to. Just be aware that it is a risky way to travel around Denver, and you cannot expect drivers or phone reps to give you info. I have been on two busses with women changing a baby’s poopy diaper ON THE SEAT where others will be sitting. A phone agent laughed when I called about it, and said it’s up to the driver whether to allow unsanitary conditions or not. I’ve called to complain about drivers who are hateful, who refuse to make the required announcements at intersections (the rep I called said it’s up to the driver, but there’s a sign on each bus that says to call RTD if the driver is not making the announcements). He made excuses for the driver after I told him the guy drove through a red light and refused to stop at certain stops. They do have the automated voice announcements now, but by the time the announcement is made it’s often too late to request that stop. Some drivers will take off as soon as you pay, almost causing you to fall, so grab onto something when you get on. I also used to call to compliment drivers who were friendly. RTD doesn’t seem to care about any of the feedback they get about the hazards. I once called to ask when the next bus was scheduled at a particular stop on a very busy route. I clearly stated the intersection and the stop number. The agent deliberately lied to me and said there would be no more busses on that route for the rest of the day. It was early afternoon, and I knew that couldn’t be right. I quickly figured out that this agent was playing around, enjoying my distress at wondering why busses stopped for the day. He refused to allow me to speak to a supervisor, and continued having his fun. I’ve seen people selling marijuana on the bus, being loud enough that the driver knew, yet did nothing. Granted, there are good drivers who will be friendly and helpful, but you never know from one trip to the next what mood the driver will be in and whether or not you’re gonna be safe. Also, granted, whenever you deal with the public there will be stress and disrespect from passengers. But again, it’s a gamble and a real risk. The day pass is a good improvement, but RTD needs to tell the drivers what they are. Per the coupon instructions, I inserted it in the box next to the driver and asked for a day pass. She yelled at me, saying «Then why did you just put it in there! That’s a day pass!» I said «no, it’s the coupon I paid $ 5.20 for, and you’re supposed to press some button and the day pass will come out of one of those printers to your right». Another driver gave me a transfer instead of the day pass. Another one just kept staring at the coupon like he’d never seen or heard of it before. How hard can it be to just train the drivers with a simple statement about what those are, or show them a picture so they know what they are. I’m posting this review because I’m tired of wasting my breath by telling RTD about these instances. Just be aware that when you ride these busses, your safety is NOT a priority, and if there is any other option to get to the zoo, museums, etc., don’t ride the bus. I do feel bad for some drivers who are insulted and disrespected, and it’s not their fault. RTD allows this to happen and they’re putting the public and their drivers at risk. Bottom line: Don’t ride RTD unless you absolutely have to. If you have to, don’t rely on phone agents or drivers to give you information.

I travel around the US and have the pleasure of trying various regional transportation systems around the world. unfortunately the one for my hometown is overpriced, unreliable, and not convenient. hopefully in a few decades it will be.

Brand new light rail train from downtown Denver to the airport. It was 37 min to Union Station. Way to go Denver! $ 9 for the fare to any RTD location that day. I think its a little pricy for lower income people but they will fix that. Train cars were very nice, ride was smooth, keep building those tracks Denver.

Great, on time, light rail service. Otherwise I’d be leaving 1 star.
Bus service is unreliable. Countless times I have waited for the 28/​28B, sometimes over an hour before I decided to find another way home or to work.
Customer service is poor:
I’ve lost my phone on the light rail and every person I talked to said to talk to some one else.
I’ve tried calling several times to find out how long I will be waiting for my bus. Each time I spend 20 minutes on hold, only to get disconnected and put back at the end of the queue.
Rider alerts have never told me anything I actually need to know, such as the 28 line experiencing huge delays due to snow (even though traffic is normal everywhere else?)
As with every transit system, prepare for rides with loud, obnoxious people who don’t know how to control the volume of their voice or who think everyone has the same taste of music as them (and who also think there are two volume levels: off and full blast).

light rail is great. Bus drivers are a totally different story. Some route drivers like to harass the disabled. They make the disabled prove their status every time they step on a bus… with an RTD-​issued ID you can only get at Union station. Too much walking for some.

I was at the bus stop today waiting for my regular 44 bus westbound. The driver decided not to make the stop, making me late to my next destination. The customer service offer a vague response to my complaint. Be aware, these drivers don’t care about their job at all, plan ahead.

What can I say? I have to take them to get to work. I would probably like to take them other places, but they make that nearly impossible (yay global warming??) There used to be a really nice bus driver on my route (32) in the morning, but he has disappeared. Now it is just bleak with drivers radiating their despair «how did I end up here?» «Why could I not become a subway driver in NYC?» «Maybe, I should have paid attention in math class.»
My biggest serious complaint though is the buses are never on time in the evening commute. My bus typically is 5 minutes early meaning that I miss it altogether half of the time. Another issue is certain routes like the 32 stop short at Downing. Hello– some of us still live past Downing. Generally, it’s a problem with the whole schedule as that bus has to turn around and become the 28.
I’ve also been on the bus when the driver went rogue and just decided to take completely different streets than the scheduled route. It was cool because I got home ten minutes early. It was probably not so cool for the people at the actual bus stops waiting for a bus that never showed in 20 degree weather.
The whole system is too spokes-​and-​wheel and has not evolved with the development of Denver. Some routes do not even run on weekends. RTD has the got the light rail system, but the question is how do those of us not living on the light rail have better access to it? Right now, my answer is simply to Über.

People from all over the US are spending billions on transit for residents of the Denver area.
In return we come into DIA and see a dirty counter, a sign saying no one cares and an unsorted hodgepodge of schedules. As a third generation native I am glad to be out of this Libertarian cesspool. The rest of the country pays for your transit and your water projects and then the myth of independence that leads to unplowed highways (except the privately funded E470) and an unwillingness to even provide a bus schedule for visitors.
The Jordanian Über driver was very good at driving on unplowed roads in spite of being used to driving on well maintained Swedish roads.

This review is specifically for the regional route between Denver and Boulder.
It is an efficient way to get to downtown Denver for me. I can walk to the CU campus stop from my house for this route to Denver. There are alternately trips that have many stops, some stops and an express. There are more express runs during rush hour. I tend to ride midday so I get the semi-​express and it has never been full when I have been on it. The buses are clean, the drivers polite. When I stayed overnight in Denver, they handled the luggage nicely in the underside compartments.
I definitely find this the way for me to go if I am heading anywhere near Union Station. Transfers from there are available but I have never used them. I can walk pretty far from Union Station on my own. I can’t wait to try the new Flatiron Flyer BRT which is starting soon. I am not sure if they have bought new buses or just repurposed and spruced up the regular ones (I have seen one on the road with the new paint job anyway) but they will be riding in the new lanes on US 36, which are nearly done!

Rtd is handsdown one of the worst companies out there. If I could give them Zero stars I would. Everyday I am left waiting 30 minutes at the Oxford trainstaion because the 51 buss driver leaves early and that’s OK with RTD because all schedules are approximate. So if your train arrives at 4:29 and your buss is suppose to leave at 4:31 but decides 4:28 is close enough then that’s OK with RTD. I can’t believe our tax dollars helps subsidize this joke of a transportation system. Do yourself the favor and look into car sharing or car2go and save yourself some time and money

I take the 32 and 15 from downtown to Clermont and Colorado. The bus is rarely on time returning to downtown and sometimes it doesn’t even come. Either the schedules are wrong or there is a bus driver taking a long break at the expense of a commuter. It’s sad to say riding my bike saves time.
Buses serve fill a need for people. For me it is one way I can contribute to saving the planet. Get with the program RTD and improve inner city buses. If they were timely more people would ride them.

Incompetent employees that seem to despise their job and other people. I’ve been riding since middle school — that’s 13 years — and it hasn’t improved… It’s gotten more expensive.
What happened to that Boulder to Denver light rail?
You know what takes the cake, though? Experiences like: running into a woman fading in and out of consciousness standing in the bathroom (probably just shot up) — and being totally blown off by employees when I’m trying to alert someone to help her! I approached security guard #1 who was comfortably seated on a bench facebooking on his phone. He watched me speak, and then COMPLETELY IGNORED ME and returned to his phone. I had to ask 2 more employees to help before I got to someone who grumbled something half sincere about investigating.
They don’t care. They don’t HAVE to care… They won’t ever care. As long as people still need to go places, they will be around giving us the big middle finger every step of the way.
One extra star for the ¹⁄₁₅ bus drivers that are kind and helpful.

I’ve been riding the bus for about a year since my car broke down. What a hellish experience, a real fucking nightmare its been. Some mornings I get up and I think suicide would be a better alternative than riding again. Some routes are okay but most of them are always late, always, except about once a month it will show up 5 mins early and you watch it drive away as you approach, knowing the next one will be late. The drivers are often rude and unhelpful, they seem to hate themselves and their job and you are a casualty of it. You have to pay going two ways, so you can’t ride down the road a couple blocks, grab some groceries, and go back without forking five dollars over total. Some days I call a cab service rather than put up with riding even though I’m quite broke and I know I shouldn’t. It’s that bad. That I would spend extra money to not ride RTD.
Barbara below must be in another dimension. I ride the same routes almost every day and its nearly a different driver every day. Sometimes the driver is new and misses your stop and you get to walk ten minutes up a steep hill to get to your street. One time the guy drove the wrong street and had to make a u turn on the road while the regular riders told him which way to go.
I could really go on and on. They should do something about improving quality but they really dont care. You can file a complaint but it does nothing because people have been doing it every day for years.
Ride RTD… kill myself… ride RTD… kill myself…
EDIT: Months later… they raised the prices… by A LOT. And the transfer is only good for like an hour. I got kicked off a bus tonight by one of their drivers because my transfer wasn’t recent enough. I walked an hour in the cold to get home. Go fuck yourselves RTD. You really are horrible people. I mean really, who rides the bus? Poor people and homeless people. And you raise the prices? By a shit load? FUCK YOU.

Took the light rail from LoDo to Fiddlers Green. Super easy, and it seemed as though several others had the same idea. The website was awesome — very self explanatory and gave me confidence so I knew exactly what to do when we got to the station.
The train was clean and right on schedule.

I ride the bus because it’s convenient, moderately comfortable and I can read. That’s when it’s on time. The 20 is NEVER on time. Thus negating the comfort and ease. The frustration is it picks me up almost at my front door and drops me off right at my office. The challenge? I never know when as it’s never close to the «published» schedule.

Absolutely a shit show. These guys couldn’t get you around Denver if you paid them a billion bucks. No direction no help. People are rude and you have no idea when they randomly shut stations down. Thanks rtd. So how do I get home when stations are closed without warning or direction.

If they stop paying ticket checking police 60 k a year plus. fares would still be reasonable amd not rising steadily. .next year no transfers and 9 bucks for a day pass? Ridiculous..

I left my wallet on the bus and pretty much wrote it off as being gone. Canceled my cards and everything. 3 days later a got a letter from RTD that it was at the lost and found. I picked it up. . Still had cash in it. Thank you and great service!

RTD has one job: Make it easy to ride. They fail miserably at this despite being paid a ridiculous amount of tax payer money. I got lectured for attempting to pay a $ 13 bus fare with two $ 5 regional vouchers and a $ 5 bill (overpaying by $ 2)… Apparently you are required to pay with exact cash on the bus, because you can’t purchase this fare at a machine in the station (like any sane public transit system would allow)… and even if you could, you might miss the bus anyway because of their ridicuously slow payment processing machines (which don’t accept credit cards, but they do accept dollar coins!)
Technically I shouldn’t have to take the bus to the airport, because I’m paying extra taxes for FastTracks, which was supposed to build rail service up to where I live… but RTD screwed the pooch and realized too late that they wouldn’t be able to afford to lease the tracks from Santa Fe Railway. So they’re trying to claim they’ll have «Bus Rapid Transit» service in my area instead, but the service they plan to offer doesn’t meet the minimum standard to be classified as BRT…
Bottom line for RTD: Don’t lecture people on how to pay a bus fare when they’re trying to pay you MORE than the required fare to use your service to catch a flight.

During most usual hours of the day and in good weather, the light rail works fine. I refuse to take the buses because their timing is unreliable. Reduced morning service hours are a pain on the weekend. The people out late rarely manage to catch the last train and the people up early can never get a train.
The most personal complaint I have is that the train drivers, except for a select few, are not good at personal interaction and take joy in screwing with riders. I came up to a train about 10 seconds before it pull away (happens often but this time I noticed something different), the doors would not open, the driver makes eye contact with me trying to get his attention and then pulls away.
This might have been in my head but I have since seen this happen to many other riders; occasionally with as much time as nearly a minute before the train pulls away, the driver won’t allow riders on the train and I have even seen the driver wave to the desperate commuter attempting to board the train.
I have even had to jump in front of the train before AS it is pulling away from the station to stop the driver and demand that they open the door! Who are you hiring to operate your trains RTD?!

Hubs is a regular RTD rider from Denver to Boulder on a daily basis. Compared to DFW, public transit is a godsend. Bus to the airport, around town, a light rail line that gets you to most places! It was awesome!
Fast forward a few months and now that the shiny new object syndrome has worn off, I’m starting to see what the locals hate about the systems Unreliable scheduling, a website that isn’t the most mobile friendly, and a lackluster app. Sure you can check out routes and timetables on their website but what’s the use if the bus doesn’t show up the entire hour and half that you’re standing at the station. To echo some of the earlier reviewers, why doesn’t the public sector borrow some of the best practices from the private sector like Über and Lyft. They have their flaws but at least technology isn’t left behind. I’ve been to DC & Portland and LOVED both of their transit systems. Denver has a little bit of work to do in this department…

I take the bus and my bus drivers are usually very nice. They seem to learn their regular riders and that is great. They usually come about on time, but I mean, you can’t complain too much about that because this is life and in life there is traffic. Cars have that same problem too and you are more likely to be murdered in a car (I think).
THAT BEING SAID: Why can’t RTD get the same GPS technology that über has so that if your bus is running late, you know this (and can see how quickly it IS coming), so that you don’t have to stand outside in subfreezing temperatures? I know exactly when my dominos pizza is arriving, but I am living in the 90s when it comes to bus predictability.

The Denver bus lines are pretty awesome compared to other local or regional buses.
In my hundreds of trips, whether from Uptown to downtown or all the way to DTC, they’ve always been clean, swift, and accommodating. Not much to dislike.
I’m sure that bus routes are not all created equal, but I’m not playing the «rate every route» game. The best I can do is to say that there’s no serious problem with the system in Denver.
The missing star is due to the unpredictability of schedules. It’s epidemic. Don’t expect a bus that arrives «every 15 minutes» to actually do that. Plan to be 20 minutes early if you’re using the bus in town… more buffer the further you’re going or especially if you have a transfer.
The trains are better, but I’ll cover that in a separate review.

As other reviewers have commented, RTD does a lot of things right. Having convenient public transportation to the Denver airport is a huge plus. The new Union Station complex is fabulous. Also, the vast majority of drivers are very courteous and helpful, and the fare system is easy to understand (although it’s a pain that one can neither pay with a card nor get change when paying on the bus).
However RTD also has some significant areas for improvement; they seem to not adjust their bus capacity or schedules based on completely predictable events, such as CU students returning to school; SkyRide buses are full to the point that one often has to wait for a second or even third bus to come. Likewise, schedules seem not to have been adjusted for the construction on 36, which every driver knows is *always* a problem causing slowdowns. Calling the bus tracker phone line is an exercise in frustration; one operator recently asked me, «Are you sure you can’t see the bus? It should be there!» Yes, I’m sure; I’m standing on a completely empty street corner and there is no bus, although I agree that it *should* be there.
In short, I appreciate having RTD as an option when I’m going somewhere that is very unpleasant to drive, or when our car is in the shop. RTD is a great option *in addition to* having one’s own car. But at RTD’s current level of service, it is not a great option *instead of* a car, and that’s problematic if you’re trying to be car-​free in the Denver area.

RTD needs to get its shit together. Paper schedule, website, hotline and posted schedules at stops are all different. And the 76 to Stapleton is a joke, yesterday the sod blows right past a stop with five people waiting, (when I called to file the complaint I was told I would be contacted by the supervisor later that day. No, that never happened.) And then today the bus is way early and pulls off as I’m running up to catch it.
I work on my feet for twelve hour, overnight shifts. The last thing I need when I’m trying to get home and into bed before my next shift, is to have to sit around for another bus, and pay an additional fare on top of the two zones I’ve already paid, all because RTD employees idiots… So thank you for being incompetent.