FasTracks at any cost.

RTD is continuing to push for the eminent domain acquisition of the Owens Corning Plant on the Denver/Adams County border here: 
despite indications from the company that they may close the plant completely if forced to relocate. The company says it could cost upwards of $80 million and three years to rebuild the facility which makes roofing materials. The plant employs 100 people and others who supply the company locally. RTD wants to use the land of a maintenance facility for its commuter rail trains. They originally wanted to use the site of their current maintenance facility at 31st Street and Ringsby here, but neighbors, especially those at the new TAXI development complained and RTD acquiesced. So basically we have the ultimate war of the classes: yuppies in their new lofts or working class manufacturing workers. Not quite that simplistic I know, but these decisions RTD will have to make have real consequences.

For one, the Public Private Partnerships that RTD uses to fund and build FasTracks may be under peril if RTD cannot figure out some key issues about its build-out. According to the Denver Post, out-going RTD director Cal Marsella, said $1 billion in PPP financing could be delayed because of questions over the maintenance facility, a lawsuit by rail activists that could prevent Union Station from being built, and uncertainty over whether the federal government will provide funding to FasTracks for the DIA line.

The RTD board has already decided to wait until 2010 to ask taxpayers for an additional tax increase to build FasTracks on time. With Cal Marsella leaving at the end of the month, RTD is also faced with basically having no leader organizing this whole mess. Where does that leave FasTracks? Nobody knows for now, though apparently RTD and Owens Corning our trying to work out some kind of deal.  But again this shows that RTD has a problem with anticipating problems before they become huge messes. I mean shouldn't RTD have worked out these issues before they even asked taxpayers for money in the first place? RTD's inability to anticipate imperils FasTracks completely. I no longer have any confidence that the system will be completed on time or at all (except for perhaps the already under-construction West Line). RTD says that it still believes  it can build the system on time by 2017, but that promise is looking emptier by the day.

Finally...a break from RTD

Now that Cal Marsella has left as RTD director, maybe there has been some sense of common rider decency restored at the transit organization. According to an article from the Denver Post, RTD officials are not planning on increasing the fares for 2010.

Apparently, RTD's previous proclamation that our transit fares are similar to other cities no longer holds water. According to RTD's own records, our express and regional transit are on average nearly a full dollar ($.96) higher than other cities. Anyone who has ever took a $10 SkyRide trip to the airport fully understands this. Supposedly, the local transit fares are on par with other cities though I wonder if it takes into consideration our awful zoned system which makes light rail potentially cost upwards of $4.50 just to travel through a few zones. Many if not most cities have one fare for all local transit, regardless of how far you travel.

Because of the higher fares, RTD has gained 12 percent more fare revenue for the first quarter of 2009. I doubt the revenue increase will continue much further into 2009 since the system-wide cuts that just went into effect will certainly effect the fare box.

So while it's good news that RTD probably won't raise fares in 2010, the bigger worry is what RTD is going to do in face of massive revenue declines from its take in sales tax. During this recession, sales tax revenues decreased 12 percent for the first quarter of the year. Since RTD gets the vast majority of its revenue from taxes, this is definitely a bad situation. The genius analysts at RTD said they are only expecting a seven percent tax revenue drop for the year, which I think is dubious since we are already at 12 percent for the first three months and its not like the economy is steadily improving. I expect deeper revenue declines and severe slashes in the service as a result.

With the economy in trouble its hard to expect RTD to do anything but remain in a holding pattern, but they should also really be considering its place within this city and how to get Denver a truly great transit system if they are going to have any long term viability. Sure FasTracks will help when (or if) that is completed, but a lot of the problem is at a systematic level with policies that do not fully consider the transit experience for its riders. RTD needs a much less complicated fare structure (get rid of zones already), an increase in neighborhood service, stops that actually provide accurate schedules, and a greater ability for regular people to simply take transit instead of driving. We are a long way to go before RTD is anything close to cities with real transit, but I have been encouraged by a few recent developments (acknowledging that RTD is overpriced, the upgraded web site, the fact that Cal Marsella is no longer in charge). But what else should RTD be doing NOW to make sure it has a healthy future.

Cal Marsella resigning as RTD chief

The Associated Press reported that RTD Director Cal Marsella is resigning from his position to take a private sector job with MV Transportation Inc.

I am no fan of Marsella. He constantly loaded his position with huge and undeserved benefits. On his way out for example, Marsella will get crash credit for 2,000 hours of unused vacation and sick time. He also was the man in charge of the RTD incompetence we have seen since the beginning of FasTracks. During the last five years, RTD has gone hugely over-budget and probably will have to delay the ambition transit plan mostly due to their inability to figure out the actual costs of the project. The transit system has also seen massive service cutbacks, fare increases, disputes with its labor and a scandal-plagued leadership that uses tax dollars for luxurious business trips.

But in the 14 years he has been RTD director, Marsella has also guided RTD's implementation of thee separate light rail lines that were both under-budget and wildly successful. And he has done much to promote the use of transit for all in the district, even if he makes it harder for riders to actually afford and use the system.

I prefer to use Marsella's resignation as an opportunity to bring new voices and leaders to a system that is clearly in stagnation. In the coming weeks, riders need to be a voice in the process of choosing a new RTD director. We need to make sure whoever that person is will listen to our concerns instead of becoming another career bureaucrat like Marsella became. The Marsella era is over...what's in store for the next stop is for us to decide.

RTD's FasTracks problem

One of my main problems with RTD is their failure to properly forecast problems before they happen and their subsequent inability to adapt when what they though was supposed to happen ends up false.

Take this article in yesterday's Denver Post. RTD is trying to use eminent domain on a shingle plant in north Denver so they can build a sprawling maintenance facility there. The problem with this proposal in that according to workers at the shingle factory, they would take years not months to properly move the facility at a cost of $80 million. 

RTD disputes those claims, but doesn't actually have any analysis of what they think the move would cost, waiting until this fall when the Environmental Impact Study of the Gold Line is completed. But the plant represents another costly and time-consuming obstacle to the completion of FasTracks at a time when RTD can scarcely afford one. Not to mention the fairness of putting the jobs at the shingle factory at risk. 

And the reality is this has everything to do with RTD's inability to anticipate the realities of a large and complicated infrastructure project. RTD first wanted its maintenance facility to be acquired from Union Pacific land, but that proved too costly. Then the agency wanted in near the new River North developments next to Brighton Boulevard, but after the developers decried the plan, RTD is trying for the shingle plant, which may be just as intractable as the other sites. Of course the real reason it needs the maintenance facility in the first place is that RTD now will be using commercial rail cars instead of light rail for the vast majority of the newly-built lines. Many of the lines were originally supposed to be light rail, but had to change most of them to commercial rail once Union Pacific told them light rail cars would be too dangerous to operate next to the heavy freight lines. So now RTD has to scramble to build a huge maintenance facility for these new trains. Poor planning, don't you think?

It's an unfortunate reality now that the FasTracks voters passed in 2004 is turning into something more expensive and complicated now that it is being built. The shingle plant is just the latest obstacle of RTD's making that could further delay or increase costs in an already bloated plan. RTD wants voters to approve even more money to FasTracks in November. But with a bad economy and constant signs that RTD doesn't know what it is doing, will voters endorse that?

RTD Unveils New Web Site

So in all of my complaining about RTD, I do have to give them props for their new Web site: http://new.rtd-denver.com. 

It's sleek. It's more intuitive and navigable. And the new trip planner is really nice with its ability to do a standard RTD trip finder or a Google maps feature that actually shows you the exact route on city streets the trip will take. And the trip planner gives you many more options to describe where you are and where you are going including addresses, intersections and a variety of landmarks. The schedules are also much improved. The old ones seemed to crunch all of the stops together and times did not always correspond to the stop. These new schedules fix that completely and also let you customize the tables so you can search by arrival and destination stops and the time in which your actually leaving instead of trying to search though a table for the ones that are relevant to you. 

So at least our taxpayer dollars were going to something worthwhile for a change. The old site was pretty bad with hard to find information and a trip finder that was definitely not intuitive. So good job RTD. Hopefully your rider-first approach with the Web site won't end there.

More taxes for RTD?

On Wednesday, several Metro Area mayors tentatively approved a ballot measure that would ask taxpayers in November to double the sales tax to complete FasTracks on schedule. As many of you know, FasTracks has a $2.2 billion construction deficit that might forestall the completion of the transit system

Last Sunday, two columns appeared in the Denver Post one by RTD Director Lee Kemp and the other by Kevin Hoist. The columns were about whether and how RTD's FasTracks system should be implemented. Kevin Hoist argued in part that since RTD has already mismanaged the implementation of the system (not to mention its own services), maybe we need to consider taking FasTracks away from RTD management before we even consider a tax increase. Kemp just blathered on for nine paragraphs about the need for more transit, but did not even try to say why RTD should deserves to manage it or what RTD is going to do to make sure the system is not faced with even more inept planning.

As it stands now, RTD will only be able to build the West Line that is already under construction, the DIA line that has significant federal funding and probably most of the Gold Line to Arvada which is the next closest to being ready as it will travel mostly on rail that is already built. There may not be enough money for the other three lines and the expansions to the current lines. And there may also not be enough money to run the lines once they are finally built.

The reason we are in this situation is mostly because of RTD's ineptitude. When they asked voters to approve the plan, they undercut the price and didn't really study the lines enough to understand the difficulty of getting the land they wanted or that they couldn't build light rail next to major freight lines and so the cost went up. And then it went up again because of international spikes in commodity prices. And now sales taxes are down for the recession and because they didn't expect that, they now have less money coming in than they thought they would, meaning they can't take advantage of the lower materials cost.

And now RTD wants to ask for more taxes in a recession to make up for the cost. It's going to be a tough sell to taxpayers. No tax increases even for worthy causes or even industry taxes passed in the 2008 election despite significant gains by more left-leaning politics. This November there won't be a national election to increase voting, so those who vote will most likely be the ones most passionate about the specific issues involved, and I think there are a lot of people who do not like RTD or how FasTracks is going right now.

I am not really one of those Independence Institute types (I suspect Kevin Hoist may be), who think light rail and other transit is a waste of money. I do think that Denver should make investments in its transit infrastructure to really make us competitive with other cities and of course to help alleviate growth, traffic, pollution and many other ills. But RTD has not really proven itself worthy of the public's trust on this. They continue to cut service, and half-ass construction plans because they have no ability to figure out the trajectory of their ambitious plans. They already broke the promise they made to taxpayers

So maybe we should see a smaller FasTracks, or a longer construction time for FasTracks. Or maybe Kevin Hoist is right and we should put another agency in charge of building FasTracks (but who?) and then maybe give RTD control once the lines are finished.

But by November we are going to have to make some of these decisions as a community. What I want is some real options presented clearly. Let the taxpayers and riders decide what the next step is not government or quasi-government bureaucrats who in many ways have already failed us. Let us decide.

No tolls on Peña

The Denver Post reported on its front page yesterday that RTD, local and state officials were considering adding tolls in Peña Boulevard o pay for the spiraling costs of the RTD FastTracks line to the airport. RTD General Manager Cal Marsella was already foaming at the mouth about the proposal, saying it could generated $500 million for FasTracks.

Of course, most Denverites think this is an awful plan. Nearly 70 percent on the Denver Post's Web poll were against the proposal and its easy to see why when Denver taxpayers already spent billions of our money to build that airport and billions more for the FastTracks plan. To toll on top of taxes just seems like screwing over local taxpayers. This is especially true since there are few good transportation options to DIA except driving there. The RTD SkyRide costs $8 to $12 per person per ride, which is way more than the cost of gasoline and even parking for a one to two day trip. Now, I understand that these tolls would help build a  supposedly better alternative to DIA, but I could see the toll being a slippery slope where after FasTracks is built, we suddenly now need the tolls for something else. I think it is just unfair to expect people to pay simply to visit the airport; to pick up family members or friends. Can you think of another city that charges tolls directly to go to its airport?

Well fortunately, the plan looks to be on hold indefinitely. Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper floated the idea to toll Peña a few months ago, but now the logistics make no sense. The federal government spent a lot of money helping build DIA, and would likely expect a significant portion of any tolls on the road they helped build, meaning any actual money to RTD would be a lot less than expected. And of course pretty much all stake-holders except for greedy RTD are against the toll, including City Councilman Mike Hancock whose district included DIA.

So what about other funds for the FasTracks project that is seeing declining sales tax revenues but also declining construction costs? The transportation bill signed by Governor Ritter allows RTD to levy a sales tax at any rate it wants. We can be sure the RTD board will be quick to charge more taxes on all of us for their purposes. Unfortunately, none of this addresses the real reason why RTD and FasTracks is in such dire financial state: RTD mismanagement and inability to accurately forecast any kind of financial future. Its only when RTD can really address its own problems would I feel comfortable giving the agency any more of my tax dollars. Otherwise it seems it's just being thrown down the drain.

Some sad and unsurprising news: Rocky Mountain News closed

As you probably all know by now, the Rocky Mountain News has closed. It's definitely a sad day for Colorado, Denver, journalism and democracy at large. The Rocky always provided an important voice when it came to transit issues with reporter Kevin Flynn in particular providing in-depth articles about RTD and transit in the Denver Metro Area. The Rocky will be sincerely missed.

When it came to transit related articles, the Rocky Mountain News was always way ahead of the Denver Post. I just hope the Rocky's former competitor will not let its transit riding readership down.

And a side note: I always though Denver's newspapers did a crummy job of taking advantage of transit ridership. Yeah, you could see a few boxes here and there by some bus stations, but I always thought newspaper boxes should be placed right next to light rail and bus stations. Transit riders have time to kill to actually read the paper. Hopefully, the Post will take more advantage of that before Denver becomes a no newspaper town.

Quick update: Transit strike avoided

In an extremely smart move, the Colorado Division of Labor sent the contract negotiations between RTD and Amalgamated Transit Union 1001 to third-party arbitration, avoiding a potentially dangerous transit strike.  This is a small victory for the transit union, which hoped arbitration would provide a means to come up with a fair and binding union contract with RTD.  

RTD actually hoped the state would allow the union to strike. RTD stated that arbitration would remove the incentive for fair negotiations with the union for some reason. That meant RTD had to argue to the state that a transit strike wouldn't really be that big of a deal.

The dozens of disabled and blind riders told the state otherwise last Thursday and the Division of Labor agreed. The Division of Labor can prohibit strikes if it believes such a strike would cause harm to public peace, health or safety. An almost complete stoppage of transit in Denver would have a devastating effect on many, not only those who are transit dependent, but anyone who travels in Denver and would have to face significantly increased congestion and travel times because of the transit strike.

RTD wants a three-year wage freeze and control over the union's benefits. The union wants modest wage increases and enough of the benefits control. Hopefully, they can negotiate a package that actually provides the union with most of what they want and RTD the ability to pay for such benefits. At the very least, RTD riders can rest assured there will not be a transit strike in five days that to paralyze our city.

RTD's disgusting excess

Face the State produced this great report Friday on the RTD Board of Directors spending of more than $54,000 in taxpayer money to travel to exotic locations, eat at fine-dining restaurants and provide ground transportation to trips just to Denver International Airport.

I am not going to go into a huge amount of specifics here, because Face the State did such a good job of laying it all out at their Web site, which I urge you to read in full.

But RTD directors basically got free hotel rooms, food, transportation and other amenities while on supposed RTD business at various conferences whose value to actual writers is most likely dubious. Some of the more egregious charges are $1,627 for a "China Trip" by District C director Juanita Chacon, the $328 District K Director Noel Busck charged to stay at a beach-front hotel during a San Diego conference, and various charges by directors for transportation and parking for travel to DIA, despite the fact that directors are given full, free transit passes for all RTD services including the Skyride to DIA. 

Though each director's travel budget decreased from $10,000 in 2008 to $7,000 in 2009, the RTD Board just passed a resolution at last Tuesday's meeting increasing the directors' ability to be reimbursed for expenses related to having directors' spouses attend RTD sponsored "events" (parties) for lobbyists and legislators. 

RTD Board of Directors are elected officials. And while they are only given a $12,000 yearly salary, many of them also have jobs as lawyers (or some other upper middle-class job), or are sufficiently wealthy in semi-retirement. Basically, they don't really need to be reimbursed for anything, but us taxpayers are giving them loads of free trips and other goodies. This is happening at a time when RTD is supposedly in a budget crisis, a time when the board is voting to increase fares and cut service. 

If you think $54,000 is not much money in the grand scheme of a huge and unfortunately too-powerful bureaucratic semi-governmental agency, you are wrong. $54,000 is literally enough money to save whole portions of several bus lines the board just cut on Tuesday.  RTD's own calculations show it would save $27,300 for the cuts on route 3LTD, and $22,800 for the cuts on Route 6. Eliminate these ridiculous expenditures and save both of them. 

The RTD Board of Directors are basically stealing taxpayer money at the expense of providing quality service to the actual riders they purport of serve. Simply outrageous! 

An RTD Strike and You

As we approach the February 28 deadline of the three-year Regional Transportation District's union contracts, it's still unclear what if anything will happen with the negotiations between RTD's union and RTD. 

First a slight bit of background. Using the bad economy as an excuse, RTD wants its union contract to have a three-year wage freeze. RTD also wants to take control of the union's health care and benefits system. Of course, the union doesn't like agreeing to the wage freeze and especially not the loss of control of their benefits, which was one of the main issues that resulted in the union's strike that paralyzed Denver transit for a week in 2006. 

On Thursday, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 (the union that represents many RTD workers, mostly drivers and mechanical operators) filed an intent to strike with the Colorado Department of Labor, a formality required by law for any union considering even the possibility of striking. The union actually wants the state labor department to deny its intent to strike, because it instead wants the state to take the case to a binding third party arbitrator, which the union said it feels would better fulfill its goals, because the decisions of that arbitrator are binding to both the union and RTD. At the department of labor meeting on Thursday were dozens of blind and disabled transit riders who also encouraged the state to deny the union's intent to strike and instead move the case to arbitration. The state has the ability to deny intents to strike if it feels such a strike would put public peace, health or safety at risk. That message was certainly what the disabled riders were trying to convey by attending the public meeting.

RTD actually prefers the union to strike instead of going to arbitration because that process could end up costing RTD more money that it says it has the ability to spend. 

“(Arbitration) would have a chilling impact on both sides to negotiate in good faith,” Cal Marsella, RTD general manager and chief executive told the Denver Daily News.

RTD is arguing that arbitration would put the transit union at a privileged position, and if the union wins many of its concessions, the agency may have to make even deeper and harder cuts to service.  However, that was not actually at issue at Thursday's meeting. The state doesn't care about what effects the strike will have on either the union or the agency, they only care about its effect on the public. And in that regard, RTD actually had to argue to the state that a strike really wouldn't be that big of a deal.

“The human being is a remarkable animal in its ability to adapt,” said Bruce Abel, RTD’s assistant general manager for customer services at Thursday's meeting.

Abel said that RTD has a contingency plan that will allow 43 percent of busses to run during the strike by using private contractors not associated with the union.

But the reality is that an RTD strike really will have a significant effect on all of us in Denver. Since the 2006 strike, the transit union has organized many of the workers in the three private contractors that RTD uses, making it much harder for the agency to use replacement workers during the strike. If a strike were to occur some of the most popular pieces of the system would be ground to a halt including the two most ridden busses the 15 and the O, the B bus that connects Denver to Boulder and all light rail. The disabled riders at the meeting were certainly alarmed by the prospect of another strike, with many recounting stories of not being able to attend doctor's appointments or pick up medications during the last strike. Even first responders such as firefighters and paramedics spoke out against the strike, stating that it would significantly increase road congestion, making their ability to get to where they need harder and more time consuming.

But RTD doesn't care. For the agency, the strike is twofer: A week or more of significantly reduced service allows the agency to save millions and with a strike, the agency is in a more privileged position to put public goodwill against the union get more concessions from the union on wages and benefits. 

I think the union has every right to be concerned with RTD's proposed contracts. Why should they agree to a three-year salary freeze for an economy that may only be bad for one year? And certainly losing control of hard-won benefits for what is a fairly crappy and even dangerous job is not something the union would want. The union might consider agreeing to a one-year salary freeze to be re-evaluated as the economy gets better and some benefit concessions, but I don't think they should consider the horrible deal RTD is offering them.

But basically the cretins at RTD would rather screw over its workers and the public at large to squeeze a small amount of savings from its employees. This despite the fact that the agency's own mismanagement is more to blame for its financial predicament then the flimsy "bad economy" excuse. 

In less than a week, the union contract expires. Hopefully, both sides will come to an agreement or the state will force both sides into arbitration before then. A strike would horrible for everyone in Denver and potentially disastrous for those who are dependent on transit just to live. 

RTD needs to stop playing games with Denver and avoid a strike. Here is the contact information for the Colorado Division of Labor. Please tell them how the strike could effect you and urge them to force RTD into arbitration. 

The damage is done.

The RTD board met last night and approved most of the proposed May 2009 service cuts. The board meeting had nearly 100 people in attendance, most trying to persuade RTD to save some service or another. Unfortunately, it looks like it was mostly to no avail. The largest turnout by far was in support of the Route U bus, which travels from Pine in the Jefferson County mountains to the Denver Tech Center, but was completely eliminated by the RTD board.  Except for a few services that were saved because various municipalities agreed to cost-share programs with RTD, pretty much all of the original cuts went through. 

RTD is clearly in a mismanaged free-fall. RTD Director Kent Bagley told the Denver Post that the cuts approved yesterday may just be the beginning under these current economic conditions. Though the cuts will save RTD $4.3 million, they still are nearly $3 million below budget. Like I have said many times, part of the problem is RTD's idiotic decision to lock in the price the agency pays for diesel back in October at $3.09 a gallon, which means they are paying more than a $1 a gallon than it would if they were buying fuel on the open market. With diesel prices continuing to fall, that decision is costing RTD millions of dollars every month. 

Apparently, RTD is trying to extend the agency's fuel contract with a new rate until 2010. I am not sure how the agency pays for fuel, but they really should consider multiple-length contracts where RTD pays part of the price of fuel at a current rate and the rest at a previous rate. That is what Southwest Airlines does to the company's benefit.  Clearly though, RTD is not being managed well and has zero accountability to its riders. At this point, I am not sure what riders themselves can do. Obviously, the direct approach yields little, as dozens of people fought for the U and it still was cut. What are the other options? I'd say kick all the idiots out, but the last election actually retained pretty much everyone on the Board of Directors and general manager Cal Marsella still has his job (and apparently a very good bonus/benefits package) despite what seems to be his general incompetence.

So the question is: What can riders do? Anyone have any ideas?

Does RTD actually listen to its riders?

I went to the RTD meeting on Friday about the agency's proposed and severe cuts to service. There were only 14 people in attendance. Since the meeting was on a Friday night, that seems pretty good. Friday night has to be the worst night to hold any kind of meeting, so of course RTD held five meetings then.

Those in attendance made their cases to save various routes. I was glad to see that many of the people were there to protest the cuts of the 1 bus. Many of them made very good points, noting that the geography of west Denver makes it harder for people to travel farther for transportation and that this burden is particularly hard on the transit-dependent riders such as the elderly and the disabled.

I made my case, explaining that RTD's service is already lackluster compared to other cities, that its unfair to increase fares and reduces service, and that riders should not have to suffer for RTD mismanagement and inability to anticipate problems. The RTD bureaucrat who conducted meeting dismissed by comments in typical bureaucrat fashion by not really answering my claims and instead insisting that there was nothing RTD could have done to prevent its current situation (fire the "several economic advisors [that] told us fuel prices were going to go back up again," for one).

We'll see what happens next. I think those of us who fought for the 1 were convincing and it seems like they might moderate the cuts somewhat in the final version. The bureaucrat asked if we would support having 1A service only during peak hours. I told him that I think the bus is used all day, particularly since much of the ridership consists of students, the elderly and low-income workers who often have different schedules then the typical "peak hour" users have. I suppose having the 1A at all is a positive step though.

In the end, I left the meeting feeling as though I wasn't really listened to. Even the bureaucrat admitted that the meeting was basically a legal formality and though there was a note-taker, there was no recording of the meeting, so who really knows if our opinions from the meeting are actually going to be heard by the board.

I know mine well at least, because I plan on attending the next board meeting. I found information about the meeting in the crevasses of the RTD web site. The next board meeting will be on Tuesday, February 17 at 5:30PM in the lower level meeting room at RTD headquarters; 1600 Blake Street. The public is allowed to attend and make three-minute comments directly to the board. You can also send an e-mail to your RTD board representative here. If you didn't attend the public meetings on the service cuts, this will be the last chance to give your opinion. I can't promise they will listen, but at least it will be heard.

Riding out the recession with mass transit.

In this weak economy, mass transit systems across the country are in a tough position. On the one hand, more people are using mass transit because they can no longer afford their cars. On the other hand, state and local revenue streams for mass transit are shrinking as people start saving and stop spending. This force is what RTD general manager Cal Marsella described in a recent New York Times article as the "Rider paradox,"and it has become a major problem to our nation's public transportation systems.

So while RTD announced massive transit cuts on the heel of a 14 percent fare increase, other transit agencies across the nation are doing the exact same thing. Just check out this map from the Transportation for America organization. More than 50 other transit agencies are increasing fares, decreasing service, laying off workers, or a combination of those three. St. Louis is cutting its bus transit in half after voters in November rejected a sales tax increase to fund transit.  And those that were holding out hope that some of the money from the massive stimulus bill being debated in Washington could go to the operating costs of transit agencies are looking to be disappointed as Republicans gathered just enough votes to prevent an amendment that would add $24 billion for infrastructure projects including mass transit. 

So what can we do in Denver? While there is little we can do to combat the economic forces at work, we can let RTD know what its transit cuts are going to do to its riders and try to figure out ways RTD can save money without such massive cuts. When I went to the September RTD meeting on the fare increase, I was one of only about a dozen or so riders in attendance. If you cannot attend a meeting, call, e-mail or write RTD to voice your concerns with the contacts on the side bar of this blog. There is still a chance to share your opinion before RTD makes its decision on cutting service.

Here is the list of the remaining public meetings. I'll be at the one on Friday at RTD's main offices, but please attend whichever is more convenient for you.

Arvada
Arvada City Hall
8100 Ralston Road
Ann Campbell Room
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m.

Aurora
Red Lion (formerly Radisson Hotel)
3200 S. Parker Road
Boulder/Parker Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Boulder
Boulder Senior Center
West Senior Complex
909 Arapahoe, Creekside Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Brighton
Brighton Recreation Center
555 N. 11th Avenue
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m.

Conifer
Conifer High School
10441 County Highway 73
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m

Downtown Denver
RTD Administration Building
1600 Blake Street
Rooms T & D
Friday, Feb. 6, 6:00 p.m.

Green Valley Ranch
Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center
4890 Argonne Way
Thursday, Feb. 5, 6:00 p.m.

Lakewood
Stein Elementary
80 South Teller Street
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Parker
Parker Town Hall
20120 E. Mainstreet
Council Chambers
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m

RTD: More for Less

As the Rocky Mountain News article from a few weeks ago hinted at, RTD finally revealed proposals for its "5 percent cut in services," and all I can say is ouch! Right on the heels of a 14 percent fare increase, RTD wants to saddle its riders with significant service reductions on 48 separate routes, meaning more than 30 percent of all RTD routes will see some kind of service cut.

RTD is proposing to cut these routes all together: The G light rail line from Lincoln to Nine Mile, the 465 on south Yosemite, 410 in Franktown and Parker, the 75 on Mineral and Ken Caryl Avenues, the 125 in the Denver West area, the 49 in northwest Denver, CC in Coal Creek, the U which connects Pine Junction and Conifer with Denver, the 145X, 108X, 76X,  and 88X, which are all higher-fare express busses that provide quick connections with communities and a specific destination (the 145X connects Brighton with DIA). The 38 and 24 Limited busses are also being discontinued as are the Highlands Ranch, Lone Tree, Parker and Brighton Call-and-Ride Services. A lot of these cuts are unfortunately to areas on the fringes of RTD service coverage and represent a significant and sometimes complete loss of service (The discontinuation of the CC, for example completely gets rid of any transit service to the Coal Creek area, even though they will likely continue to pay sales taxes to RTD). 

The other proposed cuts range from slight to severe. Many bus lines are likely to lose whole parts of coverage or late night, weekend and/or midday service. 

One of the biggest proposed cuts in my mind is to the 1 bus on west First Avenue. RTD wants to discontinue the 1A service which provided a small detour on 5th avenue between Sheridan and Knox Ct. and allowed extra service for riders on the rest of the route. RTD also wants to reduce service to a half hour during rush hour and to an hour other times and simply discontinue several other trips during the day.  I ride this bus quite often and it always has riders: Students going to school, low-income workers going to their jobs Downtown or in Cherry Creek, families going to the two Denver Health clinics on the route. I once saw a teenage kid with what looked like a stab wound take the bus to the Denver Health Emergency Room. Basically it is a route filled with transit-dependent riders and RTD is proposing to make it harder for them to meet the basic transportation requirements of their lives. 

The 1 is just an example of what RTD is proposing. There are a lot of other large cuts, especially to a lot of neighborhood routes.

A note on the brochure reads, "Due to current economic conditions (sales tax shortfalls and fuel cost increases), RTD service adjustments may be more extensive than usual." That line right there shows exactly how RTD management is completely blind to reality. How on earth can they say fuel cost increases are to blame when diesel prices are at a three-year low? Yes, RTD is surely facing lowered sales tax revenues, but their own management apparently can't anticipate a bleaker economic picture even with all evidence showing exactly that. 

I understand that the economy sucks and RTD has to find ways to save money. But what I don't understand is why RTD riders have to always take a huge brunt of RTDs continual mismanagement and inability to forecast. Back in September, RTD decided to pay $3.10 a gallon for fuel in 2009. Now diesel prices are more than 80 cents a gallon cheaper, a more than 70 percent drop. I am not sure if RTD can get out of its fuel contracts or not, but they should if they can, because by the time these cuts go into effect, diesel prices could even be lower and one of the biggest stated reasons for the cuts non-existent. And while sales tax revenue is apparently falling, (despite the fact that Colorado's population itself is growing), the stimulus package in congress could start making economic progress in the Denver metro area. And certainly that fare increase is going to put millions of more dollars into RTD's purse.

We should not allow RTD's mismanagement to be at the backs of its riders. We need to make sure every single cut is met by a fight from its riders. That's why we need to go to every single public meeting RTD is holding and let them know what we think. That's why we need to write letters to the editor, tell other riders about RTD's plans and hold RTD accountable for its actions.

Here are the times and locations of every RTD public meeting. Please attend and encourage other riders to do the same.

Arvada
Arvada City Hall
8100 Ralston Road
Ann Campbell Room
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m.


Aurora
Red Lion (formerly Radisson Hotel)
3200 S. Parker Road
Boulder/Parker Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Boulder
Boulder Senior Center
West Senior Complex
909 Arapahoe, Creekside Room
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Brighton
Brighton Recreation Center
555 N. 11th Avenue
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m.

Centennial/Highlands Ranch/Lone Tree
Cresthill Middle School
9195 Cresthill Lane, Cafeteria
Monday, Feb. 2, 7:00 p.m.


Coal Creek
Coal Creek Improvement Association
31528 Hwy 72
Thursday, Jan. 29, 7:00 p.m.

Conifer
Conifer High School
10441 County Highway 73
Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:00 p.m.

Downtown Denver
RTD Administration Building
1600 Blake Street
Rooms T & D
Friday, Jan. 30, 12:00 p.m.
and
Friday, Feb. 6, 6:00 p.m.

DTC
Hyatt Regency Tech Center
7800 East Tufts Avenue
Thursday, Jan. 29, 12:00 p.m.

Green Valley Ranch
Green Valley Ranch Recreation Center
4890 Argonne Way
Thursday, Feb. 5, 6:00 p.m.


Lakewood
Stein Elementary
80 South Teller Street
Friday, Feb. 6, 7:00 p.m.

Longmont
Longmont Senior Center
910 Longs Peak Ave.
Rooms D & E
Monday, Feb. 2, 7:00 p.m.

Parker
Parker Town Hall
20120 E. Mainstreet
Council Chambers
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 7:00 p.m.

An article in the Rocky Mountain News on Friday shows that RTD's financial problems may be worse then many expected. The article said RTD's revenues from November 2008 fell 9.8 percent and the transit agency is considering a 5 percent cut in bus and light rail service along with a staff salary freeze. 

RTD cited decreased sales taxes during this recession as being the primary reason for the revenue drop, despite significant increases in fare collection during the same time. From the article:

The report shows RTD's total revenues down over last year by 0.3 percent through November, despite fare revenue being up 17 percent. And sales taxes, which saw a precipitous drop for November, are down 0.4 percent over those 11 months compared with 2007.

Sales tax revenue is RTD's lifeblood, making up about 60 percent of its resources. The national recession has eaten into retail sales, particularly since October.

Yet, another interesting tidbit contained in the article is that RTD managers apparently miscalculated the amount of available revenues they expected: 

RTD originally budgeted for a 4.3 percent increase in sales tax for 2008.

But with the economy slowing over the summer, the budget was adjusted to anticipate only a 2.5 percent increase over 2007. The picture looked stagnant until the fall.

But a slight drop in September, followed by a 6.3 percent decline in October, signaled problems.

November's figure showed the drop getting steeper, wiping out all previous months' gains over 2007.

"We've been on top of this for a long time, but, frankly, the 9.6 percent drop in November is much worse than we thought it would be,"  [RTD General Manager Cal] Marsella told the Rocky on Friday.

"After adjusting the budget twice, I was hoping we would at least be flat in 2008 over 2007, but it looks like we will be under water.

"You play the cards you're dealt, and you can't control that.

Anticipating future revenues is definitely a tricky game, but back in August, Marsella was still expecting increased sales tax revenues when many economic indicators such as the unemployment rate  and growth rate showed serious problems with the economy.  RTD seems to have a lot of difficulty projecting agency costs versus actual revenues and because of that, it always seems to be scrambling to push quick solutions instead of carefully planning to avoid major problems in the first place. To further Marsella's relatively stupid metaphor, you may have to play the cards you have, but you can still anticipate what cards are left in the deck before you are dealt the hand.

Certainly RTD needs to do what it can to ensure that it gets through the current economic problems without sacrificing too much of what makes it the "number one transit agency in North America." 

The wage freeze and the already implemented fare increases will help RTD's bottom line. RTD could also get a boost by decreasing fuel costs, which I guess they will have to wait another three months to take full advantage of (RTD locks its fuel prices in six month increments, so the agency locked the current rate back in October before diesel prices dropped in half). RTD is also currently in negotiation with its union to figure out the workers' contracts for the next three years after they expire at the end of February. The article suggested that RTD will try to use the economy as an excuse to either cut union pay of only accept very modest increases. However, the article did not elucidate the 5 percent service cuts proposed by Marsella, only to say that any cuts would have to be approved by the RTD board. I hope that cuts are the very last resort to RTD's budget woes. The last thing riders need is an even more difficult and/or longer commute than the one we have now, and the reality is that RTD would be kissing some of their fare increase revenues goodbye if they cut service by the 5 percent Marsella mentioned.

This is all grim news for RTD, and especially its riders. Let's just hope that lowered fuel costs and a hopefully quick economic recovery will help RTD get back on its financial foot again. Because the reality from a rider point of view is that its hard to demand much needed improvements to service or structure (fare cards, getting rid of zones), when the agency is quite possibly struggling just to maintain what it has now. 

RTD activism on YouTube

This blog is not the only RTD rider activism happening online. I was browsing some YouTube videos today, and there is quite a bit of interesting activism when you search for RTD. (Feel free to ignore the awful RTD PR pieces about FastTracks that somehow forget to mention the project's excessive cost overruns and very likely possibility of delay.)

Instead, most of the videos are related to eminent domain issues and RTD's abuse of eminent domain for its building of new transit. Now, I am not necessarily one to say that transit agencies and other governmental or quasi-governmental agencies shouldn't be able to use eminent domain for the greater good, but there is a human cost, and RTD has a very long and poor reputation of using eminent domain but not paying fair prices for the private property it decides it needs. 

Here is an interesting video about a Latino family in East Denver and their struggles with what they see as unfair use of eminent domain by RTD back when it first built the original light rail line in the 90s:

Here is another video produced by Colorado Inside Out on RTD's dual role as a transit agency and developer with FastTracks:

I'm not a huge fan of Jon Caldara and the Independence Institute, but I do appreciate their bringing issues of eminent domain into the public spotlight. In the next video, Jon Caldara interviews a family being ousted by RTD so they could build a parking lot and potentially 12 stories of retail on the site of their own family business. 



I am all for expanding much needed transit in Denver through RTD's FastTracks, but the unfortunate reality is that RTD as an agency isn't exactly being the best neighbor when it comes to taking eminent domain rights against private owners without fair compensation. The couple in the video above have no problem with the RTD project themselves, but feel (rightfully) screwed over when their property is being taken for private redevelopment use. And they are not alone. According to the Rocky Mountain News, more than 180 property owners will have some or all of their properties taken by eminent domain, sometimes using it for redevelopment. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court in one of their most egregiously wrong rulings has made the legal precedent for cases just like this in Kelo V. City of New London.

Of course, RTD can still avoid egregious use of eminent domain, have profit arrangements with landowners or other more mutually beneficial solutions. Instead though, RTD uses the broad powers of eminent domain to kick out longtime small businesspeople and redevelop their own businesses at that same site (I am sure it does this to make more money for itself). Just another case of RTD looking after only itself instead of the community it purports to serve.

Transportation for a new Downtown Denver

Yesterday, I attended an event at the Museum of Contemporary Art called Top 10 and WITY Cocktails.  The even featured Ken Schroeppel, an urban planner, Denver enthusiast and the creator of the Web site DenverInfill.com, which examines Central Denver development and how to improve the general environment of Central Denver.

Ken's site is great and his discussion was even better. Ken presented his top 10 ways to improve downtown Denver. His list featured everything from planting more street trees to putting a Target store downtown. One of his ideas was to create a downtown streetcar system that could take people around the central core for low or no cost, something which is already a part of the plan for the redevelopment of Union Station as part of FastTracks. 

Our conversation definitely delved into the need for more and better public transportation not just downtown but all over the city. Unfortunately, I and others at this talk felt that RTD is somewhat of an impediment to really making solid transportation happen in this city. We discussed such topics as extended streetcars, a fare-free downtown zone and the possibility of a smart card system like many other cities use.

Key to this entire discussion on improving downtown, was the importance of the public process. Ken gave a great quote on if the public demands, the politicians will follow, which I think is exactly the kind of thinking we need as Denver transit riders. We need to push RTD to be more accountable to us. We need to attend meetings, write letters to the editor, talk to friends and family and be vocal in what we want from a transit agency.

This is our city, so we need to fight for what we want.