RTD keeps expanding lines but trains run late, stops feel unsafe at night, and parking downtown has gotten cheaper since remote work emptied garages. Is public transit in Denver a genuine alternative or a noble failure?
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Add your commentThe question frames this as either/or and that's exactly the problem with how Denver thinks about transit. Cities don't build rail for the people who COULD drive — they build it for the people who CAN'T. Students, seniors, people without cars. Judging the whole system by whether a car-owning professional finds it convenient is the wrong metric entirely.
The safety thing is real and I don't think you can just wave it away. I'm a 5'4" woman and I stopped taking the light rail at night after an incident at the Colfax station that I won't get into. RTD can run all the ads they want about service expansion — if people don't feel safe on the platform at 9pm it doesn't matter.
Lived here 34 years. The light rail was supposed to transform this city and instead we got trains that smell like a porta-potty and show up whenever they feel like it. I timed the W line last Tuesday — 19 minutes late with zero announcement. Just drive.
My wife works at Denver Health and takes the H line every single day. She stopped driving two years ago. So when you all say nobody uses it, some of us literally depend on it. Not everyone has a flexible work from home job and a free parking spot waiting for them.
The A Line to the airport is genuinely great and I will die on this hill. $10.50, no traffic, drops you right at the terminal. I took it last month for a 6am flight and it was spotless and on time. The whole system gets tarred with the same brush but that one line works.
I'll challenge everyone defending driving: what's your plan when gas hits $5 again, or when you're 75 and can't drive, or when your kid needs to get somewhere independently? A city without functional transit is a city that only works for one type of person at one stage of life. Build the thing properly.
Noble failure is GENEROUS. RTD has spent something like $7 billion on rail expansion since FasTracks started and ridership is still below 2019 levels. Meanwhile we have bus routes that got CUT to fund the rail buildout. Whole thing was backwards from day one — should've done BRT everywhere first.
The downtown parking getting cheaper argument is so short-sighted it hurts. Parking is cheap RIGHT NOW because offices emptied out. The moment Denver's downtown rebounds — and it will — those garage prices go right back up. You want to make transit decisions based on a post-pandemic anomaly? Really?
I moved here from Chicago two years ago and honestly? RTD is fine. Not Chicago fine, not NYC fine, but fine. People in Denver act like waiting 15 minutes for a train is a human rights violation. That's just... transit.
Counterpoint nobody wants to hear: Denver drivers are also absolutely terrible and the idea that driving downtown is some relaxed pleasant alternative is hilarious. Have you been on I-25 at 5pm? Have you? Because I have and I nearly cried.
just moved here from Dallas and yall are complaining about THIS? we have basically zero rail in Dallas. zero. i rode the W line my first week and thought it was amazing. perspective people
Grew up in Littleton, took the C line to Broncos games for years. Those were good memories honestly. But that was early 2000s and the system felt newer and there was more energy around it. Now it feels neglected. Same infrastructure, less care.
Can someone explain to me why RTD can't figure out real-time tracking that actually works? The app told me my train was arriving, I was standing on the platform, no train came for 11 more minutes. This is not a hard technology problem in 2024.
ok but has anyone actually tried parking downtown lately? i found a spot in the Arapahoe Square garage for like $6 on a Wednesday afternoon. that used to cost me $22. remote work really did kill the parking economy lol
That's not even close to accurate. New York's subway system is over 200 miles of track. Denver's system is impressive for its age and size but please don't spread that around as a fact.
Took the light rail to a Nuggets game after the championship run last year. Packed train, good vibes, everyone was losing their minds. Got home faster than my buddy who drove. So yeah for events? Unbeatable. For my commute to Englewood at 7am on a Tuesday? Different story.
fun fact the RTD light rail system is actually the longest in the entire country stretching over 60 miles of track which puts it ahead of every other city including new york
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