The 10 mile per hour speed restrictions and longer travel times for RTD light rail riders are causing significant frustrations for commuters traveling to and from the south Denver metro area.
RTD says the slowdowns are due to “track burning” and maintenance, along with other projects. Meanwhile, he has pushed for greater transparency from RTD on multiple fronts.
Now, safety regulators at the Colorado Public Utilities Commission are stepping up their scrutiny of RTD, as is a local organization.
PUC state regulators sent a letter to RTD last week, requesting information such as results of safety inspections, timelines for completing inspections and progress of repairs. This comes after the PUC claimed RTD failed to notify the commission about problems and slowdowns on lines in the southeast corridor.
C.B.S.
“Effective safety and asset management strategies would have prevented the need for these emergency actions and the significant disruption for many Coloradans who rely on RTD light rail service,” the PUC letter said.
The advocacy organization Greater Denver Transit is also calling for more “decisive action” from RTD leadership.
The organization is calling on RTD to be more transparent about maintenance work and to publish updated schedules.
The concerns concern the E, H and R lines, which primarily affect commuters heading south from Denver.
Deceleration zones are being enforced on large sections of two of those lines, slowing light rail trains to 10 miles per hour, causing long delays.
“What the slow zones have done is completely break the schedule that they set,” said Richard Bamber, co-founder of Greater Denver Transit. He added that the lines have no chance of meeting the schedule. “It’s made the system very, very difficult and frustrating to use,” Bamber said.
Last week, Dave Jensen, deputy general manager of RTD, said what has caused the slowdowns is a defect in the rails called “rail burns.”
“The track is completely safe right now. The concern from a safety standpoint is that the rail that burns, over time, could develop a crack, and then over time that crack becomes a breakage,” Jensen said.
Jensen mentioned that RTD began minor repairs last week and that there will be more major repairs starting this week.
“It’s not without its challenges. We understand the reality, but what we’re doing is working hard to make this a better system, and that requires maintenance,” Jensen said.
Bamber said several major projects are also making it difficult to use the light rail system.
The train lines through downtown Denver will be out of service for reconstruction for most of the summer, and possibly even longer.
The heavily traveled E, H and R lines, which run from downtown Denver south through the Tech Center area, are also under maintenance.
C.B.S.
Bamber said RTD needs to do a better job of conveying updates and information to passengers.
“We need them to set schedules that actually work and that operators can follow,” Bamber said.
Jensen said rewriting the rail line’s schedule probably wouldn’t be effective, because by the time it’s complete, they would probably start reducing speed restrictions.
In the letter, the PUC said they were not notified about the findings along the southeast corridor and were not notified about the slow zone order. The PUC also wants RTD to increase transparency with the community.
Slowdowns have forced runners like Rashid to arrive late.
“I was falling behind a little bit. I just had to call the people I was going to interview and let them know what the situation was,” Rashid said.
Now you hope to get regularly updated information from RTD.
“Hopefully they can fix whatever they need to do so that the trains arrive on time. Maybe inform people a little more, so they can arrive on time and do what they need to do,” Rashid said.
In a statement, RTD also said passengers can expect progress reports at the end of the week. The statement goes on to say: “RTD wants to emphasize that speed restrictions will be lifted as repairs are made, meaning deceleration zones will shorten as work on track segments is completed.”
Jensen said RTD hopes to make significant progress and improvements by September.
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