The Denver Post is out with a bruising transit reality check from Bruce Finley: RTD ridership is down nearly 40% since 2019, the budget has holes, and lawmakers are officially done pretending this is fine. The story centers on RTD CEO Debra Johnson trying to sell a “transit-first” future while the numbers and the customer experience keep punching that vision in the mouth.
Finley lays out the tension clearly. Transit advocates and some legislators want higher frequency, better safety, and service that beats driving. RTD leaders say they need more buy-in from the 40 municipalities in the district to make buses and trains faster and more reliable. Meanwhile, RTD is staring at deficits in the $100 million to $400 million range, deferred maintenance consequences, and the possibility of service reductions starting in 2027.
And yes, hanging over all of this is the political hobby horse: moving RTD money toward Gov. Polis’ Front Range Passenger Rail ambitions, while RTD still has not delivered the voter-approved FasTracks promises like the Denver-to-Boulder rail line it has been collecting taxes for since 2004.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Ridership is down nearly 40% since 2019, and lawmakers are holding “accountability” hearings where the quotes are not polite. Sen. Kyle Mullica flat-out says RTD has failed his community.
- RTD runs a record-high roughly $1.5 billion annual budget, but faces annual deficits reported between $100 million and $400 million due to declining sales tax revenue and heavy maintenance costs. That is not a “gap.” That’s a canyon.
- In 2024, inspections found major deterioration in light rail tracks, forcing emergency slow zones where trains crawled at 10 mph for six months while repairs happened. Nothing says “choose transit” like watching the grass grow faster than your train.
- RTD leadership says they cannot fix speed and frequency alone. They want dedicated lanes and signal priority across municipalities, and they point to Denver’s bus-only lanes and future BRT plans as the direction of travel.
- Lawmakers are crafting an overhaul to replace 10 of RTD’s 15 elected directors with appointees for “greater expertise,” while RTD funds are being eyed to help launch Front Range Passenger Rail. Translation: we’re rearranging the director chairs while looking for more money.
My Bottom Line
This is the most backwards conversation I have ever read. The headline says it all: ridership is down 40%. Yet the solution from the “force you out of your car” crowd is always the same three-word chant: more, more, more. More transit-oriented development, which is just a polite way of saying “we’re going to tell you how and where to live.” More trains. More lanes. More money. Hundreds of millions more.
And the part that should make every “affordability” preacher choke on their kombucha is this: the same legislators who want to squeeze your budget with taxes and fees also want to squeeze you into a system that fewer people are choosing to use. Then add the governor’s choo-choo plan, Front Range Passenger Rail, and you are not talking millions. You are talking billions. Billions. For decreasing ridership.
Normie, you gotta say no on this one. RTD has failed, and moving the director chairs around on the Titanic will not fix late buses, slow trains, safety concerns, or broken trust. RTD leadership can talk about “the agency of what can be,” but riders live in the world of what is.
I actually believe in buses. They scale. They can be nimble. But you are trying to sell this to Westerners. They believe in independence. You do not win them over by lecturing them about cars. You win them over by running the service on time, safely, and reliably, in the dense corridors where it can actually compete. Start small, do it well, and grow from success, not from guilt.
Also, own the failures. You made promises to Boulder and to Adams County. The story is clear that the Boulder rail line is still a sore spot because RTD has been collecting taxes for it since 2004. Own that. Fix what you promised before you demand more. Because the next move will be predictable: more taxes, more districts, more fees, more attempts to toll highways, and more raids on highway maintenance and expansion budgets, all in the name of “sustainability.” Different clowns, same circus. And the bill lands on you, to prop up a system with 40% fewer passengers.
Source: The Denver Post
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