GDT > Blog > RTD’s New Year’s Eve
“As customers plan their celebrations to bring in the new year, transportation is a critical detail they won’t have to worry about by using RTD”, says the quote from RTD supremo Debra Johnson. In this article, I’ll take a closer look at the agency’s plans for the last night of 2024 and whether we genuinely won’t have to worry.
The Good… Zero Fares and Commuter Rail
First off, it should be noted that thanks to sponsorship from Molson Coors, all RTD fares (including FlexRide and Access-a-Ride) are free on New Year’s Eve from 7pm to 7am the next day. This is obviously very welcome, especially for inexperienced riders using the system as an alternative to sky high cab and rideshare fares.
On the commuter rail side of things, a decent attempt to provide late night service has been be made in cooperation with operator DTO with all lines from Denver Union Station offering departures past 1am. On the A Line the normally Fridays and Saturdays only trip at 1am will run. The B Line stays up two hours later than normal with extra trips at 12:09am and 1:09am. The G Line has a two extra departures at 12:31am and 1:01am. Finally the N Line has 3 extra trips at 12:26am, 12:56am and 1:26am.
The Bad… Light Rail, Bus and Incorrect Trip Planners
Sadly on light rail, it’s a different story with the last trains being what they are on a regular Tuesday night. E Line and W Line riders will have to do with last services from Denver Union Station at 11:55pm and 11:52pm respectively from Union Station, illustrating the stark contrast in rail provision between those that live to the south and west of the city to those lucky enough to live to the north and east.
So, we have the slightly absurd situation where light rail trains ran past 1am on December 27th and 28th, will run late on January 3rd and 4th but will finish at normal time for one of the busiest nights of the year in Downtown Denver. Perhaps it’s time that the new RTD board considers a resolution to provide light night rail service on New Year’s Eve, no matter what day of the week it falls on?
For buses, it also appears it’s Tuesday night “business as usual” with not one extra trip being provided. The RTD website article attempts to helpfully list the last bus services from Downtown Denver but makes some big omissions, such as claiming the last Route 15 departure is at 12:14am, when in reality later services run from 17th & Wewatta at 12:41am and 1:11am. (Side note: the Wewatta St starts are are due to Union Station closing at 12:45am, a decision that surely should be reviewed given RTD has announced its police force now patrol 24/7).
Late night service on Route 43 is also overlooked, with departures from 11th & Larimer at 12:15am and 1:15am. It says something when not even RTD’s own communications department appears to be aware of what bus service the agency operates Downtown on a regular Tuesday night!
Unfortunately at time of publication (8am, Tue Dec 31st) RTD has not updated it’s NextRide app, which still shows the trains as running normally and not the additional commuter rail services running past 1am. This means that unless potential riders have read the New Year’s Eve news story or service alerts on RTD’s website, the additional services are in effect a secret.
The Ugly… Downtown Light Rail
In apparently a two decades old tradition, the city and county of Denver is hosting two fireworks shows from two rooftop locations on the 16th Street Mall, at 9pm and midnight. Now absolutely nothing wrong with that except once again we have a city event that appears to be incompatible with providing light rail service on the Downtown loop. The result is that D and H line trains will be turned at Theatre District • Convention Center Station from 8pm and service on the L Line will be completely suspended.
We really need to call on the people who put these types of thing together to do a vastly better job of ensuring that high-capacity mass transit can fully serve these events, which often have public funds spent on them. It’s simply not good enough cite some safety or operational reason why the trains cannot run and leave it at that; the expectation should be that the overall plan worked up by multiple parties finds a way to comply with all safety and operational rules. The result must be that our light rail system is allowed to fully show up and do the job it was built for by moving large crowds before, during and after big events.
An unfortunate piece of collateral damage from the Downtown festivities is the L Line being suspended and thus depriving Welton St of light rail service on New Year’s Eve. The L is fast becoming like that ‘friend’ who you make the effort to invite to things but always makes excuses as to why they can’t show up – it’s sad because the route could recover from the Covid-19 pandemic as a great community asset, but will always struggle to do so if it isn’t run on the big dates when potential ridership is at its highest.
In conclusion, RTD’s New Year’s Eve offering differs widely from extra late night service if you live on a commuter rail route to a standard Tuesday night for light rail and bus users. Sadly information provision remains inconsistent, with RTD’s own advice to consult its NextRide app being only of limited use. Hopefully 2025 will be the year RTD finally gets to grips with the issues raised here.
And Finally…
It’s been another huge year for transit in Denver and Colorado with Greater Denver Transit continuing to go from strength to strength. I’d like to thank everyone who has made it a great year which has featured several “big wins” such as securing more Statewide funding for transit, the election of a slate of transit friendly / experienced candidates to the RTD Board and freeing the agency of TABOR restrictions via Prop. 7A to name but a few. Please stay safe, celebrate responsibly and here’s to 2025!
– Richard