[Colorado-talk] January, 2014 PROPOSED RTD Service Changes

[Gary Van Dorn]

RTD published the below Proposed Service Change for January, 2014 in the packet for Operations and Customer Service Committee meeting of 10 September 2013.  The item is under "updates" so this means RTD will not vote upon these proposals immediately.  I would like to centralize any concerns the NFBCO has with these changes under Scott's signature to RTD.  Notify me of any concerns via E-mail so I have an opportunity to review them and write the letter for Scott if necessary.  

There are no concerns if I do not hear from people.  The Board Packet, available on www.rtd-denver.com, has maps with some of the changes.  Remember the three-fourths mile rule may affect our seniors and others who use Access-a-Ride.  Thank you.  

PROPOSED CHANGES TO SERVICE FOR JANUARY, 2014

Route 0 - Broadway
Weekday running times adjustments, annualized cost increase is estimated to be $62,000.  

Route 6 – East 6th Ave/North Pecos
Extend 8:30am westbound trip from 8th/Colorado to instead originate at Centrepoint & Sable Transfer Center at 7:51am. Relieves overloads on the following trip at 8:06am from Centrepoint & Sable.  Annualized costs are estimated to be $10,300.  

Route 10 – East 12th Avenue
Changes are proposed for weekdays in the Central Platte Valley segment of the route. The 4:50 a.m. trip from 9th/Clermont would be extended to the Rockmont Loop, improving connections to Union Station via the Millennium Bridge. The 5:39 a.m. trip from Elitch’s would instead start from the Rockmont Loop at 5:36 a.m. The 5:51 a.m. trip from Rockmont would instead start from Elitch’s at 5:54 a.m. In the evening, the trip from the Aquarium at 6:34 p.m. would no longer stop at Elitch’s, as alternate trips are now available. Cost estimated to be $3,500 annualized.  

Route 16 – West Colfax
Proposed minor schedule adjustments. Downtown turnaround rerouted to facilitate use of articulated buses: eastbound from Colfax via Grant Street, 13th Avenue, Bannock Street, West 11th Avenue to terminal. No change in westbound route. No cost impacts anticipated.  

Route 16Ltd - West Colfax
Proposed minor schedule adjustments involving the Downtown turnaround rerouted to facilitate use of city transit buses: eastbound from Colfax via Court Place, Broadway, and 16th Avenue into Civic Center Station. No change in westbound route. No cost impacts anticipated.

Route 20 – 20th Avenue
This proposal is for minor schedule adjustments related to relocating the terminal loop at West 17th Avenue/Federal Boulevard to match alignment of through trips from NREL. No cost impacts anticipated.

Route 21 – Evans Avenue (see also South Simms Package)
Add 7:51am westbound trip from Centrepoint & Sable to Evans Station is proposed to relieve overloads on both the 7:36am and 8:06am westbound trips. Cost estimated to be $25,900 annualized.

Route 32 – 32nd Avenue/City Park
Schedule adjustments are proposed due to congestion on West 32nd Avenue. No cost impacts are anticipated.

Route 35 – Hampden Avenue
Minor schedule adjustments and route change at Hampden- Acoma Street. No cost impact anticipated.

Route 40 – Colorado Blvd
Minor schedule adjustments are proposed. No cost impact anticipated.

Route 52 – West 52nd Avenue
Realign from current route at West 50th Avenue and Zuni Street via Zuni Street, West 46th Avenue on to current route at West 46th Avenue and Pecos Street. New alignment brings service directly to a recently enlarged senior housing development and reduces duplication with Route 6. Current alignment serves stops for 93 weekday boardings, 60 Saturday boardings, and 30 Sunday & holiday boardings, of which approximately one-third are transfers with Route 6, which instead would be available at the intersection of West 46th Avenue and Pecos Street. All of the affected passengers would remain within walking distance of Local Routes 6, 44 or 52. No cost impact anticipated.

Route 54 – Montbello Industrial Park
Discontinue 9:05am trip (0 passengers) and 2:05pm trip (1 passenger).  Annualized cost savings are estimated to be $10,000.

Route 66 – Arapahoe Road
Add Sunday/holiday service east of Arapahoe Station to Arapahoe Crossing Shopping Center. Sunday service hours to match Saturday service on this segment 7:00am to 9:00pm. Cost estimated to be $35,300 annualized.

Route 89 – Stapleton/Anschutz Campus
Reduce frequency from every 30 to every 60 minutes, and operate with small cut-a-way style vehicle. Service frequency matches overall demand, will reduce neighborhood impacts in Stapleton. No cost impacts are anticipated.

Route 100X – South Wadsworth Express (see also South Simms Package)
Due to changes in parallel Route 116X, and to mesh with earlier departure times on Rte 100X, it is proposed to move the 6:10 p.m. departure from Civic Center Station to 5:40 p.m. Minor adjustments in morning departure times are expected.

Route 105 – Havana Street
Improve weekday midday frequency to a consistent 15 minute frequency. Current frequency is 15/15/30, leading to overcrowding and schedule adherence problems on trips following the 30 minute gap. Cost estimated $62,000.  

Route 133 – Hampden/Tower
Schedule adjustments, no cost impacts anticipated.

Route 135 – Smoky Hill Road
Schedule adjustments, no cost impacts anticipated.

Route 139 – Quincy Avenue
Schedule adjustments, no cost impacts anticipated.

Route 205 – 28th St/Gunbarrel/ Heatherwood
Rename route to better reflect area served: 28th St/Jay Rd/Heatherwood Adjust trip patterns, bi-directionally to reduce confusion of current routing (eastbound backtracks on westbound and vice versa); change start/end of route to Pearl/3rd vs. 14/Walnut; running time adjustments on Sat/Sun, no cost impact anticipated Route 225 – Boulder/ Broomfield via Baseline/US 287 In combination with interline to Route BOUND, extend weekday service span to match Saturday; add one northbound trip between US 36 & Broomfield PnR and Lafayette PnR, with a leave time of 10:05pm from US 36 & Broomfield PnR, to provide late night connection from Route 76, due to a customer request. Cost estimated to be $15,500 annualized.

Route 323 – Skyline Crosstown
Reroute westbound via Hover/Bent/Dry Creek and Nelson) to avoid rail-road crossing and possible trip delays (agreed upon with City of Longmont in meetings held for Apr 13 service changes) No additional cost anticipated.

Route 410 – Lincoln Ave/Parker
Discontinue service south of Parker Park-n-Ride. Ridership averages 2 passengers each way per day, or 1 per trip. Affected passengers may also use Route P on this segment, at similar times. Savings = 1.3 hours.
Add new afternoon trips at 2:24pm and 3:24pm eastbound from Lincoln Station, and at 2:58pm and 3:58pm from Parker Park-n-Ride. Expands service to mid afternoon school ridership peaks, provides earlier service for early departures from downtown Denver and elsewhere connecting via LRT at Lincoln Station, including relieving overloads on first southbound Route P trip. Cost = 2.0 hours.
Add new morning trips at 7:51am eastbound from Lincoln Station, and 8:19am westbound from Parker Park-n-Ride. Provides improved late peak service for Parker residents. Cost = 1.0 hour.
Cost estimated to be $17,500 annualized.

Route AB – Boulder/DIA
Shift the last westbound, weekday trip to a leave time of 12:13x versus the current 11:41pm to allow for better connections from late night flights into DIA. Cost estimated to be $5,800 annualized.

Route AF – Downtown/DIA
Running time adjustments, no cost impact anticipated.  

Route AT – Arapahoe County/DIA
Extend 3:42am northbound trip from Nine Mile Station to instead originate at Arapahoe Station at 3:28am. Provides important employee start time service for Arapahoe customers. Cost estimated to be $4,600 annualized.

Route BOUND – 30th Street
Improve operational reliability by improving recovery after 7pm on weekdays.  Cost estimated to be $52,700 hours/weekday.  

Routes CV/CS/CX – Pine Junction/Conifer/Denver
It is expected that the new Pine Junction Park-n-Ride will be opened during this fall. Minor schedule adjustments will be made for this change. In addition, the first eastbound Route CS trip is proposed to operate five minutes earlier than at present. Cost estimated to be $8,200 annualized.

Routes ES and EV – Evergreen/Denver
It is proposed to set the departure time of Routes ES and EV seven to eight minutes earlier on the first three trips from Evergreen Park-n-Ride to Civic Center Station. No cost impact anticipated.

Route HX – 28th Street/ Civic Center
Add one AM peak trip and one PM peak trip to alleviate overloads; adjust running times between 19th St/Wynkoop and Civic Center Station in both directions Cost estimated to be $31,700 annualized.

Route JUMP – Boulder/ Lafayette via Arapahoe
Due to completion of the Arapahoe Road construction, Long-JUMP trips will now serve the new on-street stops at Boulder Technical Education Center (Arapahoe/63rd) instead of accessing the stop inside the Boulder Valley School District property. Route patterns and related trip times will be adjusted to reflect this change. No cost impact is anticipated.

Route P – Parker/Denver
Add southbound trip from Civic Center Station at 3:15pm, relieving overloads on the current first afternoon trip at 3:45pm. Also, move 4:20pm southbound trip to 4:30pm, for improved load distribution with 4:45pm trip. Cost estimated to be $23,500 annualized.

Route YL – Lyons/Longmont:
The Route YL is a Boulder County sponsored CMAQ grant funded service that was implemented in January 2012. Ridership on this service has leveled off at 10 boardings per day, which is far below the RTD Service Standard for its service type. It is proposed to discontinue this service. No cost savings would be realized by the RTD, due to the grant funding of this service.

D-Line Light Rail
This proposal recommends the permanent closure of the currently temporarily closed station on the Welton Street segment of the Central Corridor. Since January of 2013 stops on the D-Line service at the 29th & Welton Station have been temporarily discontinued; as part of the effort to improve schedule adherence on this segment of the Light Rail network. As previously stated in the January 2013 Board Report, delayed trains affect our customers’ connections with bus Routes 12 and 43, as well as some transfers for Routes 28 and 38. Additionally, train delays from this area cascade throughout the system affecting on-time performance on the system as a whole. Efforts to address the current problem, which stems from the downtown Denver signal cycle timing change, include the City of Denver’s implementation of traffic signal priority measures at the intersection of Park Avenue and Welton. The signal improvements and the elimination of stopping at the 29th Welton Station resulted in a reduction in train delays from 34% of trips on the Welton segment to 17% along the single track section along Welton. Please see map for more information. No operational cost impacts are anticipated.

W-Line Light Rail
Schedule for weekdays and weekends will have slight adjustments, based on operating experience. No cost impact anticipated.

Ranches package
Route 77 would have minor schedule adjustments.
Route 401 would have minor schedule adjustments. The 8:18 p.m. westbound and 8:42 p.m. eastbound trips are proposed to be discontinued, due to low ridership [4 passengers total] (-1 weekday hour).
Route 402Ltd would have minor schedule adjustments. (+2.5 weekday hours if no saved bus in Route 403).
Route 403 is proposed to be removed from the Dutch Creek deviation. It would continue to serve Highland Heritage Regional Park from University/Lincoln. It is proposed to discontinue trips from Littleton/Mineral Station at 8:44 a.m. and from Lincoln Station at 8:52 a.m. due to low ridership [11 passengers total] (-1.5 weekday hours for trips cut, additional savings from removing deviation). No cost impact anticipated.

South Simms – Alameda Parkway package
Route 21 is proposed to be returned to its former alignment from West Jewell Ave. via West Yale Ave., Bear Creek Blvd., and Alameda Parkway and return. Service levels will remain unchanged.
Route 100X (see listing under Service Reductions).
Route 116Ltd is proposed to be rescheduled to increase its span of service, covering times not covered by Route 116X, as well as retaining the most utilized trips in both morning and afternoon peaks. Proposed arrivals at Federal Center Station are at 5:48, 7:18 and 8:48 a.m. Proposed departures from Federal Center Station are at 2:55, 4:25, 5:45 and 7:10 p.m.  Route 116X is proposed to have an additional trip added in each direction, with some trips rescheduled. Arrivals at Civic Center Station would be at 6:34, 7:14, 7:44 and 8:23 a.m.  Departures – subject to adjustments for gate availability – would be at 3:35 p.m., 4:40 p.m., 5:25 p.m., and 6:10 p.m. No cost impact anticipated.

Call-n-Ride
Belleview Call-n-Ride began operating in January 2012 under a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement Grant (CMAQ) sponsored by the Denver South Transportation Management Association. The Call-n-Ride serves the Denver Technological Center out of the Belleview Station. In the pm period the Call-n-Ride has been operating a flex route south of Belleview Ave. Because of the low ridership of the flex route, it is recommended to discontinue the flex route and have the Call-n-Ride serve our customers by demand only. No cost impacts are anticipated with this proposal.
Golden Call-n-Ride began operation in April 2013 with the opening of the West Line Light Rail under a Congestion Mitigation Air Quality Improvement Grant (CMAQ) sponsored by the City of Golden, the Colorado School of Mines and the RTD. The Call-n-Ride operates one vehicle as a Flex Route and one vehicle as a non-flex route Call-n-Ride. Ridership has been rising since opening to over 9 boardings per hour. This proposal calls for an additional 12 hours of Call-n-Ride service be added to the service. Cost impacts are estimated to be $150,009 (including fuel) annualized.  
Thornton/Northglenn Call-n-Ride began operating in December 2003 and the South Thornton/Northglenn Call-n-Ride began operating in August 2007. These Call-n-Rides are divided by 112th Avenue. Customers routinely transfer between the two Call-n-Rides at 112th Avenue. This proposal calls for a change that will allow customers to book a trip in either service area without a transfer. Customers will call the Call-n-Ride that their trip begins in and will be able to travel to the other Call-n-Ride area without a transfer. No cost impacts are anticipated with this proposal.

The Public Meetings are:  

Sept. 18th Wed NOON, Blake T&D 1600 Blake Street, Rooms T&D, Denver
Sept. 18th Wed 6:00 PM, Blake T&D 1600 Blake Street, Rooms T&D, Denver
Sept. 19th Thurs 7:00 PM, Central Park Recreation Center, 9651 E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Denver, Rooms A&B
Sept. 19th Thurs NOON, Civic Center Plaza 1560 Broadway, Denver, Room 1940
Sept. 19th Thurs 7:00 PM, Boulder YMCA 2850 Mapleton Ave, Boulder, Blue Room
Sept. 21st Sat 9:00 AM, Chaffee Park Recreation Center, 4580 Tejon Street, Denver
Sept. 21st Sat 1:00 PM, Green Mountain Recreation Center, 13198 West Green Mountain Drive, Lakewood
Sept. 26 Thurs 6:00 PM, Glenarm Recreation Center, 2800 Glenarm Place, Denver

Gary Van Dorn
President, Mile High NFBCO
Board Member, NFBCO