[Colorado-Talk] Correspondence With My Local RTD Board Member

Tue May 26 21:23:40 UTC 2026

Greetings:

Shown below, in chronological order, is the exchange of emails I just had with the RTD Board member who represents my district in Aurora.

Sincerely,

Curtis Chong

  _____  

From: Curtis Chong <chong.curtis at gmail.com <mailto:chong.curtis at gmail.com> >
Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2026 at 11:01 AM
To: Matt Larsen <Matt.Larsen at rtd-denver.com <mailto:Matt.Larsen at rtd-denver.com> >
Subject: RTD's Proposed 20% Reduction Proposal

Dear Director Larsen:

My name is Curtis Chong. I am a Heather Gardens resident who also happens to be totally blind. I am a regular user of RTD bus and light rail transportation and am a fairly well-informed citizen in terms of public transportation services available from the Denver Regional Transportation District (RTD). I also serve as a member of RTD’s Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities (ACPD), and in that capacity, I am working to ensure that the electronic documents and forms which RTD makes available to the public are accessible to everyone--including people like me for whom screen reading technology is the only effective way to deal with digital information. As a person who cannot drive, I am what you might call a transit-dependent individual😀.

I am writing to you to join the chorus of voices which are expressing concern about a possible 20% reduction in RTD’s budget to deal with what is undoubtedly a significant financial shortfall. As I am sure you have already heard from others in the community, any service reduction in light rail and/or bus service will have a significant and negative  impact on the lives of people who cannot drive. And, as I am sure you have already heard, reductions in fixed route service will also have a deleterious effect on those passengers for whom paratransit (i.e., Access-a-Ride) is the only alternative to get anywhere.

For those of us who live in Aurora, reducing public transportation will have a more significant negative impact on our lives because, in Aurora, public transportation is less frequent, less available, and  more sparsely-distributed than comparable service in the city of Denver proper. I myself live in Heather Gardens which, as you know, is a fairly spread-out community. I am fortunate that for me, the 130 bus is only a five-minute walk from where I live. However, there are many other people who live on the far end of Heather Gardens where the nearest bus stop is more than a 35-minute walk away. Today, the 130 bus runs fairly regularly and provides fairly consistent thirty-minute service. To my knowledge, other blind people who live on the other end of Heather Gardens are not quite as fortunate as I am. (Of course, I did select my unit partially because it was relatively close to a bus stop.🙂)

All of this is to ask you to please keep in mind what will happen to members of our blind and disability community should the RTD Board approve staff recommendations to reduce service simply to save money. I for one do not want RTD to enter into a vicious circle of decline where, as service is reduced, the number of riders goes down, thus forcing even more reductions in service and, after that, even less riders.

Thank you for your kind consideration of this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Curtis Chong

14152 East Linvale Place

Unit 201

Aurora, Colorado 80014

Email:  <mailto:chong.curtis at gmail.com> chong.curtis at gmail.com

Phone: 515-306-1654

  _____  

From: Matt Larsen Matt.Larsen at rtd-denver.com <mailto:Matt.Larsen at rtd-denver.com>  
Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2026 12:16 PM
To: Curtis Chong chong.curtis at gmail.com <mailto:chong.curtis at gmail.com> 
Subject: Re: RTD's Proposed 20% Reduction Proposal

I’m also hopeful we won’t have to reduce service, and I think there may be a way to postpone it for one more year.

However, at the end of the day, we have to balance our budget every year, and without new revenues or an unlikely reduction in costs, I don’t think there is any way we will be able to avoid some kind of service reduction by 2028.  Our main revenue source, sales tax, is not projected to grow, even as virtually every category of costs is projected to increase at levels above inflation. The need to invest in maintenance that was deferred for decades also strains our budget.

Everyone on the Board wants to do what we can to avoid service cuts and, if they are necessary, minimize the damage they do. 

Matt Larsen
Director, RTD District E
matt.larsen at rtd-denver.com <mailto:matt.larsen at rtd-denver.com> 

720.595.6325

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