<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)"><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;}
span.EmailStyle18
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;
color:windowtext;
font-weight:normal;
font-style:normal;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap: break-word;-webkit-nbsp-mode: space;line-break:after-white-space'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Here is a more readable version of the article rather than the Denver Post Website.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>CORONAVIRUS CRISIS RTD ridership drops 60%; agency not cutting service.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>By Jon Murray and John Aguilar. Ridership on RTD's buses and trains is falling off a cliff as the coronavirus crisis causes many metro commuters to work from home, but the transit agency says it doesn't plan to cut service - at least, not significantly..<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Across the country, transit systems are grappling with "an unprecedented crisis," as one public transportation expert called it. Remaining riders often depend on buses and trains to get to their jobs. Now they also worry about maintaining a sufficient distance from other passengers to reduce exposure risks.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>The Regional Transportation District estimated Wednesday afternoon that ridership appears to have fallen about 60% from normal, according to informal counts of boardings in recent days. Based on last year's average ridership statistics, it says, that would mean a drop from 347,800 trips each weekday to about 139,000.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>"We're continuing to operate service at the current level that we have," said RTD spokes- person Pauletta Tonilas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>But that comes with caveats: The agency long has grappled with a shortage of operators and drivers, resulting in recurring cancellations of routes to adjust; it was already planning to trim back some service in May as a result. The highly contagious coronavirus, which can cause the COVID-19 respiratory disease, could throw a new wrench into the equation if employees become sick, requiring more daily cancellations. So far, no RTD operators have tested positive, Tonilas said, but some are self-isolating at home because of potential exposures.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>On Wednesday, RTD announced a change for its Access-a-Ride service, which provides transportation for people with disabilities by appointment. Because of a significant drop in demand and higher than normal cancellation rates, starting Thursday it will limit advance bookings to the day before, instead of further out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Elsewhere, several large city transit systems have resisted cutting service in response to coronavirus. That includes Bay Area Rapid Transit, a largely commuter-serving system in Northern California that said ridership was down 70% from average Monday.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>The overlapping San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency did reduce service on its buses Tuesday, while the Minneapolis-St. Paul area's Metro Transit was poised to cut overnight service. The Washington, D.C., area's transit system began running less frequent trains Monday and put bus routes on their holiday schedules.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Green Bay Metro Transit, a much smaller Wisconsin agency, took the ultimate step: It suspended regular operations, citing concerns about coronavirus exposure risks for employees and riders.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>RTD's Tonilas says the agency doesn't yet foresee moving to a later stage of its pandemic plan that calls for reducing weekday service levels to the normal Saturday schedule. For now, RTD's efforts include more intensive scrubbings of surfaces inside vehicles.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>"Things have to get pretty severe for it to get to that level," Tonilas said, "because changing to a whole different service plan is a very big undertaking. She added: "We have a lot of people who are transit dependent who rely on us and who need to get to work every day," including health care workers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>James Burrell, a part-time janitor, took the G-Line train Tuesday morning from downtown Denver to Wheat Ridge. While waiting for a bus to get to his job in Arvada, he said losing RTD service would "impact me tremendously.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Over his shoulder, a normally packed suburban parking lot for Denver-bound rail commuters was 25% full, at best.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>"I basically take all the transportation RTD offers - the MallRide, the train and the bus," Burrell said. "It's very important. If it shuts down, it would be my boss that would have to pick me up and drop me off at the job sites.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>About a mile away, at the Ward park-n-Ride off Interstate 70, Clarence Banks said RTD was his "sole method of transportation. The warehouse worker, who was waiting for the Route 38 bus back home to Denver, said he relies on RTD to get to work and to visit family members.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>"I would tell them (that shutting down) would be just as bad as losing a place to live," Banks said. "If you can't get around, you can't live.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>The coronavirus pandemic poses potentially long-lasting challenges for transit agencies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>"Public transit in the U.S. is facing an unprecedented crisis," Jarrett Walker, a Portland-based transit consultant, wrote Tuesday on his "Human Transit" blog. "Fare revenue will collapse as people stay home, while the tax revenues that transit relies on will also decline steeply as we go into a recession.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Walker pushed for agencies considering cutbacks to first reduce frequency on their best-served routes, rather than trimming service hours or shortchanging lower-ridership lines, since those steps would make a transit network less useful and affect lower-income riders more.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>RTD Director Shontel Lewis, who represents an area from northeast Denver to the airport, vocally urged the agency to move toward a shutdown - or at least to curtail service - on Twitter late last week. She added the hashtag #shutitdown to a Saturday tweet, writing: "We shouldn't wait for people to die or be infected.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>On Tuesday, Lewis acknowledged that such a move could disproportionately affect those who rely on RTD most. If the situation worsens, she said in an interview, RTD and state officials need to be prepared to help riders, perhaps with financial assistance.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>"I think RTD should be working with the governor and state representatives so that people don't have to choose between a paycheck and their health - their life," she said. "What are we doing to ensure protections for hourly workers are put in place? We should take care of that at the front end.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Cordially,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif'>Curtis Chong<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>