RTD paying the price for more riders

DENVER - RTD is exploring changes in bus routes and possible fare hikes after seeing its fuel costs nearly triple over the past four years.

The agency says fuel prices are just part of the problem.

Although RTD has seen a record number of riders taking buses and light rail, RTD spokesman Scott Reed says an increase in riders does not translate into additional revenue for the agency.

Reed says more people are taking advantage of the Eco Pass program.

The card allows passengers to pay a flat rate each year, with the amount varying, depending on routes.

Passengers like Aylene Quale use the pass for the daily commute by bus.

"I save about $300 a month on gas, wear and tear on my car and parking," said Quale.

Several hundred downtown Denver companies take part in the program, and some employers provide the passes to their employees for free.

As a result of the flat fee contracts, Reed says RTD is not capitalizing on the 8 percent increase in ridership this year.

"We've seen more and more people with Eco Passes riding RTD, which has kind of blown away the assumptions on those contracts, but it's an annual contract, so we don't get additional revenue, we have additional riders, but not additional revenue," said Reed.

RTD doesn't have an exact figure on how many riders take part in the program, but Eco Pass is just part of a decrease in expected revenue for the agency.

Reed says RTD is also projecting $18 million loss in sales tax revenue for the year.

The increase at the pump is leaving people with less disposable income.

"They've cut back on their budgets because of gas prices, which means we're collecting less in sales taxes, which is a big supporting item for our budgets every year as well," said Reed.

Next week, the RTD board will meet to begin discussing changes to offset the costs, like possible fare hikes.

"We don't want to have to increase fares again, this close to the one we just had, but as the fuel costs and the loss of sales tax revenue continue, we have to have everything in consideration on the table," said Reed.

The options include cutting unpopular bus routes, along with possibly adding new ones.

Public hearings on the bus routes, are scheduled to begin in June.

RTD is expected to release times and locations for the meetings later this week.

If you'd like more information on the Eco Pass program, go to RTD's Web site at RTD-Denver.com. Click on the "Fares & Passes" item on the left side of the page, then click on the "Eco Pass" category.

RTD released the following information on the proposed changes to its routes:

PROPOSED SERVICE CHANGES TO UNDERPRODUCTIVE RTD ROUTES As a result of the discussion at the Operations and Customer Services Committee on May 13, 2008 relating to sales tax shortfalls and increased fuel costs, additional service efficiencies have been added to the proposed August 2008 Service Changes.

I. Service Efficiencies Service reductions and/or schedule changes are proposed for Routes 12 – South Downing, 27 – Yale Crosstown/727 – Denver Tech Center Boulevard, 35 – Hampden Crosstown, 63X – Lockheed/Waterton Express, 66 – Arapahoe Crosstown, 82X – Pomona Express, 125 – Denver West, 145X – Brighton/DIA, 201 – Newlands, 325 – Westside Crosstown, 465 – South Yosemite, 470Ltd – Dad Clark Limited, AT – Arapahoe County/DIA, Highlands Ranch call-n-Ride, Lone Tree call-n-Ride, Light Rail – G-Line, Longmont call-n-Ride, Parker call-n-Ride and Route U – Pine Junction/Conifer/DTC.

II. Mixed Service Efficiencies/Service Enhancements Mixed Service changes are proposed for Routes 324 – Main Street, 326 – Northside Loop Clockwise, 327 – Northside Loop Counterclockwise, and R – Brighton/Denver, RX – Brighton/Denver Express, and Gateway call-n-Ride.

III. Service Enhancements New service (additional trip(s) and/or routing change) is proposed for Routes 31 – North Federal, 122X – Wagon Road/Civic Center Express, and B – Boulder/Denver.

IV. Routine Service Adjustments Running time and schedule adjustments are necessary on certain routes to address changing traffic patterns, signalization, passenger volumes, load standards and customer/bus operator input. The now available APC (Automatic Passenger Counter) running time data will continue to be used to help analyze and adjust the schedules of selected routes in the system. Routine Service Adjustments focus primarily on maintaining/enhancing on time performance. However, they also are utilized for long term detours, work shift time changes, school service and related other matters.