Denver spends billions of dollar on government choo-choo trains and ridership collapses. (how much, dollars)

[lovecrowds]

RTD


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dng_MrBTmms

Despite, all the ribbon cuttings and cake it seems like ridership is collapsing with no end in sight.

Liberal tax raising politicians with cut ribbons but since with all those new expansions the ridership has plummeted by 3.6 million boarding from 104 million boardings a year to 101 million boardings per year.

Part of the issue just a 10 mile light-rail line with their zone charges is $4.50 per ride. So two one-way rides on the train is 9 dollars for 10 miles.

[Mezter]

Yeah, the W Line has been a complete fail. It doesn't even go anywhere! I can see them shutting it down in the near future.

[Mattks]

Since when is a -2.9% change a collapse? Not a good sign, but a collapse? It's also misleading because that -2.9% is over 3 years. They lost less then 1% annually.

Actually, I'm pretty impressed with their numbers to be honest. I'd never guess they had over 100 million riders annually.

[lovecrowds]

Originally Posted by Mattks

Since when is a -2.9% change a collapse? Not a good sign, but a collapse? It's also misleading because that -2.9% is over 3 years. They lost less then 1% annually.

Actually, I'm pretty impressed with their numbers to be honest. I'd never guess they had over 100 million riders annually.

Transit risderhip is down nearly 20 percent in LA also

https://la.curbed.com/2017/8/29/1621...rship-down-why

Paying $9 for two-rides like in Denver for a dirty, smelly train doesn't make much sense. It is a single-family home type of metropolitan area filled with families. People are not going to usher families around on the light-rail.

The trains were much cleaner in 1994 and 2000 when the first train routes opened. With so many trains now they tend to not be clean. Used to be very impressed with how clean the transit was in Denver, not anymore.

They also made big cuts to many bus routes as they expanded the light-rail.

Denver is a low-density single-family home metropolitan area. It's a family metro area and families tend to travel by private car.

No matter how much they try to make it dense, it will always be a single-family home suburban metropolitan area despite having a huge downtown.

I will say the nice thing about Denver is the stops tend to be a mile or more apart so the trains are rather fast once they get of the vibrant downtown.

Denver is a downtown city with low density single-family home neighborhoods and suburbs with McMansions so at least the trains are fast.