The Regional Transportation District will receive more than $232 million through the CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion relief package Congress passed amid a wave of COVID-19-related unemployment, while its transit union is demanding that the agency purchase protective equipment for operators.

“Since the coronavirus pandemic began, RTD bus drivers have put themselves in harm’s way to get the essential workers to the front lines to fight this crisis, often with little or no protection from the virus,” said Yvette Trujillo, international vice president at the Amalgamated Transit Union.

The ATU is requesting that RTD use its portion of the $25 billion awarded to transit systems nationwide to institute rear-door entry and suspend fare collection, as well as provide gloves and masks to bus operators. RTD Director Shontel Lewis, District B, echoed the union’s position and created an online petition asking Gov. Jared Polis to mandate that RTD change its protocols.

“The average age of RTD Rail Operators is 47 and the average age of RTD Bus Operators is 51,” Lewis wrote. “While age alone may put rail and bus operators at risk, many of these employees also have underlying conditions that could put them at greater risk for a severe COVID-19 disease course if they were to fall ill.”

Emails and text messages to multiple members of the RTD board seeking comment went unanswered.

Christine Jaquez, the agency’s director of public relations, said that N95 respirators were challenging to order because there is a large demand from hospitals and other frontline responders. RTD does, however, have a supply of 7,000 boxes of sanitary gloves.

“It is absolutely our priority and definitely part of our core values to make sure that we’re upholding our standards of safety, so we’re doing everything we can to provide material that ensures” personal protection, she said.

In the meantime, the agency is asking employees to sanitize and reuse masks if they already have them. RTD has hand sanitizer on order from a Colorado Springs company, and has picked up 1,000 spray hand sanitizers.

“It was difficult, as you might imagine, to get hand sanitizer because that’s in high demand. And our operators need that because they don’t always have access to a sink and water to wash their hands,” Jaquez explained.

CPR reports that RTD has deemed as unfeasible the operational changes that ATU is calling for in light of the lack of protective equipment. Mike Meader, the chief safety officer, told RTD board members that it is easier for drivers to help disabled passengers through the front doors of buses, where the kneeling feature and wheelchair ramp are available.

“It really isn’t, from the perspective of public health, a major risk,” he said of the possibility of driver infections from passengers entering the vehicle. “It’s not even considered a medium to high risk from the transit operator perspective.”

Agencies in other cities have waived fares and instituted rear-door boarding. The latter practice predated the pandemic in some systems, although not all transit buses have two sets of doors. RTD reported that it has experienced a 70% drop in ridership due to the pandemic, which is similar to transit operators nationwide. Beginning on April 19, RTD will institute a weekend schedule through September.

Lewis, the RTD director, called on the agency to implement the service reductions immediately, empowering drivers to skip stops and refuse passengers if vehicles became too crowded to ensure safe distancing.

“If RTD is unable to comply by April 13, 2020, then we call on the State of Colorado to shut down RTD’s service,” she wrote.