The Regional Transportation District is urging riders to comply with distancing recommendations to prevent the transmission of COVID-19, but one member of the board of directors would like the guidance to be mandatory.

“Riders should use judgment in deciding whether to board any vehicle,” the agency said in a statement on Wednesday. “RTD has installed signage on buses and trains asking the public to respect social distancing, which is everyone’s responsibility.”

The advisory comes as RTD prepares to implement weekend levels of service beginning on April 19 and continuing through September in response to plummeting ridership. The agency announced that Denver Transit Partners, which operates the commuter rail lines, will reduce trip frequencies to every hour on the B Line to Westminster and every 30 minutes for G Line trains to Wheat Ridge. The A Line to Denver International Airport will be unaffected for now.

“This is the most extensive package of service changes RTD has made in its half-century history,” said ?Paul?J.?Ballard, the agency’s interim general manager and CEO.

In a pair of letters to the RTD board of directors and to Gov. Jared Polis and the General Assembly, Director Shontel M. Lewis, District B, asked for mandatory distancing, including limitations on the number of riders per vehicle and a six-foot barrier between passengers and the driver. 

Letter to Polis about RTD

“I must admit – I am afraid,” Lewis wrote. “I am afraid for our riders and for our employees putting their lives on the line. They are afraid of contracting COVID-19 and we, the leaders of RTD, have put them in the position of gambling their health for their livelihood.”

So far, there has not been a public disclosure of any RTD operator testing positive for COVID-19. As of March 27, the agency stated that no employees had tested positive, although if that changed, “we will keep the public informed.”

Lewis asked that the agency communicate about positive cases in staff, as well as to discontinue timekeeping systems that require employees to touch the same screen. She also requests that RTD urge riders to cover their faces with masks, in accordance with recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Guidelines from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on April 2 advise transit agencies to limit vehicles to 20% of capacity, and to consider blocking off seats or skipping stops to maintain distance between occupants. Some RTD drivers have used caution tape or seat belts to adhere to those recommendations.

The letter complimented the agency’s decision to suspend fare collection and have bus riders board through rear doors, when applicable. However, Lewis asked the RTD board whether waiting until April 19 to implement service reductions was wise, given operators’ stress, lack of personal protective equipment and vulnerabilities from underlying health conditions.

Editor’s note: The new trip frequencies for the B and G lines have been corrected.