A bill being rushed through the Colorado legislature could raise the cost of the Regional Transportation District’s bus services at the very time when the transit agency is hard-pressed to keep its ambitious new rail lines within budget.
We urge lawmakers to slow down.
RTD staff have promised to present a revised FasTracks plan to the agency’s board of directors in mid-May and believe they can achieve enough economies to keep the project on budget without eliminating any of the proposed new rail lines or delaying their scheduled completion dates.
But hopes for keeping FasTracks on track could be derailed if Senate Bill 251 – which has passed the Senate and is scheduled to be heard in the House Transportation Committee today – continues its headlong rush through the legislative process.
SB 251 would remove an existing requirement that RTD operate at least 50 percent of its rubber-tired service through private contractors. In its place, the bill would put a 58 percent ceiling on the amount of non-rail service that can be contracted out. If a future RTD board were to vote to eliminate all private service, as SB 251 would allow, taxpayers would pay an estimated $35 million more a year just for their existing bus service.
Such a huge cost increase would imperil FasTracks financing.
SB 251 was introduced with transit union support very late in the session, leaving the public with little chance to protest the higher costs it would impose on taxpayers. It’s premature to consider this legislation. Sponsors should simply take SB 251 off the table until next year – after RTD has formalized its FasTracks plan.
If, however, the transit union is determined to see SB 251 voted on this year, it should at least amend the measure so that the 58 percent ceiling refers only to fixed- route scheduled bus service – only 45 percent of which is currently handled by private operators.
As it is now written, the bill also counts paratransit services, including the access- a-Ride for handicapped citizens required by the Americans for Disabilities Act and the call-n-Ride service that provides limited on-demand service in areas that don’t received scheduled bus service.
Much of the handicapped service is provided by non-profit groups like Denver Mobility and Metro Mobility, working through RTD. Leaving them in the bill could force cutbacks in vital services required by the Americans for Disabilities Act that have been growing by about 10 percent a year.
