The Open Forum Insight into RTD’s drop in riders

It doesn’t take a financial genius to determine why light-rail ridership has dropped. Just ride the actual trains from Dry Creek Station to the airport on any given day and you would understand why: Higher ticket costs, on-time performance issues, dirty train cars with smelly seats, lack of security on the R-Line, homeless people sleeping with their possessions and taking up most of the seats.

We have had to search for seats in multiple train cars at times because homeless people are taking up all the space while asleep with their home goods, groceries and carts.

No security is ever on these trains to check for paid fares. So, in case you think the ridership is down, it may be up in volume, just no one is actually paying for a ticket.

Clean up your act, and get security on these trains to check for valid riders and for riders’ safety. Maybe you will increase profitable ridership.

Gee, I wonder why. RTD is trying to defy a basic law of physics: To every action (fare increase), there is an equal and opposite reaction (decline in ridership).

You would think the economists at RTD would see the handwriting on the wall. They are going to price themselves out of business. Based on ridership numbers, I think light rail has been a bust.

The article about the dramatic reduction in RTD usage indicated RTD is unsure why this is happening. Just based on how my family uses light rail, I can guess some of the reasons.

First, light-rail schedules to and from downtown stop earlier in the evening than before. This means when we attend events at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, we first check the length of the show to determine if we can make the last train or not. Specifically, the last D train from the Theater District/Convention Center Station leaves at 10:06 p.m. We are season-ticket holders, and in the past year we have driven about 75 percent of the time.

Second, we prefer taking light rail to sports events at Coors Field and the Pepsi Center. RTD often fails to add extra trains for these events, resulting in long waits and crowded platforms and trains. Frankly, it’s easier to drive and deal with traffic. Send letters of 250 words or fewer to openforum@denverpost.com or 5990 Washington St., Denver, CO, 80216. Please include full name, city and phone number. Contact information is for our purposes only; we will not share it with anyone else. You can reach us by telephone at 303-954-1201.