RTD long-term plan calls for reinstating Denver route

A long-term plan to boost Regional Transportation District ridership would include reviving a Longmont to Denver service and the use of the city’s First and Main Street transit center.

A list of proposed route changes is included in RTD’s five-year Service Optimization Plan (SOP), which calls for planners and riders to “Reimagine RTD.”

RTD admits that it is facing many challenges, including dramatic reductions in ridership and funding resulting largely from the COVID-19 pandemic, the SOP states. After stopping during the height of the pandemic in 2020, the “Reimagine” effort resumed in Feb. 2021 and continues “providing an objective, data-driven process to engage our customers, regional partners, employees and community members in a discussion about how to address these current challenges,” the SOP states.

There are no confirmed dates in the SOP for when the proposed changes would commence, if they are approved.

The SOP includes planned changes for RTD routes serving Longmont, including the LX1 bus service to Denver. The service was suspended because of COVID-19. The SOP calls for the service to recommence and begin from the proposed Colo. 66, Main Street Park-n-Ride and continue to Denver Union Station.

The weekday Longmont to Broomfield service — ROUTE LBR — presently operates from Longmont to U.S. 36 and the Broomfield station. The service includes two southbound trips in the morning and two northbound trips in the afternoon, continuing to and from Denver Union Station, according to the SOP. 

The new service, if approved, would begin at the proposed Park-n-Ride at Colo. 66 and Main Street and continue south to the U.S. 36 and Broomfield station. 

The other Longmont services listed in the SOP and aimed at the use of Lonmont’s 1st & Main transit center are assuming a Jan. 2027 opening of the complex, said Phil Greenwald, Longmont’s transportation planning manager.

RTD, Greenwald said, is “assuming First & Main will open in 5 years.  If that timeline is delayed, RTD will continue to “hub” at Eighth/Coffman.

The Coffman Street busway, meanwhile, should be open to buses and the traveling public toward the end of 2023.