Talk:Regional Transportation District

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This article is part of WikiProject Colorado, an effort to create, expand, organize, and improve Colorado-related articles to a feature-quality standard.

We really need to expand this page significantly. If anyone is willing to contribute to the various sections, adding pictures and content, that would be great. Vertigo700 18:27, 24 October 2005 (UTC)

Indeed; there is so much that needs to go into this article. I'm thinking of making a section on the various buses that RTD uses. I'm willing to go out and photograph some of these buses with my HP camera. I just need to figure out the different kinds of buses! CryptoQuick 10:59, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
I can't photograph the buses right now, since it's winter and the buses are dirty. Note: the buses are always dirty. I can't see out the windows. However, I hear there is someone who takes pictures of all of the buses that RTD uses. I'd like to see his pictures on Wikipedia. CryptoQuick 21:01, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Bus Varieties

As far as I can remember, these are the buses that RTD Denver uses in their fleet, in a (very) informal listing:

  • The bus used on Skyride and express routes, high up and with all forward seating.
    • This is an MCI bus. Of what variety, I am not sure. CryptoQuick 21:01, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
  • The normal bus, I believe it's an Orion V, which comes in articulated, short, and regular kinds. They have green lettering up on the signs.
  • The older buses, which are a smoother white front... Do they even have bumpers?
  • The MallRide buses, which are EcoMark buses manufactured by TransTeq. Everyone talks about them!
  • I almost forgot the new buses that are higher up in the rear, can kneel, and have orange LEDs.

Summary: Nice bus, normal bus (short bus, middle bus, big bus), old bus, mall bus, and new bus. CryptoQuick 16:32, 7 December 2005 (UTC)


From what I have observed, the buses being used on most local and limited routes are the following:

  • Orion V: The most prevalent in the fleet currently. They were the first 40' buses to use the newer, more colorful interiors. I remember seeing them appear in 2000 and causing the retirement of the entire fleet of the awful Neoplan AN440.
  • Gillig Phantom: The most common bus now used by RTD subcontractors. They have the perfectly straight sides on them and I believe the 40' ones were acquired between 1993 and 1995 and the 35' ones in 1997 or 1998. The 40' ones all use the older, dim single-line electronic signs while the 35' ones use the newer, brighter signs that display much more. The oldest ones seem to be dissapearing from the fleet at a steady pace.
  • Gillig Advantage: The first low-floor models in the fleet and the ones with the bright orange signs. These started showing up in late 2005 and seemed to finally get rid of the last remaining ancient Flxible Metros and the oldest Gillig Phantoms. They are the kneeling buses with the flip-out wheelchair ramp that makes loading and unloading passengers in wheelchairs far faster than with a conventional lift.
  • NABI 436: The articulated buses in use. Replaced the old, extremely noisy MAN articulated buses.

I believe the buses used on most Skyride and regional routes are made by Neoplan and MCI. (realmcenter 05:12, 4 February 2006 (UTC))

[edit] Charter Companies

I heard from one of the bus drivers that there are a few bus companies that get contracts from RTD to run their bus services in the area. These are as follows:

Someone should do a section on these companies and the services they provide to RTD. CryptoQuick 21:01, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] A Line

Why is there no A Line?? Georgia guy 00:56, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

A is being reserved for the planned rail line to Aurora and Denver International Airport.
Denvoran 18:31, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Indeed, it is an ingrained pattern that A stands for Airport in RTD language. Similarly, B stands for Boulder. The light rail lines existing at present therefore are C (which loosely stands for Central Platte Valley or Coors Field, which was originally intended to be its northern terminus) and D (for Downtown).

I'm not sure there is any mnemonic significance to the new lines E, F, G, and H which are scheduled to open a few days from now.

Paul 14 November 2006

There actually is an A line. It is a seperate service provided by the city of Arvada running once an hour to DIA. Td18178 20:53, 19 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Updates pending approval

I am an employee of RTD, and upon finding this article I voiced an interest with my supervisor in volunteering to add updates to Wikipedia. At the moment, this is being looked into and approval is pending.

Please, by all means, update the article with better information, as long as it follows Wikipedia's NPOV policy. In particular, I am trying to generate a map of RTD's light rail system for use in the article Rail transit in metropolitan Denver; if it is possible, a GFDL, CC, or PD licensed map made by RTD would be excellent to have. Thanks! --BetaCentauri 21:39, 23 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Further improvements needed

I have cleaned up this article some, but it needs a few more improvements:

--BetaCentauri 02:53, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

I agree with your assessment. Personally, I think we should maybe rename Rail transit in Metropolitan Denver to simply Light Rail in Metropolitan Denver or something along those lines, especially because the rail transit article does not mention Amtrak or SkiTrain or anything but light rail and (future) commuter rail lines. I think the RTD page should have more general information about the organization, its history, how its organized, etc. A lot of that can be provided right from RTD's website, especially the section here: http://www.rtd-denver.com/History/index.html#Facts. Perhaps we should use this as a guide to add information about RTD and not simply its services. That's something I am both willing to help with and start if necessary. Vertigo700 04:21, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
It could be useful to keep an article with a generalized name like Rail transportation in metropolitan Denver to include non-RTD rail services. Currently, however, all such services are provided only through Union Station. It seems sufficient to simply provide a link to Union Station from Denver's main page, for this purpose. I think an article named using RTD's name for their service (TheRide) would be better than a more generic name like yours which would suggest RTD isn't the only LRT provider in Denver. Of course, "TheRide" isn't what most Denver area residents refer to the service as, in my experience. They usually just say "RTD". Anyway, just looking for some consensus as to how to fix the agency vs. service issue. Should we have separate pages for bus and light rail, or combine them in one TheRide article? --BetaCentauri 09:51, 24 December 2006 (UTC)
Well, at any rate, I've done the deed. See TheRide. Since apparently no one else uses this name, I figured it was easiest just to combine the light rail & bus system details on it. Projects and non-current/operational information goes on Regional Transportation District. I hope I didn't screw up something badly. I've fixed most of the links to the old page for Rail transit in metropolitan Denver and changed it to a redirect. TheRide needs some improvements but I think we're getting there. --BetaCentauri 22:44, 27 December 2006 (UTC)
I definitely like the changes, though I think you should keep a picture of some kind on the RTD page (I'd go with the outside light rail pic), just because pictures make pages so much more visually interesting. I know there was a thought of getting the logo on the page, but I would keep the pic as a good substitute until that picture can be found. Another idea would be to take a picture of RTD headquarters on 16th Market Streets. Sadly, I left my digital camera in Austin or I would do it myself, but maybe someone else can do it on their next trip downtown. I would also like to maybe turn the timeline part of the article into prose, but perhaps that is more of a personal preference. Anyway, the pages look a lot better, imo. Vertigo700 08:43, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] All work I do will have to be on an unofficial basis.

I said earlier post that my contributions were pending approval, and after speaking with my manager I am told that the company will not endorse the effort on wikipedia as they have thier hands full with RTD's own webpage. I am told I cannot officially be approved to contribute on the grounds that I would have to be compensated for the work and they will not pay for something that would need constant update outside of the official webpage. In a nutshell, the small print is I'm doing it of my own accord, voluntarily and without promise or desire of compensation, on my own time and with my own resources, completely without the support or contribution of the company. I will attempt to find some good photos, but it will take time as my schedule is pretty packed. BetaCentauri and Vertigo700, if either of you would like to help me, I have no idea how to work in wiki-format. My email is available at my userpage toolbox. Td18178 01:58, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

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