The Web Site of Phil Cherner

A Morning on RTD's Light Rail

    On July 23, 2002, I spent the morning riding and photographing RTD's light rail system, the trains, the stations and the people.  Click on the thumbnail photos for a larger view.

    It was a clear morning as the sun was just coming up.  I bought a $5 roundtrip express ticket. Why RTD calls these things "express" is a mystery since there is only one train and it stops at every station. What they really mean is that it costs more to travel further. They should call it "long distance" or something. Anyway, the idea was to photograph light rail during rush hour, because it seemed like an interesting story, and the light is terrific for photos at that hour.

6:07 AM     Littleton station. Two people waiting for the northbound train. What kind of work do they do that they have to be on their way at this hour? I hop a southbound train.

6:11     I’m at the Mineral station in 4 minutes. It’s cool and somewhat humid (by Colorado standards, anyway). Things are picking up.

6:18     Nobody smiles on their way to work. They’re totally focused on getting there. They have "commuter eyes". They barely speak to each other. When the platform starts to fill up, as it does at this busy station by 6:30, they stand at the "door" sign stenciled on the curb, single file, robot-like. Most walk briskly, but some run when they think their train is about to leave without them.

6:26.    The place is surprisingly active. At one point a southbound train is arriving, another is about to head northbound, and a third is staging between the two. Keep in mind there are only two tracks here.

6:43 AM.     I’m on a northbound "D" train. The "D" is the original light rail line, running to downtown and beyond. When the Central Platte Valley spur opened in the spring of 2002, RTD designated it the "C" line, for central, and the original line "D", for downtown. They both take the same route from Mineral northbound, but just south of downtown, at Colfax, the "D" heads into the center of the city and the "C" swings west of the Auraria campus on it’s way to the back of Union Station.

My train is SRO. People with briefcases, newspapers. No one smiles and no one talks. They may be on the train, but their heads are already at work.

6:45AM     Off the "D" train at Littleton. This is the most creative of the station designs. There was an old Littleton train station with nowhere to go, so it was moved here and turned into a coffee shop for commuters. The rails parallel the BNSF main line tracks under Littleton Blvd, so the boarding platform is down a flight of stairs. RTD’s painted a mural on one of the walls beneath the coffee shop, depicting local sights. It beats bare concrete.

There’s not enough parking here, and what there is is filling up fast. But you don’t find as much activity here, compared to Mineral. A nearby church steeple peals its bells.

6:49AM.     Off to the north on another "D" train. This one has three cars. That’s as long as they can make them unless (or until) RTD enlarges its stations. This one has lots of empty seats. They way the schedule works, a train can leave Mineral jammed to the gills, and the next one five minutes or so behind can be near empty.

7:00     Englewood Station. Check out the Red Grooms sculpture of the Brooklyn Bridge. RTD gets kudos for its efforts to put art at every station. This might be their best effort. It’s been aided by Englewood’s conversion of a defunct shopping center into a new mixed use development. The bridge access to the platform is a nice touch.

7:07AM.     Southbound now, for a change of pace, to the Oxford station. I’m traveling against the rush hour flow, so there are 4 people in my car of a two car train. I’m on my third roll of film. Good thing I brought 12 rolls.

Oxford Station was an RTD afterthought. After the Southwest Line was designed, someone thought they needed a station here. Reputedly RTD was pressured into adding a stop by local merchants, or maybe it was the city of Sheridan. However it occurred, there’s a train stop, but no parking.  About 9 folks were on the platform.

7:20 AM     Now it’s northbound on a "D" train. A guy in a suit, driving his laptop, is staring at me. Why would he stare at a dude wearing shorts and photographer’s vest, snapping pictures? Beats me.

It’s here that I encounter the first of several fare checks. RTD light rail works on the honor system. You don’t have to show a ticket or go through a turnstile to board. Instead, they have roving security patrols that periodically check to be sure the passengers pay. If they don’t, they get some sort of RTD ticket.

A somewhat apologetic RTD security staffer asks to see everyone’s tickets. I avoid embarrassment by fishing mine out of a pocket full of coins, paper and cash, all the while trying to hold my camera so it won’t get injured.

The fare check has a silver lining: The automaton-like passengers suddenly light up. They’re human after all. Smiles and conversation for the first time this morning. For a moment, anyway. When the security guy moves on the conversation dies off. Back to laptops and newspapers.

7:30     Broadway station. This is the place that gave me the idea for this project, because of all the activity in the early morning sun. The first incarnation of light rail ended here. When it opened RTD rerouted a number of buses that previously terminated downtown. The idea was to keep the buses off the downtown streets, so now they end here and the passengers transfer to the train. RTD built a large (but not large enough) parking lot for cars and and a number of bus platforms.

At this time of day buses are pulling in and out continuously. Light rail trains come and go in both directions. Some additional trains start here from a small siding squeezed in between the north- and south-bound lines. There are people everywhere, most of them in motion. And the noise. I-25 is right next door, full of traffic. As if that isn’t enough, T-REX is tearing it up, building a new bridge over Broadway.

There’s an old trolley permanently anchored at this station. It seems to be used as a warming hut.

7:48     I chat with security guard at Broadway. Big smile. Then  it's northbound on a "D" train.  The train originates here, so it’s not very crowded at first. As we wait for our departure buses pull up and people scamper for the train. Then we’re off. A passenger lets me take her photo as we pull into Alameda.

Tenth and Osage station.  Not a whole lot happenin' here.

As we enter downtown everything seems to slow. Frequent stops (and stoplights). We snake though the convention center construction at 14^th and California.

8:02     16^th Street Mall.  Most everyone exits. Then at 18^th and California,  all the white people get off.  Sad but true.  The transportation system reflects a city's demographics.

Now we roll into Curtis Park. Four bums are slouched against the wall of a building. A far cry from the suits and twin sets at Mineral.

There’s a 3-4 minute delay at 24^th street, for no particular reason. I get a couple photos of an RTD security dude while he explains "community policing" to me.

30^th and Downing. Maybe because it's later in the day, but compared to the commuters at the Mineral station, everyone here is more relaxed.

8:30     Southbound on a "D" train, to the 16^th Street Mall where I grab a cup of coffee. I mention to the coffee lady that no one on the trains is talking. They all sit silently, mostly reading something. She says I should take the #15 bus on Colfax. "Those folks are all talking– but not to anyone in particular." It’s the line of the day.

9:00     Union Station (via the 16^th Street Mall shuttle bus).  Interesting manhole cover.

9:15     I'm southbound on a "C" train. The train slowly fills with a trickle of folks from the mall shuttles, and from people coming across the new Millennium Bridge over the mainline rails just to the west.

9:17    Pepsi Center/ Elitch’s: What are those new "sculptures"? There’s two teenagers here, smoking. Another kid waiting for a friend so they can head across the bridge to Elitch’s.

9:33     Invesco Field. No one here, but that’s no surprise. The stop is figuratively in the middle of nowhere, under the Colfax viaduct, up against a freeway bridge and the mainline tracks. Its only purpose is to get fans to/from Bronco games, which explains the art here: oversized footballs. It’s starting to get warm in the sun.

I get on a southbound "D" train. Dig the kid in the black leather and studs. My ticket is checked for the third time today.

10:00     Alameda Station. Almost done for the day. There’s an interesting sculpture here, and check out the kid on the cell phone.

10:06     Having shot seven rolls of film, it's southbound to the Littleton station to call it a day.