Colorado's RTD wants to borrow $539M for diesel buses, delay electric transition

Management for the Regional Transportation District is looking for the board to sign off on $539 million in loans to replace the transit agency's aging fleet, CBS Colorado has learned. The information came out in internal documents looking to the future of the transit agency.

RTD is looking at purchasing "clean diesel" buses to replace most of the agency's 995 buses. Thirty-six are currently electric, in use on 16th Street.

The move has transportation advocates asking about both funding and goals. James Flattum, co-founder of Greater Denver Transit, an advocacy organization, notes that traditionally, debt is used for things like new facilities or new tracks.

"So it's really unusual for us. We are not aware in RTD's history of massive amounts of debt at this level being used just to be used for the very regular, predictable expense of replacing buses," said Flattum.

He wonders why Denver appears not to be pursuing federal grants. 

"Approximately $398 million in funding is authorized under the Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program," says the Federal Transit Administration on its website about money available in Fiscal 2025.

An RTD spokesperson said an interview was not possible, but sent statements in response to questions from CBS Colorado.  

"RTD always pursues obtaining federal funding when feasible," said RTD in its statement. There was no answer when asked to elaborate on whether such efforts are feasible.

"As far as we can tell, bus money is still flowing… agencies across the West are still applying for and winning grants. So that's the question, why is RTD not doing that?" asked Flattum.

The move means a change to previously stated goals of transitioning to electric buses.

"The state as a whole has put forward these decarbonization targets," said Flattum. But RTD's stated goals look to be getting delayed with the latest moves by RTD.

Buses ordered so far for the Colfax BRT project are "clean diesel." 

RTD said, "Federal support for the East Colfax BRT project was not predicated on buying electric buses."  

There may be issues with going all-electric. Those buses may have charging needs during service, particularly in summer hours when air conditioning puts greater demand on batteries. RTD's three large bus facilities are not currently set up to charge. Storage of electric buses could be an issue. "Current facilities need significant upgrades to safely store battery-electric vehicles," said RTD. Greater Denver Transit points out that garage facilities need upgrades even to deal with diesel or hybrid buses.

RTD said this is a change only to compress the timeline of the "Fleet and Facilities Transition Plan," which was previously adopted by the board with a policy of transitioning to electric by 2050.

Flattum is fond of a trolley-bus system in some places, which would mean some wires overhead, "Modern hybrid trolley bus technology allows you to run those buses off wire for 50% of route miles. And the buses are a lot cheaper to buy as well because the batteries are much smaller."  

Other cities, he believes, are moving ahead of Denver, which did not see passenger increases in 2024. Service cutbacks from the pandemic, when ridership was down, have not been fully restored.

"Denver is falling behind. We are well behind our peer metro areas in terms of the restoration of services post-pandemic in terms of service hours," said Flattum.