More slow zones added as RTD catches up with delayed maintenance

The light rail trains were running behind arriving at the RTD Littleton/Downtown Station on Tuesday night.

"Now, I got to wait a whole hour," said frustrated traveler Melinda Wells, who wanted to make a connection on the way to her destination, but was too late.

At some points in the journey, south commuters reported going what seemed like five or 10 miles per hour.

"It's not good," said commuter Giovanni Gomez, who rides the light rail to get to a job at an auto parts store.

RTD says its inspections of its light rail lines means more slow zones of the D Line from the Englewood Station to Littleton, including in the area of the Oxford and city of Sheridan stations. That is in addition to slowdowns on the E, H and R lines already in existence.

The slowdowns , according to RTD, are because this year it began to adopt stronger maintenance and inspection standards to meet those of the American Public Transportation Association. Inspections of lines has revealed a plague of "rail burns," which are depressions in the track often caused by the spinning of the wheels of the heavy trains.

"A really bad one, it will start to deform the rails," said Richard Bamber of the Greater Denver Transit riders group. "If you leave it, you get a crack and eventually the whole thing shatters." 

Bamber is a rail civil engineer who worked on the FasTracks project. He views the issue of one of deferred maintenance and wonders why RTD left the rail troubles for years.

"If we leave the defect, and cracks start, and it gets bigger or deeper, the only option we have is to replace the rail and that gets more expensive and more disruptive," Bamber explained. 

RTD drew a stiff letter from the Public Utilities Commission in June, requesting information such as safety inspection results, schedules for completing inspections and progress on repairs. The PUC claimed RTD didn't notify the commission about issues and slowdowns on the lines in the southeast corridor.

"We've been transparent," said RTD spokeswoman Tina Jacquez on Tuesday. "You can see the weekly reports we have been providing to them."

By working to make the repairs, future maintenance should go easier. But that is hard to take for people who are on lines currently slowed. RTD would not give an estimate for completion of the work, but it could take months.

List of slowdown areas 

• On the E and H lines, it will go from the University of Denver to Dayton and Belleview. This is along I-25
• On the E and R lines, it will go from Orchard to Sky Ridge. This is also along I-25
• On the H and R lines, it will go from Southmoor and Belleview to Iliff. This is along I-225
• The D line is also included. It goes from Evans to Littleton and Mineral. This is along Highway 85 or Santa Fe Drive