DENVER — After more than a year of social distancing on buses and light rail, RTD lifted capacity limits on its vehicles on Sunday.
The Regional Transportation District (RTD) enacted the capacity limits in April 2020, after the state's stay-at-home order was lifted toward the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, RTD limited ridership to no more than 15 people per standard bus and 30 people per train car.
The lifting of those restrictions on Sunday supported increases in ridership, improved on-time performance, and increased service reliability, RTD said.
All riders are still required to wear a mask while waiting for and riding an RTD vehicle, per federal mandate, the transit agency said.
For more on service changes for June, go to the RTD website.
RTD struggled through the COVID-19 pandemic. In January, the agency said its ridership was about 40% of pre-pandemic levels, prompting it to cut underperforming routes to allow more service routes with higher ridership.
In May, RTD announced it was beginning a systemwide study of its fares after acknowledging that its fare structure was one of the most expensive transit industries. The agency said the fare study and fare equity analysis would take a minimum of 18 months.
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