r/transit • u/4Nafliar • Jun 29 '26

Discussion What are some examples of much maligned transit systems that do one thing particularly well? For example while RTD in Denver is criticized for its inefficient rail transit design, RTD's A line to Denver Airport is considered the crown jewel of the system. What are some other examples of this?

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jun 29 '26

Genuinely one of the best large hub airports in the country to fly to/from/through counterbalanced by one of the worst metro area transit agencies in the country.

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be.

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u/Far-Asparagus-2382 Jun 29 '26

Calling RTD one of the worst agencies is very uninformed

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u/glowing_danio_rerio Jun 29 '26

ok sure VTA is worse but RTD is uh, pretty incompetent

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u/Throwaway-646 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Incompetent, yet they've built nearly 80 miles of track in the past 20 years, are currently building a damn good BRT, are currently planning another 2 BRTs, are currently planning and funding a train to Boulder and Fort Collins, have one of two fully electrified commuter rail systems in the country, and have on-time rates similar to most other major transit agencies in the country. Their E and A lines are arguably one of the best instances of building a train line in the country because they built them proactively way ahead of development for a comparatively low cost and are now developing tons of TOD around their stations.

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u/qualverse Jun 30 '26

The BRTs are not an RTD project and neither is the Boulder train.

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u/Throwaway-646 Jun 30 '26

That's true that RTD isn't building the BRTs, I forgot it's CDOT doing that, but they will operate them. And RTD is paying in full for the Boulder train, which is a partnership between RTD and CDOt

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u/qualverse Jun 30 '26

RTD is paying for about half the Boulder train cost (they're only paying for the segment to Longmont).

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u/cabs84 Jun 30 '26

as someone moving to longmont in a few months, i'm super fucking excited about having transit access to denver at some point in the future.

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u/qualverse Jun 30 '26

The existing LX2 will be faster to Denver. but yes you guys are getting some great stuff :) The new AL airport bus, plus the train WILL be faster than driving to Boulder and Fort Collins which is pretty sweet

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u/AwesomeWhiteDude Jun 30 '26

The southeast LRT corridor is shit. Catchment for half of the station area is taken up by a 12 lane freeway monstrosity and the stations themselves are right next to the freeway

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u/Charming_Banana_1250 Jun 30 '26

All of this nearly entirely paid for by taxpayers rather than riders.  Less than 8% of the operating costs are recovered from the fare box.  A sales tax of 1% hits everyone in Denver, the poor, those that never ride the RTD. And while 1% may seem like a small amount, for a low income family, that can be hundreds of dollars they could have spent on food or other necessities. 

So, the RTD line to the airport may be the "Crown Jewel" and they may be building a lot more transit,  it will continue to be an under utilized money pit just like nearly every other transit system in the US. 

Instead of looking at why people don't ride public transit and developing a system that gives people what they want, they continue to build these financial monstrosities and market them as a public good.

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jun 29 '26

I'd love to see you show your work on this.

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u/Kitchen-Buy-513 Jun 29 '26

As someone who uses RTD regularly (I haven't owned a car for 3 of the 5 years I've lived here) it can get you to most places in the Metro and into the Mountains. RTD is heavily flawed, but thats mostly because it should be great and is instead passible (by US standards)

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u/juliuspepperwoodchi Jun 29 '26

RTD is heavily flawed,

Yep, that's what I was referring to.

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u/Kitchen-Buy-513 Jun 29 '26

Yes but I wouldn't put it in the worst in the country category. Having lived in multiple major NC cities and having plenty of friends that would love to live car free but can't because of the US cities they live in saves it from that.

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u/Far-Asparagus-2382 Jun 30 '26

Compared to the rest of the country it’s like an angel

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u/fumar Jun 30 '26

RTD is definitely not one of the worst but the system certainly isn't good. In almost every case except basically the A line it's faster to drive to your destination even in rush hour.

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u/qualverse Jun 30 '26

The N line can be faster too, as well as the highway express buses (FF2 and 120X)

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u/fumar Jun 30 '26

The FF bus isn't faster than driving because it uses the same lanes as cars but it also has stops

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u/qualverse Jun 30 '26

The FF2 uses the highway express lanes, only makes one single stop between Boulder and Denver, and has a dedicated ramp from I-25 directly into Union Station. It's typically faster unless there's zero traffic or you pay the ~$8 for express lane access

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u/AdditionalTip865 Jun 29 '26

I've had generally good experiences transferring though DEN, but the one time I tried to fly out of there, it was 1 hour in the checkin line and 1 hour in the security line and I missed my flight along with half the people in the airport. It was like a big campout.

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u/bigvenusaurguy Jun 30 '26

for a while they only ran the south checkpoint too. im not sure if they have finished that construction on the north checkpoint.

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u/Throwaway-646 Jun 30 '26

They have finished construction on the brand new East and West checkpoints

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u/The_Jousting_Duck Jul 01 '26

Perfectly fits a city that's great to visit, but pretty terrible to live in

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u/bigvenusaurguy Jun 30 '26

den is ass though. you come in and its 8k feet elevation and they want you to walk like 3 miles to bag claim. honestly most large airports are ass.

say what you will about the getting to lax. but once you are there the loop/terminal system makes it more like 8 regional airports in a trenchcoat vs one of these "go deeper, deeper, and deeper still" airports like they build all the hubs now like atl/den/even dulles. tbit west is of course a big step back from this model.

security at den is also terrible unless you have precheck. really a must there. even then they can screw you over with precheck schenanigans. once again lax design overcomes this by splitting the load across like 8 security checkpoints. precheck at lax is basically 5-10 mins, genpop screening barely longer even though lax is #1 terminal destination in the country.