The Denver Post
Monday, January 2, 2006
Transit costs take a toll on riders Diesel prices force RTD to raise its charge for a local ride, while debt costs spur the E-470 and Northwest Parkway toll roads to hike user fees, as well.

By Jeffrey Leib
Denver Post Staff Writer

Area toll roads and RTD rang in the New Year with the ka-ching of more coins dropping into toll-collection baskets and transit-fare boxes.

The E-470 and Northwest Parkway toll highways raised fees beginning Sunday, and the Regional Transportation District hiked local fares for buses and light-rail.

For some occasional users of E-470, the toll increase only strengthened their resolve to avoid the road as much as possible.

"I get on it only when I absolutely have to," said Deborah Hudson, who lives in Parker and commutes each day to Buckley Air Force Base in Aurora, where she works as a civilian contractor.

"We find the back routes and back ways," said Hudson, whose husband works at Buckley as well and also dodges the toll road whenever possible.

"I use it so little," said Brian Lumley as he shopped Sunday at the Target store on South Parker Road, just south of the toll road.

"I think it's too expensive as it is," Lumley said, adding that he might still use E-470 to get to Denver International Airport because it is the quickest route.

E-470 runs for 47 miles around the eastern rim of the Denver metro area.

Sunday's increase added 25 cents to the fee paid by motorists at each of E-470's mainline toll plazas and made the cost of all ramp tolls 75 cents.

Highway officials said the toll increase is needed to pay for debt-service costs that jumped significantly late last year.

The toll to ride the full length of the Northwest Parkway went to $2 from $1.75 Sunday. Existing 50-cent ramp tolls on the parkway are unchanged.

E-470 and Northwest Parkway each have another toll increase planned for 2009.

RTD's increase boosted the local cash fare to $1.50 from $1.25 and the price of a local monthly pass to $54 from $45. There were corresponding increases in discounted local fares for seniors, the disabled and teens.

"I'm unhappy about it, but I've got to pay it if I want to get from point A to point B," said Zack Gupton, an unemployed welder waiting for a bus Sunday afternoon near 16th and Welton streets in downtown Denver. "This is my main source of transportation."

RTD officials said the fare increase is needed, in part, to pay for higher diesel-fuel prices the agency has experienced over the past year.

"No one likes to pay a higher price for anything, but unfortunately, we're all paying more for everything, RTD included," said agency spokeswoman Pauletta Tonilas. "We'd rather ask for a slight fare increase than cut service."

RTD did not raise express and regional fares, saying its fees for longer-distance travel, unlike local fares, were more in line with other transit agencies around the country.

Some social service agencies criticized RTD's selective price hike, saying it will hurt those least able to pay, including many elderly, disabled and student riders.

Paul Webster of Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood said he got hit Sunday with the double whammy of a more expensive bus pass and significantly higher prescription-drug costs.

Webster is disabled, and the price of his discounted monthly transit pass went to $29 from $23. His government-subsidized prescription costs quintupled, Webster said, from $5 to $25.

"What's sad is that this is hitting the disabled so hard," said Webster, as he waited for a bus on Broadway near Civic Center.

Some RTD riders said their transit service still is a bargain, even with the fare increase.

As a disabled veteran, Ron Poore paid the new fare of 75 cents to take light-rail Sunday from downtown Denver to the Alameda station for a shopping trip to Kmart. The old discounted cash fare was 60 cents.

"I can deal with that," said Poore, who rides RTD about four or five times a month to the VA hospital.

Toll-road and transit users have a few more days before the next price increase that affects them and everyone else - the jump in postal rates.

Beginning Saturday, the cost of a first-class letter weighing up to 1 ounce goes to 39 cents.

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