DENVER — The Regional Transportation District will reduce peak-hour train frequency on the W Line light rail corridor — which connects Denver Union Station to Lakewood’s Jeffco Government Center via the West Colfax corridor — from every 15 minutes to every 30 minutes beginning April 7, the agency announced Tuesday, citing a persistent operator shortage and a structural operating budget gap that has forced service reductions across multiple lines.
The W Line change is the most impactful of seven service adjustments RTD is implementing this spring. The corridor carries approximately 12,000 average weekday boardings and serves some of Denver’s most transit-dependent neighborhoods, including West Colfax, Sloan Lake, and the established apartment and retail corridors around the Knox and Sheridan stations.
RTD CEO [Name] acknowledged at a board meeting Wednesday that the decision was “not one we made lightly” and said the agency was still approximately 340 operators short of its target staffing level despite an aggressive recruitment and retention incentive program launched in 2024.
“We are taking a service hit that our riders do not deserve because we cannot staff the runs,” the CEO said. “The honest answer is that until we close the operator gap, we cannot run the service we want to run.”
The frequency reduction is expected to add 8 to 15 minutes to typical morning and afternoon commute trips for W Line riders who travel into Union Station for connections to downtown Denver, the Civic Center area, or outbound connections to the University of Denver and the SE Line. Riders at less-served stations, particularly Knox and Perry, where parking and rideshare options are more limited, are expected to feel the impact most acutely.
The West Colfax Community Coalition, a neighborhood advocacy group, called the reduction “a direct blow to the households in this corridor who chose transit-oriented density specifically because they were promised reliable train service.”
“Sloan Lake and West Colfax have absorbed thousands of new apartments in the past five years because of this line,” said [Name], the coalition’s policy director. “And now the agency is telling those residents that the service they made a housing decision around is being cut.”
RTD said the reduction is intended to be temporary and that it will restore 15-minute peak service on the W Line as a priority once operator staffing improves. The agency’s latest hiring projections suggest the operator gap could be closed by late 2026 if current recruitment trends continue.
In the meantime, RTD is adding supplemental bus service on the Colfax Avenue corridor — the 16L limited — during morning and afternoon peaks to partially absorb displaced W Line riders. The 16L runs parallel to the W Line between Union Station and Wadsworth Boulevard and will operate at 10-minute headways during the peak window under the adjusted schedule.
The full service change schedule takes effect April 7. Updated timetables are available at rtd-denver.com.