Now that the Colorado legislature has a solid Democrat majority, the transit union wants to get back some of what they regard as their due. Previous Republican legislatures have ordered RTD, Denver’s transit agency, to contract to private operators half of all bus service in the region. Some of those private operators are non-union, so the unions want to reduce or eliminate such contracting out.
The way contracting works is this. RTD leases its oldest buses to private operators. They are required to maintain and operate the buses to RTD standards. Since they have the oldest buses, their maintenance costs should be higher. They also have to pay various taxes and fees that RTD, as a public agency, can avoid.
Operated by RTD or contracted out? Only the driver knows for sure.
Despite these disadvantages, the private operators cost taxpayers far less than RTD’s own buses. According to the National Transit Database (summarized here), in 2005, RTD spent nearly $119 per hour operating its own buses, but paid the private operators just $59 per hour — slightly less than half as much — to operate their buses. The private advantage per vehicle mile is not quite as good: $4.05 vs. $7.56 (54 percent as much), possibly because RTD gives the private operators the slowest routes.
