DENVER – A simple change in strategy for Denver’s Regional Transportation District, appears to be working.
After years of growing complaints about safety and security on public trains and buses, RTD data shows criminal incident reports have been trending downward, at their lowest point in July.
RTD publishes much of their statistics online. The following is data from 2025 so far.
In 2023, Denver7 Investigates went undercover to see the scope of the problem and found people doing drugs in plain sight. Regular riders told us, they saw drug use daily.
In the summer of 2025, riders may now notice a few more people on board light rail trains.
“A lot of security officers and police officers were on more static posts, they were just at a location, but they weren’t getting on our vehicles, they weren’t riding the trains back and forth, they weren’t getting on the busses,” said RTD Transit Police Chief Steven Martingano.
Before he was sworn in as Chief, he served as Acting Chief in 2024. He says he made a big change right away.
“We had asked them to start getting on the vehicles, checking fare,” he said.
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Ticket checks increased by 500% since 2024, and RTD said safety improved too.
“With the officers being on the trains, they’re highly visible, right? So they can interject if there’s any incidents happening,” he said.
RTD reports security related calls into RTD Police are down about 33% and reports of illegal drug use are down between 50-70% depending on the month compared to last year.
“Since this was so effective, why do you think this wasn’t done before?” asked Denver7 reporter Danielle Kreutter.
“I can’t explain why decisions were made before,” Martingano responded, “I took over as acting police in July. When I met with our teams, our security teams, as well as our police officer teams, I was trying to understand their direction. A lot of that was the static post- not really being on our vehicles. So then that’s when I made the immediate change. You could kind of see the 13 month decline from really last July to this August, every month, we continue to decrease, and I think a lot of that’s just a high visibility.”
The chief acknowledges there’s more work to be done.
“We don’t want to just make one plan and hope that works every single time,” he said.
The department is expected to have another 120-130 officers by the end of the year. Martingano also mentioned the recent completion of the evidence room at the police department which will reduce their reliance on other law enforcement agencies.
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The Denver Police Department said the shooting happened around 3:06 p.m. Tuesday in the 400 block of 15th Street.
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Police said the victim and suspect got off the bus and took off before officers arrived. The victim later showed up at a nearby hospital, where they were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
In a release Wednesday, Denver PD said the suspect is described as a Black man, 20 to 30 years old and roughly 6 feet tall with a scruffy beard/ goatee. He was last seen wearing black clothing and shoes and had a black backpack.
Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-7867. Tipsters can remain anonymous and could earn up to $2,000.
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The Regional Transportation District will not renew its contract with Greyhound, which will effectively end long-distance bus service from RTD’s underground bus terminal at Union Station.
RTD said that Greyhound has “abandoned buses and its customers” on multiple occasions over the last four years and that its sparse services lead to long layovers, crowding and loitering at the downtown Denver hub.
“RTD recognizes that Greyhound has made good faith efforts to address many of the agency’s concerns related to personal safety and security challenges, but it is in RTD’s best interest not to renew the agreement,” RTD spokesperson Tara Broghammer wrote in an email to Denverite.
RTD and Greyhound signed a five-year contract in 2020 and it expires Aug. 31, 2025. Greyhound is “hopeful” RTD will reconsider, a spokesperson wrote in an email.
“Our goal is to fully collaborate with local officials, addressing their concerns to ensure we can continue providing essential intercity bus services to Denver,” the spokesperson wrote. “Access to affordable and equitable transportation is critical, especially for vulnerable populations such as individuals with lower income, retirees, minorities, people with disabilities, and students. We are committed to being a good partner and a valued member of the Denver community.”
Greyhound owned an entire city block in downtown Denver until recently.
The company ran buses out of a massive facility on 19th and Curtis streets starting in the 1970s. But the intercity bus business fell on hard times in the following decades, and Greyhound sold the building in 2020 for $38 million.
Denver Greyhound Bus Station, Feb. 27, 2018. Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
Greyhound wanted to include a new station for itself when RTD was refurbishing Union Station in the early 2010s but could not afford to, according to a 2015 study. The study said RTD could accommodate Greyhound, and its diminished business, at its new underground bus depot.
That’s what ended up happening. Greyhound and RTD agreed to a five-year deal in 2020 where the company paid $600,000 a year for access to Union Station. Its lines from Denver stretch to other regional hubs like Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Mo., El Paso, Texas, and smaller cities in between.
“It’s the right thing from a policy perspective to do to get them into our facility,” said RTD’s then-interim General Manager and CEO Paul Ballard. “Now, Denver will have all of that ground transportation focused on one facility.”
But issues cropped up soon afterward at Greyhound’s new home.
In the midst of the pandemic, the underground bus terminal became a de facto shelter for unhoused people. Drug use increased in and around the station. The head of RTD’s driver’s union called it a “lawless hellhole.”
“Ever since Greyhound relocated to Union Station and lockdowns lifted, Union Station has become a total disaster to the point where I am afraid to use the bus into downtown any more and will only use the commuter trains since they drop off above ground,” one RTD user told the agency in 2022.
Ongoing safety and security issues around the Greyhound gates have hurt RTD’s own operations and made it difficult for transit police and security guards to patrol the area, RTD’s Broghammer said.
For some Greyhound riders, the underground terminal is not a great fit either.
The few seats nearby are narrow and made of metal.
“It’s not all that comfortable,” said Melissa Bridgman, who said she was on a five-day journey from Branson, Mo., to Olympia, Wash., with her father Glenn.
Their $220 tickets were a fraction of the $1,000 plane tickets she found, though the trip was supposed to take four days. But the pair missed their connection in Denver when using the restroom, meaning they had to wait another 24 hours for the next bus.
Glenn Bridgman, left and his daughter Melissa Bridgman, of Branson, Missouri were waiting for the Greyhound bus to Olympia, Washington at the Union Station underground terminal on Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024.Nathaniel Minor/CPR News
The only public bathrooms are a significant walk from the Greyhound waiting area, either at the far end of the bus terminal or upstairs in the much fancier Great Hall.
“It’s gorgeous up there,” she said.
The Great Hall is filled with plush chairs and couches. But it’s not a true public space, managed by a for-profit company on behalf of RTD that limits access to the most comfortable seats to customers of the pricy businesses there.
Melissa and Glenn stretched out on the basement floor next to their bags instead, until a security guard said that wasn’t allowed because it was a fire hazard.
“Can I finish trying to get my phone to work or start charging first?” Melissa asked.
“They don’t work,” the security guard replied.
RTD powered down the outlets a few years ago as part of its effort to curb loitering.
“I’m so sorry about that,” the security guard added, and referred Melissa and Glen to charging stations attached to hard wooden benches at the western edge of the Great Hall.
“It’s like you’ve done something wrong,” Glenn, 73, said with a sigh as he struggled to his feet.
The pair went outside for fresh air, where they said they would spend the night after RTD closed its terminal.
Ramesh Bhattachan was on a cross-country journey from Queens, New York to Boise, Idaho to play in a badminton tournament and was also stuck in Denver for 24 hours.
He said Greyhound’s next station, if it can’t work things out with RTD, needs a few basic amenities: affordable snacks, comfortable seating, and a good restroom close by.
“This is not a proper rest stop,” Bhattachan said.
