Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Got got away for the trumpet,So I'm Mandy Connall'll be here for the
next twenty seven ish minutes, twentyfive ish minutes, just Jeff here as
well. Joining me in the studiois the president and business agent of ATU
Local one thousand and one, LanceLongenmon. He reached out to me yesterday
after I did the interview with KellyBruff from the Common Sense Institute about their
(00:21):
report about the state of the stateat RTD, and the report is really
compelling, very very interesting. RTDalso responded to me today. I'm trying
to get someone on the show totalk about it, but they've sent a
very long response about some of theissues that they are already trying to address.
They are in mid stride trying toaddress some of the issues brought up
(00:43):
by Common Sense. That is ontoday's blog at the very bottom. It's
very long, so I put itat the bottom, but it's very interesting
and you should read it. ButLance wanted to talk about what the situation
on the ground, on the bus, on the train is for the employees
of RTD. So Lance, welcometo the show. First of all,
well, thank you, Mandy,and I really appreciate you giving me the
opportunity to react to that. Itis a good report. It did leave
(01:07):
out one of the key things inRTD's current situation. But you know,
the safety and the writership, thosetwo are kind of intertwined, you know,
the writers. Even if the serviceis there and is reliable, the
writers who try it are not comfortablewith the current conditions of safety. And
(01:30):
really it goes back for a numberof years where the safety the service hasn't
been there and it hasn't been reliable. It's due to a labor shortage,
and the labor shortage, of coursenow unfortunately is a result of the safety.
So it's kind of a chicken andegg situation. But yeah, the
frontline workers who go to work everyday and endure that, many of them
(01:55):
have just accepted this is my job, and they tolerate it. Them just
leave. I've talked to folks whogo home with a headache every day and
they accept that that's their job.Let me ask you, what are they
dealing with. What are the thingsthat are happening right now on a consistent
basis that are negatively affecting the drivers. So on the trains, you know,
(02:19):
because the operator is in a cabaway from them. They feel,
you know, a lot more freeto just smoke openly and on the trains.
On the trains and you never reallyone hundred percent sure what they're smoking,
but there's a whole myriad of thingsgoing on with drugs and that sort
of thing on there. I getpictures of foil and hypodermics and just all
(02:44):
kinds of things that you know,would you want to take your family on
there, would you want to beon there? Personally? On the buses,
it's starting to become more rampant.People go and sit at the back
of the bus and pull their coatover the head and do whatever it is
that they're going to do. Butthe fumes, you know, there is
an effect from the fumes. Iwas able to negotiate with RTD to get
(03:07):
some relief for those folks, purelybased on safety, because you know,
you don't want someone being impaired bythe fumes that they've been exposed to and
then continuing to operate a bus ora train. And now RTD does not
share your belief that those fumes arenecessarily harmful. They share They had someone
(03:30):
from the CDP, the Colorado Departmentof Health and environment come in and give
us a presentation that said, basically, it's all in your head. There
is no way to suffer from anyeffects from a secondhand exposure because the primary
user filters most of it out intheir lungs. Well, you know,
(03:52):
if you've ever seen how they smokeit, it goes up in fumes and
drifts around. But yeah, youknow, I can tell you that I
hear it from my represented employees,and I hear it from non represented employees
who are on the trains that thetrains are really the worst of it right
now. Yeah, and you do. There is an effect. And you
(04:15):
know, no one really knows onehundred percent what the long term effects that
it is. For me, Ipicture the baby sitting in the car seat
in the back of a car withthe adult driving long smoking a cigarette.
You know, what are we goingto figure out years from now? You
know? I agree? So let'stalk about the labor shortage and how long
and when you say labor shortage,what percentage are you at full authorized capacity?
(04:42):
How many jobs short are you?And what are you short? Have
you ever heard the joke about askingan attorney what tuplus two is? Yeah,
what would you like it? Tobe ah, yeah, so you
know it, how short are webased on the current service commitment? Short
are we based on the service thatwe should be that the public is waiting
(05:03):
for. You know, it's amoving target, but I can tell you
that just by sheer numbers. WhenI started in two thousand and nine,
there was about two over nine hundredoperators bus operators. That's the core group,
that's the largest group. But Ialso like to remind everyone that it's
(05:24):
not just operators. It's transit workers, the mechanics, the service and cleaning,
the maintenance people. They're all partof it too. But so there
was over nine hundred. One ofmy officers tells me when he started twenty
eight years ago, it was overtwelve hundred. Right now we're at just
over seven hundred around it now,and so you know it's it used to
(05:46):
be that shortage would result in peoplegoing down and waiting for buses and trains
that didn't show up. And that'swhere the ridership really began to fail because
people gave up on our team.One of the last times I drove a
bus passenger got on and said tome, well, I'm glad you showed
up. This morning Wow. Andyou know, so the shortage then chases
(06:12):
people away from it because they can'trely on it. And then you know,
through the pandemic, there was theexplosion of just people with who had
been kicked out of shelters. Sothere was a lot of a myriad of
social needs that basically became RTD's burden. And you know that that's the one
(06:34):
thing I can say is that RTDis a transit agency. They need to
be able to focus on transit,the transit police. They are part of
the solution. But municipalities have toget to these social needs before they become
RTD's problem. Well, let meask you this. I just got a
very interesting text message that said,I haven't paid for the train since I
(06:57):
saw someone smoking meth. If they'reallowed to do that, then I'm allowed
to ride for free. I meanthat it does sort off you. If
you embrace lawlessness, then lawlessness willfollow. Let me ask you this because
I got long explanation, as Isaid, from RTD about the things that
they are working on. Are youseeing any improvements from the front line people
(07:18):
that you hear from. There's it'sa moving target. You know, a
few years ago we chased everyone outof Denver Union Station after I announced in
a news story that it was alawless hell hole, right, And but
now it's moved on to the buses. It moves around just like the the
(07:39):
So basically we're squeezing the toothpaste too. It's, you know, the solution.
The transit police are part of thesolution, but they're not the solution.
What we really have to do isget more support from the communities.
And Kelly addests that in that report. But yeah, I see I hear
reports good and I hear reports bad. I think overall it's just kind of
(08:03):
we're in a stagnation where we're notfixing the problem. As bandating the problem.
We're just bandating the problem because reallyit needs to be the homelessness,
the drug addiction, the mental healthchallenges, all those need to be taken
(08:24):
off of the plate. That's reallywhat's clogging up OURTD system. And I
think that is part of the publicrelations problem that RTD has that is extremely
significant. And they can tell useverything's fine, everything's fine, everything's fine.
But we see the news stories,I hear this anecdotal stuff from people
are like, I'm not taking mykid on the train when someone could be
(08:46):
smoking drugs. And so I thinkfor me as a writer, two things
should happen. Number One, theygot to get the public safety taken care
of like that. Nothing else mattersuntil that's taken care of. And then
after that's taken care of, showme as many pictures as you can of
the police that are in on theon the platforms, on the trains.
(09:07):
I want to see them every singletime I ride for the foreseeable future,
because unfortunately that's what it's going totake. I like what you said yesterday
about being more open about what,yes, what actions are being taken.
That absolutely needs to happen. Butyou know the methods and the mechanisms.
You know, I am still justa bus driver, so I don't know
all of the build Well, thePR people should be doing this, and
(09:30):
good PR would go a long waybecause it doesn't just tell non criminals that
RTD is safe again. It alsotells criminals that RTD is not a place
you want to go mess around,and that's what we need. Lance,
I really appreciate you coming in.Lance Longenbon. He's the president and business
agent ATU of Local one thousand andone. I appreciate you coming on giving
the perspective of your workers. Thankyou very much, Mandy. All right,
(09:52):
we'll be back for a tiny segmentright after this
Got got away for the trumpet,So I'm Mandy Connall'll be here for the
next twenty seven ish minutes, twentyfive ish minutes, just Jeff here as
well. Joining me in the studiois the president and business agent of ATU
Local one thousand and one, LanceLongenmon. He reached out to me yesterday
after I did the interview with KellyBruff from the Common Sense Institute about their
(00:21):
report about the state of the stateat RTD, and the report is really
compelling, very very interesting. RTDalso responded to me today. I'm trying
to get someone on the show totalk about it, but they've sent a
very long response about some of theissues that they are already trying to address.
They are in mid stride trying toaddress some of the issues brought up
(00:43):
by Common Sense. That is ontoday's blog at the very bottom. It's
very long, so I put itat the bottom, but it's very interesting
and you should read it. ButLance wanted to talk about what the situation
on the ground, on the bus, on the train is for the employees
of RTD. So Lance, welcometo the show. First of all,
well, thank you, Mandy,and I really appreciate you giving me the
opportunity to react to that. Itis a good report. It did leave
(01:07):
out one of the key things inRTD's current situation. But you know,
the safety and the writership, thosetwo are kind of intertwined, you know,
the writers. Even if the serviceis there and is reliable, the
writers who try it are not comfortablewith the current conditions of safety. And
(01:30):
really it goes back for a numberof years where the safety the service hasn't
been there and it hasn't been reliable. It's due to a labor shortage,
and the labor shortage, of coursenow unfortunately is a result of the safety.
So it's kind of a chicken andegg situation. But yeah, the
frontline workers who go to work everyday and endure that, many of them
(01:55):
have just accepted this is my job, and they tolerate it. Them just
leave. I've talked to folks whogo home with a headache every day and
they accept that that's their job.Let me ask you, what are they
dealing with. What are the thingsthat are happening right now on a consistent
basis that are negatively affecting the drivers. So on the trains, you know,
(02:19):
because the operator is in a cabaway from them. They feel,
you know, a lot more freeto just smoke openly and on the trains.
On the trains and you never reallyone hundred percent sure what they're smoking,
but there's a whole myriad of thingsgoing on with drugs and that sort
of thing on there. I getpictures of foil and hypodermics and just all
(02:44):
kinds of things that you know,would you want to take your family on
there, would you want to beon there? Personally? On the buses,
it's starting to become more rampant.People go and sit at the back
of the bus and pull their coatover the head and do whatever it is
that they're going to do. Butthe fumes, you know, there is
an effect from the fumes. Iwas able to negotiate with RTD to get
(03:07):
some relief for those folks, purelybased on safety, because you know,
you don't want someone being impaired bythe fumes that they've been exposed to and
then continuing to operate a bus ora train. And now RTD does not
share your belief that those fumes arenecessarily harmful. They share They had someone
(03:30):
from the CDP, the Colorado Departmentof Health and environment come in and give
us a presentation that said, basically, it's all in your head. There
is no way to suffer from anyeffects from a secondhand exposure because the primary
user filters most of it out intheir lungs. Well, you know,
(03:52):
if you've ever seen how they smokeit, it goes up in fumes and
drifts around. But yeah, youknow, I can tell you that I
hear it from my represented employees,and I hear it from non represented employees
who are on the trains that thetrains are really the worst of it right
now. Yeah, and you do. There is an effect. And you
(04:15):
know, no one really knows onehundred percent what the long term effects that
it is. For me, Ipicture the baby sitting in the car seat
in the back of a car withthe adult driving long smoking a cigarette.
You know, what are we goingto figure out years from now? You
know? I agree? So let'stalk about the labor shortage and how long
and when you say labor shortage,what percentage are you at full authorized capacity?
(04:42):
How many jobs short are you?And what are you short? Have
you ever heard the joke about askingan attorney what tuplus two is? Yeah,
what would you like it? Tobe ah, yeah, so you
know it, how short are webased on the current service commitment? Short
are we based on the service thatwe should be that the public is waiting
(05:03):
for. You know, it's amoving target, but I can tell you
that just by sheer numbers. WhenI started in two thousand and nine,
there was about two over nine hundredoperators bus operators. That's the core group,
that's the largest group. But Ialso like to remind everyone that it's
(05:24):
not just operators. It's transit workers, the mechanics, the service and cleaning,
the maintenance people. They're all partof it too. But so there
was over nine hundred. One ofmy officers tells me when he started twenty
eight years ago, it was overtwelve hundred. Right now we're at just
over seven hundred around it now,and so you know it's it used to
(05:46):
be that shortage would result in peoplegoing down and waiting for buses and trains
that didn't show up. And that'swhere the ridership really began to fail because
people gave up on our team.One of the last times I drove a
bus passenger got on and said tome, well, I'm glad you showed
up. This morning Wow. Andyou know, so the shortage then chases
(06:12):
people away from it because they can'trely on it. And then you know,
through the pandemic, there was theexplosion of just people with who had
been kicked out of shelters. Sothere was a lot of a myriad of
social needs that basically became RTD's burden. And you know that that's the one
(06:34):
thing I can say is that RTDis a transit agency. They need to
be able to focus on transit,the transit police. They are part of
the solution. But municipalities have toget to these social needs before they become
RTD's problem. Well, let meask you this. I just got a
very interesting text message that said,I haven't paid for the train since I
(06:57):
saw someone smoking meth. If they'reallowed to do that, then I'm allowed
to ride for free. I meanthat it does sort off you. If
you embrace lawlessness, then lawlessness willfollow. Let me ask you this because
I got long explanation, as Isaid, from RTD about the things that
they are working on. Are youseeing any improvements from the front line people
(07:18):
that you hear from. There's it'sa moving target. You know, a
few years ago we chased everyone outof Denver Union Station after I announced in
a news story that it was alawless hell hole, right, And but
now it's moved on to the buses. It moves around just like the the
(07:39):
So basically we're squeezing the toothpaste too. It's, you know, the solution.
The transit police are part of thesolution, but they're not the solution.
What we really have to do isget more support from the communities.
And Kelly addests that in that report. But yeah, I see I hear
reports good and I hear reports bad. I think overall it's just kind of
(08:03):
we're in a stagnation where we're notfixing the problem. As bandating the problem.
We're just bandating the problem because reallyit needs to be the homelessness,
the drug addiction, the mental healthchallenges, all those need to be taken
(08:24):
off of the plate. That's reallywhat's clogging up OURTD system. And I
think that is part of the publicrelations problem that RTD has that is extremely
significant. And they can tell useverything's fine, everything's fine, everything's fine.
But we see the news stories,I hear this anecdotal stuff from people
are like, I'm not taking mykid on the train when someone could be
(08:46):
smoking drugs. And so I thinkfor me as a writer, two things
should happen. Number One, theygot to get the public safety taken care
of like that. Nothing else mattersuntil that's taken care of. And then
after that's taken care of, showme as many pictures as you can of
the police that are in on theon the platforms, on the trains.
(09:07):
I want to see them every singletime I ride for the foreseeable future,
because unfortunately that's what it's going totake. I like what you said yesterday
about being more open about what,yes, what actions are being taken.
That absolutely needs to happen. Butyou know the methods and the mechanisms.
You know, I am still justa bus driver, so I don't know
all of the build Well, thePR people should be doing this, and
(09:30):
good PR would go a long waybecause it doesn't just tell non criminals that
RTD is safe again. It alsotells criminals that RTD is not a place
you want to go mess around,and that's what we need. Lance,
I really appreciate you coming in.Lance Longenbon. He's the president and business
agent ATU of Local one thousand andone. I appreciate you coming on giving
the perspective of your workers. Thankyou very much, Mandy. All right,
(09:52):
we'll be back for a tiny segmentright after this
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