The Regional Transportation District’s no-cost shuttle service will return Oct. 5 to the total size of sixteenth Avenue in downtown Denver.
The FreeRide service will begin a day after a grand opening celebration hosted Oct. 4 by the Downtown Denver Partnership to formally reopen the 1.25-mile hall. Regular operations will resume between Denver Union Station and Civic Heart Station.
The shuttle service, previously generally known as the Free MallRide, was rebranded earlier this yr to mirror the hall’s new identify. The service has operated on a detour since 2022, when Denver’s $175.5 million reconstruction of the sixteenth Avenue pedestrian mall and transitway started between Market Avenue and Broadway.
The hall was constructed greater than 40 years in the past and has served as a serious hyperlink via downtown Denver. RTD mentioned the shuttles run roughly each 5 minutes, attracting hundreds of boardings every day. The shuttles had roughly 1.5 million boardings in 2024, in accordance with RTD.
This yr’s boardings are on monitor to surpass these in 2024. Between January and July, RTD reported a complete of roughly 1.2 million boardings and a mean of greater than 170,000 per 30 days.
“The newly renovated sixteenth Avenue brings alternatives to make connections throughout downtown and close by neighborhoods even stronger, making a extra accessible, inclusive heart metropolis,” Kourtny Garrett, president and CEO of the Downtown Denver Partnership, mentioned in an announcement.
The FreeRide is out there seven days per week and shuttles run each visitors gentle cycle throughout peak intervals. The service stops at each intersection alongside the 1.25-mile-long hall with a complete end-to-end journey time of about quarter-hour.
Connections to bus service could be made at Civic Heart Station and clients can connect with each bus and rail providers at Union Station, together with regional bus routes and the A Line to Denver Worldwide Airport.
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