Regional Transportation District (RTD)

Issues Management

Denver, Colorado

Project Overview

As a public transportation agency, RTD is dedicated to serving the public’s transit needs. RTD connects the public – safely, on time and in clean and accessible vehicles. The agency strives to satisfy its customers with every trip they take. While RTD is a national transit leader known for rapidly expanding its system and being the first agency in the country to partner with UBER and Lyft, the agency receives harsh criticism at home. RTD hired the Sigler Communications/Bawmann Group team to assist with transparently delivering accurate and factual information to its customers, elected officials, community leaders and the news media.

Sigler Communications' Role

Sigler Communications was co-hired with the Bawmann Group to counsel RTD on a variety of issues including staffing, expansion of FasTracks, the pandemic, the opening of new lines and other issues. We have worked with RTD during a tumultuous time at the agency, counseling the transit agency’s management on engaging the public as it embarked on its Reimagine campaign and navigated record reductions in ridership due to COVID-19.

Our team helped RTD successfully plan and launch their own news channel, News Stop, which is now widely used by national and local journalists to keep abreast of news about the agency. Our team researched the format for the news channel and continues to develop editorial content on a weekly basis, ensuring that the information is shared with key stakeholder groups through the website, social media channels and newsletters.

Deliverables

News Stop gives RTD the opportunity to transparently disclose issues prior to media coverage. This ensures that all the facts are being shared with the public.

Results

RTD has successfully leveraged the news platform to share factual information about the agency with its key stakeholders groups. Stories from News Stop now routinely appear in national and local media outlets and on social media channels.