It was a snowy January morning. I knew that all methods of transportation would be a mess and that my commute, if I decided to drive, would take well over two hours. So, I did what I always do. I bundled up, put some boots on, and started my quarter-mile hike through the snow to the Alameda Station. I check the Transit app on the way to the station and see that the train is going to be on time.

As I’m waiting for the train at the station, the E line that was supposed to arrive on time ended up to be a C line that I couldn’t take. Then a D line, H line, and then nothing for over 10 minutes. Silence. My app didn’t have an alert, and the signs at the station posted the scheduled times with no announcements. By the time the E line came, my backpack was soaked, lunch was wet, I was very late to work, and there were many unhappy passengers. This gave me the motivation to start tracking the reliability of RTD’s rail system.