With nine months of experience in riding these buses several times a week, I can safely say that their bus service is terrible, unreliable and not living up to the expectations which riders have. Their scheduling and routing scheme seems to undergo some massive change every few months, and the service only gets worse with each change.
If a single cloud rolls across the sky or a single drop of water falls on the road, the bus stops running. These buses are equipped with automatic tire chains (you can clearly see them on the bottom of the bus) so there shouldn't be any excuse for weather related delays, but they happen all the time. Some days, even when the sky is clear and the day is warm, they just randomly cancel routes with no explanation other than "issues beyond our control." Absolutely no notice is provided on their website or anywhere else when service is cancelled. It is up to you to figure out for yourself why your bus never showed up and how you are going to get to work/home on your own.
During the time I've been using this service, I've made two complaints against them with the Colorado Public Utilities Comission (PUC). Both complaints discovered violations which resulted in Ramblin' Express being served with a fine. But instead of making their service better so people won't have a reason to complain about them, the company seems to be retaliating by making their service even worse and less convenient.
First, they totally eliminated the bus stop that was only about a mile from my home. Now I have to drive much further to get to the next closest stop. And from there I still expect to spend another hour on the bus!
Next, they changed their routes so that instead of a bus departing every hour, they only departed every two hours. I had to have my employer adjust my schedule because this made it impossible for me to get to work on time.
Well apparently their two hour scheme didn't work out, so they eventually scrapped that and reverted back to the every hour departures. But naturally there is some horrific catch, which is that they merged the Lakewood and Aurora routes into one route! Now, Aurora residents get to spend an extra hour on the bus each way (in addition to the hour it already took), and Lakewood residents have to be crammed in like sardines on an overcrowded bus that is already full before it even gets to our stop.
Every time you think this company can't make your commute to work even more nightmarish, they find a way. read more