Uber announced a unique partnership this week with Colorado's Regional Transportation District, bringing the state's public transportation onto the ride-sharing giant's platform.
In a blog post on the company's site, Uber announced that this partnership would be the first ever integration with public transit in the United States.
When riders enter their destination on the Uber app, they’ll see “Transit” next to other available transportation options. Once selected, they’ll be able to view available transit routes that will get them to their destination, along with real-time departure and arrival times, and receive walking directions to and from the transit stations.
The real kicker is that soon you'll be able to purchase RTD tickets using the Uber app.
“Our customers want their trips to be as seamless as possible, and a collaboration like this one allows them to plan for travel from end to end, including additional first mile and last mile options,” said David Genova, RTD CEO and GM. “RTD is pleased to work with Uber as we present riders with additional, complementary options to most efficiently reach their destination.”
While this is Uber's first ever integration, the company has worked with public transit in other cities in the past.
Uber worked with the MBTA to provide paratransit service in Boston, partnered with the Town of Innisfil, Ontario, to provide service to areas outside the reach of conventional transit and offered late-night connecting service to rail lines in Nice, France.
"As we move towards our vision of becoming a one-stop shop for transportation in your city, our riders need the right option available at their fingertips for every trip," wrote Uber Head of Transit David Reich. "Many times, it can be faster or cheaper to take public transportation than any other form of travel, and we want to give our riders a seamless way to access that option right from our app."
While the program has launched first here in Denver, Uber is hoping to expand this to other cities in the near future.
"Through our partnerships with Moovit, our transit real-time data and route planning provider and Masabi, a SaaS ticketing and payments platform, riders will be able to see transit information, and book tickets in more cities soon," Reich said.
San Francisco-based Moovit has raised $131 million to date and London-based Masabi has raised $20 million.
The integration is certainly helpful for public transit riders, but the RTD still boasts high prices compared to similar-sized metros.
In a story on StreetsBlog Denver, the RTD had the most expensive fare when compared with more than a dozen U.S. cities of similar size.
The new adult fare, which now costs $3, up from $2.60 in 2018, is more than twice the price of bus and train tickets in Austin and Houston, which go for $1.25.
