Meet Tegan Rice, Senior Service Planner and Scheduler: 'I am going to give Wonder Woman some competition'

A customer begins the day driving to a Park-n-Ride. As she leaves her car and heads to the light rail platform, she checks the schedule board to see when the next train arrives. Then, she checks her phone to see if any service disruptions may be impacting the next train. “All clear, thank goodness,” she calmly says under her breath as she eagerly awaits her train. A few minutes later, the bells of the train sound as it approaches the station. She boards the train and is on her way to the office. For the customer, it was as simple as checking the schedule, checking service alerts and then hopping on a train. However, the process of making that schedule happen involves an intricate dance of data-driven decisions and predictions that require the utmost precision to execute. This is a job Tegan Rice takes on every day. 

Rice, a senior service planner and scheduler for the agency, came from humble beginnings. Starting her journey with RTD as a service worker for light rail in October 2013, she leaped over to the maintenance side of things as a parts clerk nine months later. Rice worked as a parts clerk for almost two years when an opportunity came to join the Service Development Division in 2016 as a service planner. In just three years, she was promoted to a senior position within the team.

RTD’s service planners are responsible for constructing optimal schedules for both bus routes and train lines. The team uses data such as ridership levels and on-time performance to adjust schedules, which happens three times a year.

Making adjustments to schedules isn’t Rice’s only job.

“For my particular position, I’m in charge of coordinating bus bridges in order for rail maintenance projects to occur,” she said.

Bus bridges, better known to customers as bus shuttles, are temporary replacements for rail service during planned and unplanned service disruptions. Specially identified buses will operate between specified stations to close the gaps that service disruptions open, allowing customers to continue their trips.

Additionally, Rice coordinates with local external stakeholders, bus and light rail operators, and jurisdictions that RTD serves to make meaningful decisions about service schedules.

“We like to do a lot of outreach with the operators to get their feedback of what’s working, what’s not, and where improvements need to be made,” she said. “We have stakeholder meetings quarterly where we meet with the sub-regional service councils, and they provide feedback about what they want from our services.”

Rice’s team also responds to ridership requests from all jurisdictions for their master transportation plans.

“Through all of that, I still have to schedule and proof shelter boards, as well as coordinate online schedule distribution for the public,” she said.

Rice is a second-generation RTD employee in a unique position: Her mother is a colleague. Pennie Rice started at the agency in 2005 as a bus operator. After her probation period ended, she transitioned to light rail, where she worked as a parts clerk in the department’s maintenance division. Today, she works in asset management.

For Rice’s team, 2024 presents a unique planning challenge – two major light rail maintenance disruptions at the same time.

This summer, RTD will undergo a rail replacement project in downtown Denver alongside the ongoing coping panel replacement project along the southeast corridor. Because of this, Rice’s team did something new – they used the impacts of the projects to create a new schedule for the May service change.

“When I was given the heads up, I created a special schedule just to try and figure out how to make it work,” Rice said. “I went and rode with operators so that I could get the running times between the different switch points for the upcoming change so that I could better calculate the times that it’s going to take for operators to clear that section of single track.”

While in the initial phases of planning the upcoming disruption schedules, she had to navigate around a major challenge the agency has been facing since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic: operator shortages.

Much of Rice’s work involves making the most out of what she has available.

“We are not like other agencies where we can run parallel service,” she said. “We are in the midst of a shortage of operators.”

To supplement running parallel service, Rice collaborated with the other senior service planners to find alternative bus services that they could provide to fill the gap for rail maintenance. Dan Merritt (also a second-generation RTD employee) recommended the temporary reinstatement of the Free MetroRide and 0L routes. Service planning can be a very stressful, cutthroat task, as one mistake could throw off timing on other routes and lines, resulting in inconvenient schedules for customers, traffic jams for rail lines and connection issues. However, Rice finds comfort in her team having her back.

“My department is amazing,” Rice said. “They are the reason I stay.”

The Service Planning team falls under the watch of Jessie Carter, Senior Manager of Service Development. The team consists of senior service planners Rice, Merritt, Maux Sullivan and Nataly Handlos, with Krystle Douby serving as business support for the division. Each of the senior service planners leads a team of service planners, who are Cooper Langdon, Sam Lewis, Matthew Biskey, Greg Filkin, Kelsie Ryan and Clara Bechtel. Bechtel works underneath Rice, ensuring rail and service disruption schedules are dialed in.

“When I’m having a bad day, they always find a way to make me laugh,” Rice said.

On days when Rice feels overwhelmed, she recalls a quote Carter once told her.

“Jessie always reminds me that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” Rice said. “So, I’m getting stronger.”

This unbreakable attitude is a testament to how vital Rice’s work is to making lives better through connections.

“Once this summer is over, I am going to give Wonder Woman some competition,” she said.