Communications Outages Cancel RTD Trains, Shut Down Colorado DMVs, Hinder First Responders

By Lauren Penington, The Denver Post

Denver’s Regional Transportation District suspended light rail lines, canceled trains and warned of slowed service Friday due to “communications failures”  amid the chaos from global technology outages and computer issues.

Outages also hit the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles and some police and fire agencies.

RTD’s real-time bus and light rail information was not available Friday morning for commuters, despite changes to both schedules and service delays, according to a systemwide alert from agency officials.

RTD suspended light rail service in both directions on the D Line between the Interstate 25/Broadway Station and Union Station “due to communications failure,” RTD officials said in an alert.

Bus shuttles were in place between the Littleton/Mineral Station and I-25/Broadway Station, RTD officials said. D Line passengers were advised to transfer to the E or H Line light rail for service to Union Station.

E, H, R and W lines were all experiencing up to 45-minute delays Friday morning due to the communications failures, and limited service was available, according to RTD officials.

RTD didn’t specify that its communication failures were due to the global outage caused by cybersecurity firm CrowdStirke’s update to computers running Mircosoft Windows. The Denver Post could not reach RTD officials for further details Friday morning.

See a full list of RTD’s canceled light rail trips at the bottom of this page.

Colorado DMV Services Affected

The Division of Motor Vehicles was also experiencing statewide outages Friday morning due to the major CrowdStrike incident.

Impacted services included, but may not be limited to, online DMV services, motor vehicle Express Kiosks, driver’s license and ID card services, county DMV office services and DMV call centers, according to a news release from the department.

“There currently is no timeline for when services will be restored,” DMV officials stated in the release.

Outage Impacts First Responders

Multiple police and fire departments across the state were also experiencing issues Friday morning.

The Colorado Springs Police Department is currently on priority dispatch and accident alert status “due to the global Microsoft Windows failure and related CrowdStrike issue.”

“CSPD is continuing to respond to in-progress crimes & life-threatening emergencies,” the department said in a statement on social media. “9-1-1 phone lines and department radios are not affected and regular patrols remain active in the city.”

The Colorado Springs Fire Department posted about similar issues Friday morning, adding that all of the computers in the 9-1-1 communications center were down, but 9-1-1 calls were still being received.