“I can’t feel my legs no more,” he said in quiet agony, motioning to a backpack hanging off the chair. Another man, awake in a wheelchair, struggled with gauze wrapped around his left leg that ended at his knee. “I don’t really want to get back high.”Ī moment later, his hard persona dropped. Four men rested on an old mattress pushed against a wall. It was still dark outside, and many people in the bus terminal were sleeping in the rows of chairs. 8, we spent 18 hours at the Great Hall and the bus terminal, talking to people throughout the day and night. On Tuesday, RTD president Debra Johnson announced small amounts of fentanyl had been found in the bus terminal restrooms and they would be shut down for a month so they could be remediated and staffed with security. Mayor Michael Hancock weighed in with a statement condemning “illegal drug use, public urination and unsafe loitering” at Union Station and announced that Denver police would ramp up patrols of the area and enforce the rules. Last week, Regional Transportation District union president Lance Longenbohn called the terminal “a lawless hellhole” - a place sullied by “prolific loiterers.” RTD drivers, he said, should not be terrified to walk through the station on breaks. Not far away from the Great Hall is an underground bus terminal, where people wait for buses that will take them all over the metro. Filled with comfortable couches, chairs and desks, the space has been branded “Denver’s living room.” Many come to enjoy the quiet in the Great Hall, a masterful architectural restoration that has been bustling since it reopened in 2014. People linger at Union Station for many reasons: to catch a bus or a train, charge their phones, connect to wifi, sleep, buy a cup of coffee or a cocktail, or stay at the Crawford Hotel.

Union station hotel denver