For much of the past year, the bathrooms inside the downtown transit center have been gated and closed for several hours each morning and afternoon. And staffers have been directed not to tell bus patrons why.
Chris Hennelly stumbled upon the perplexing issue one day last fall.
“I had to take a whiz,” he said. “It's really a simple thing. There was no crime in progress. I just really needed to take a whiz.”
Hennelly, an accountant who is a daily bus commuter, found the bathrooms locked that day last September, and again the next day he passed through the transit center. And the next. And the next. There didn’t appear to be any cleaning equipment nearby, and a paper sign on the gate simply apologized for the inconvenience.
He asked security but got no answers, so he filed a request for public records. What he got back were two letters , one undated and one from June 9, 2025, stating that the bathrooms are to be closed from 4:30 to 6 a.m., 7 to 9 a.m., and 2:30 to 5 p.m. weekdays, and from 5:30 to 7 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m. on weekends.
The letters, from the center’s operations manager Samantha Reynolds to staffers, do not indicate a specific reason for the closures beyond to “mitigate issues that have proved to arise during specific timeframes.” Reynolds notes those closure times would not be announced to the public, and staffers were directed to feign ignorance of the directive if asked by the public.
“The success of this hinges on a consistent message from all staff (security, supervisors, customer service representatives, etc.) to customers,” Reynolds wrote. “When customers ask you why the bathrooms are closed, you are to state: ‘I’m not sure why but they are closed. I’m sorry for the inconvenience.’ Keep it generic and be polite.”
She added: "Legal and I are prepared to handle the complaints.”
Those closures continue.
In response to questions from WXXI News, RTS spokesman Tom Brede provided a statement Wednesday referring to a high number of incidents, some involving drugs and vandalism, that have occurred during those hours. No specifics were provided.
“The bathroom closure times at the Transit Center were selected based on peak incident times,” the statement reads. “This approach started as a trial, and while we have seen some improvement, it is important that we keep the program going to try to minimize the number of incidents we experience.”
Hennelly, however, is concerned that the closures are targeted at city youth. The weekday times line up with when students would be traveling to and from schools in the Rochester City School District. The district contracts with RTS for student bus service.
“If it's a behavior issue, why would you block an entire class of people the access to the facilities,” he asked, “and everybody else as well?”
A spokesperson for the Rochester City School District did not return a request for comment. RTS did not mention students in its statement.
Addressing problems including open drug use in public transit is an issue that can strain the capacity of a transit system, as it tries to balance harm reduction with its actual transportation purposes.
The issue was the subject of a 2025 study from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Transportation Research Board that focused on public transit systems in Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, and Portland, Oregon.
“Transit agencies are increasingly taking on complex responsibilities that traditionally fall within the realm of public health and outreach, which they were not designed or intended to handle,” the study found. “This shift adds layers of complexity, increases operational burdens, and incurs additional costs.”
Closing bathrooms and similar actions are referred to as “system-hardening” endeavors in the study. Those are meant to curb vandalism and drug use by simply removing access to the places where it was most commonly occurring.
Denver’s transit system was noted as taking such efforts in 2020, when issues became so prevalent that it temporarily closed one of its transit centers.
The study recommended a mix of training with naloxone administration, developing strong connections between transit workers and outreach specialists, and prominently enforcing a code of conduct that aligns with drug laws. It also recommended a change in the design of transit centers to discourage drug use and vandalism: more lighting, open layouts, and leaving few places out of the line of sight.
Other cities have explored different ways of harm reduction in public spaces. For example, one technology, originating in Boston but now implemented in cities nationwide, uses motion sensors to detect when a person has stopped moving in a bathroom.
Meanwhile, a Tim Hortons in Ontario, Canada took to placing blue lights in its bathrooms, which curbs intravenous drug use by making it more difficult to find veins.
For the immediate future, RTS has no plan on stopping the closures. The statement from Brede also notes why the transit system has not publicly acknowledged its policy.
“Incidents like these are very sensitive, and we didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to customers who need help,” the statement reads. “That said, we also don’t want to send the message that we have ignored the reality of the situation. It is important that we continue working on this so we can reduce the number of incidents in the facility.”
