With a crush of orange-clad and lederhosen wearing riders expected Thursday afternoon, the Regional Transportation District is adding  light rail and bus routes. 

The Denver Broncos have a game at Empower Field at Mile High against the Indianapolis Colts at 6 p.m. The three-day run of the Great American Beer Festival starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Colorado Convention Center.

RTD will add trains to rail lines for the E and N routes, according to a spokesperson.

The festival returns after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, the festival attracted over 60,000 patrons and 2,300 breweries. More than 40,000 are expected over four sessions this year, culminating Saturday night. While three sessions are sold out, a few tickets for Opening Night remain at greatamericanbeerfestival.com.

The disruptions to riders last week because of ongoing maintenance and repair issues have been fixed. 

“There are no disruptions that RTD is aware of,” Brandon Figliolino, an RTD spokesperson, said. “We are planning for an increase in customers using the light rail and bus system to get to both events.”

Customers using the E-line and N-line rejoice: There will be extra capacity for those trains for tonight. Figliolino said he was unaware of other routes with increased capacity.

Regarding the R-Line in Aurora, Figliolino said there is still a bus shuttle to bridge the gap caused by a train derailment at Exposition and Sable Sept. 21.

He advised customers who want to take public transit to and from either event to use RTD’s online trip planner at rtd-denver.com.

“It will tell them the closest bus and light rail route to the Great American Beer Festival and the football game,” he said.