'Last-ditch effort' to save FREX in limbo

The FREX commuter bus service between Colorado Springs and downtown Denver, another casualty in the city government’s proposed 2010 budget, may have a lifeline.

But riders, drivers and other stakeholders will have to wait until next month to find out whether the FrontRange Express will be rescued under a “last-ditch effort” that calls for selling five surplus buses and using the proceeds to keep the service running next year, Sherre Ritenour, the city’s transit services manager, said Wednesday.

The proposal is in the hands of the state Transportation Commission, which is also considering using the money from the sale of the buses for other state projects, she said.

Ritenour had hoped to get a better sense of what direction the commission was leaning after its working group meeting Wednesday in Denver. Instead, she said she left the meeting disappointed after the group asked for another month to consider the proposal.

“They are not warm to the idea,” she said, adding that commissioners asked for additional information and decided to postpone the proposal until their Dec. 17 meeting.

“One of the major reasons (they’re not warm to the idea) is some of them feel that they’re only going to be revisiting this problem in one year because they don’t see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel,” Ritenour said.

The bus service, which includes stops in Monument and Castle Rock, “is currently slated not to operate beginning Jan. 1 unless it’s funded by this very unique idea,” she said.

When asked whether local businessman Les Gruen, who represents El Paso, Fremont, Park and Teller counties on the commission, advocated for the proposal, Ritenour said it was Gruen who suggested postponing it for a month.

“For some reason, our commissioner felt that he needed more information and, you know, I’m happy to give it to him,” she said.

Gruen, president of Urban Strategies, did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment.

This week, the city issued an “invitation for bids” for the five buses. The minimum bid for each bus is $200,000, but the asking price is $290,000, according to city documents.

Ritenour said the Colorado Department of Transportation owns an 80 percent share of the buses, and the Pikes Peak Regional Transportation Authority owns the other 20 percent.

There are 19 FREX buses total.

Even if five of those buses were sold, FREX would still be able to operate, Ritenour said.

“Depending on the amount we get for the buses, we would hopefully be able to sustain the current level of service we provide now,” she said.

“The FREX riders ... are absolutely married to that service,” she added.

But if the state decides against funding FREX, Ritenour said the PPRTA’s share of the proceeds from the sale of the five buses would be used to pay for local bus service.

“It doesn’t buy a lot fixed-route service, but every little bit counts,” she said.

Evening and weekend bus service in Colorado Springs is slated to be eliminated under the next year’s proposed budget.

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