Springs receives FASTER funds for new buses, maintenance

Colorado Springs will receive its share of $14 million in FASTER funds from the state government, according to news from the Colorado Department of Transportation.

The Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery will be spent for maintenance and equipment for the Front Range Express, a busing service to Denver. It will also be used for new vehicle purchases in Colorado Springs.

The Colorado Department of Transportation’s division of transit and rail will distribute the funds, assisting projects such as bus purchases and park-n-ride lot improvements.

“Given the state of the economy, we put more emphasis this year on fixing and replacing what exists, as well as on allowing the funds to complete existing projects and matching federal funds, rather than build new projects,” said CDOT director of transition, Mark Imhoff. “In fact, 74 buses or smaller vehicles will be purchased or rehabilitated with these funds.”

Other projects include transit stop improvements in boulder and park-n-ride lot improvements in Longmont and Pueblo. Cortez, Crested Butte, Durango, Fort Morgan, Ignacio, Montrose and Trinidad will receive money for a shared software system for small transit programs. Denver will get money to rehabilitate an RTD maintenance building and to improve light rail in the downtown corridor. Denver will also receive money for software programs for elderly and disabled programs, as well as to build ticket purchase kiosks for RTD users and to extend managed lanes along I-25 North.

Loveland will receive money for phase II construction of the regional bus transfer center and Wheat Ridge will get funds for new bus benches.

3 Responses to “Springs receives FASTER funds for new buses, maintenance”

1. Pete Says:
   March 1st, 2012 at 1:48 pm

   It’s nice to see that the additional taxes we were charged for licensing our vehicles that was supposed to go to road and bridge improvement is now being spent to drive empty buses around Colorado Springs. Yeah.

2. Pete Says:
   March 1st, 2012 at 2:09 pm

   I’m so happy that the Faster Program that causes me to pay higher taxes for registering my vehicle now are going to use those tax dollars to provide new buses for Colorado Springs. Weren’t these funds supposed to go to fixing bad bridges and roads at a quicker pace? I guess all the highways and roads are in great shape? I can’t believe our legislators lied to us once again. Or maybe it’s the public service employees who administer these tax dollars that don’t understand how the funds are supposed to be spent. Now instead of “old” empty buses driving around the Springs, we’ll have new empty buses driving around the Spring and instead of new roads and bridges our elected officials will figure out a new taxing scheme to get more money to give away unnecessarily. Yeah.

3. peter Says:
   March 6th, 2012 at 5:08 pm

   I hope that they use the money to buy vehicles fueled by CNG (Compressed natural gas) which is up to 4 times cheaper then Diesel and creates less pollution.