A group assembled by Mayor Steve Bach to evaluate how Colorado Springs delivers public transportation is recommending cutting off city funding for the FrontRange Express, better known as FREX.

The mayor’s Transit Solutions Team says the city should take the money it spends on FREX, the region’s commuter bus service to Denver, and use it to provide service within city limits.

“Retaining local funding that currently is dedicated to FREX will add a significant amount of sustainability to the local system,” the group wrote in its final report. “FREX, as an intercity service, should be not be disproportionately supported by a single entity.”

The decision to eliminate funding for FREX is up to the City Council.

“It’s a policy decision in terms of how we want to use our resources,” Craig Blewitt, the city’s transit services manager, said Thursday.

“In the past, that’s something we’ve done, and we’ve run as well as we could. But it’s really a policy question moving forward.”

All of the transit team’s recommendations will be presented to council Monday. The team’s full report is available online at springsgov.com/Page.aspx?NavID=3371.

No date has been set for council to consider action on the recommendation to cut funding for FREX to use for local bus service, Blewitt said.

FREX, operated by the city’s Transit Services Division, is funded by the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority, state funds, advertising and fares.

The city is providing nearly $800,000 in PPRTA funding for FREX in 2012.

FREX has been on the chopping block before. In 2010, for example, the service was expected to end until the council gave it a lifeline by approving funding for 2011.

“It’s been a discussion almost every year, I think the past several years as far as the budgeting process,” Blewitt said.

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Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623

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