The Front Range Express, which shuttled passengers between Colorado Springs and Denver on luxurious buses, may be back by late 2014.

“This is imminent. It’s not pie in the sky. We are down to dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s,” said Les Gruen, the Colorado Transportation Commission’s Colorado Springs representative.

Craig Blewitt, director of Mountain Metropolitan Transit, wrote in an email he’s hopeful the service will operate as early as October 2014.

“The commuter bus service will have three segments: Colorado Springs to Denver, Fort Collins to Denver, and an I-70 segment connecting mountain resort towns to Denver,” Blewitt wrote. “The Colo Springs to Denver segment restores FREX. The other two segments are totally new.”

The bus service would be funded by FASTER, a bipartisan transportation funding law enacted by the Legislature and former Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter in 2009. It increased transportation revenue with a $2 daily car-rental fee and a new weight-based vehicle registration system.

The proposed buses will be larger than the previous FREX buses, which were not small, and will contain restrooms.

The CDOT proposal for restoration of service, which must be approved by the Transportation Commission, came after CDOT hired a consultant to study demand.

The old FREX service was of extraordinary value to professionals who commuted between Denver and the Springs. The average household income of regular FREX riders was $72,000.

Even though Denver and other communities benefited from the service, it was disproportionately subsidized by Colorado Springs. Although City Council tried to keep the service functioning, Mayor Steve Bach refused to sign a contract because he wanted the money for better bus service within the city limits. Politically, it made no sense to subsidize high-wage professionals at the expense of more than 4,000 Social Security recipients and low-income residents who needed more bus service in town.

Still, the loss of FREX probably made Colorado Springs a less appealing residential and business location among those who want easy and affordable transportation to and from Denver. It just makes good sense to link the state’s two largest cities with routine bus service.

Like most cities, Colorado Springs wants more jobs for young, highly educated professionals. Regular shuttles to and from Denver – a city that can attract professionals from the likes of Chicago, New York and San Francisco – make Colorado Springs a more attractive option. One can live and work in the Springs, enjoying majestic views and seemingly endless outdoor recreational opportunities, and get cosmopolitan amenities by merely boarding a bus for a short ride up I-25.

For Springs-Denver work commuters, the bus provides an hour each way to work on laptopd or tablets – something they cannot do while driving cars.

Extending the service to Fort Collins only stands to make it more useful to people all along the proposed route.

The old FREX was a fantastic service with a nonsustainable and unfair means of financial support that burdened Colorado Springs. What CDOT proposes – a state-funded service along a corridor of millions of Colorado residents – makes good sense. By all means, use FASTER proceeds to restore Front Range bus service as soon as possible.

It is so easy to learn the truth

There was a recent Associated Press article stating the majority of Americans blame the GOP for the government “shutdown.” Likewise the president’s mantra, as well as a majority of the media, call out and demonize Republicans/tea party members for the government impasse.

It is so easy to learn the truth…read a recent article by Thomas Sowell titled “Who Shut Down the Government.” It is a quick and simple explanation of the way our Republic was, and is, supposed to operate. Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. The website is www.tsowell.com.

Unfortunately, suggesting such actions to the general public is an acknowledgement of the increasing ignorance of our citizens. Let’s hear it for two amendments to our Constitution: term limits and mandatory balanced budgets!

Jim Lesseig

Monument

Less than three weeks later

I have just seen, in the archives of his congressional website, an op-ed article Doug Lamborn wrote for the Federal Times (entitled “Viewpoint: A plan to end furloughs of DoD’s civilian employees,” August 4), in which he lamented “the furloughing of approximately 650,000 Defense Department civilian employees.” His conclusion, which I wholly agree with, is “We need to put a stop to these unnecessarily painful and politically motivated furloughs.”

Less than three weeks later, however, on August 21, he co-signed (along with 80 other Republican members from the House of Representatives) a letter from Rep. Mark Meadows to Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor, urging the two leaders to “affirmatively defund the implementation and enforcement of Obamacare in any relevant appropriations bill brought to the House floor in the 113th Congress, including any continuing appropriations bill.” This strategy, effectively pursued, led directly to the government shutdown of Oct. 1, and subsequent furloughing of about 800,000 other federal civilian employees. Is this not a “painful and politically motivated furlough” – the very thing he protested against in his previous article?

How does he reconcile the apparent inconsistency of these two positions – the one lamenting furloughed federal civilian employees, and the other advocating a strategy leading to the government shutdown and furloughing of federal civilian employees? How can he be against it one week and then for it less than three weeks later?

Ryan Macoubrie

Colorado Springs

They will never see a dime

The ballot issue Amendment 66 is the biggest boondoggle in the history of Colorado. The Colorado Education Assoc. (CEA) want to tax the state’s residents nearly $1 billion to support their unions and their organization.

Try reading the ballot imitative booklet, which came in the mail. It was filled with mostly legalese and is nearly as long and bad as the Obamacare law, which was passed.

Even more insulting is their distortion in the TV ads running around the state, implying the money is going to bring back PE and music into the schools. That is an outright fraud and lie in an attempt to portray, “its all about the kids.”

If Amendment 66 isn’t shot down in flames; then Colorado voters will have joined the world described as “low information voters.” Come on Coloradans; we can do better than this.

Thank goodness our classroom teachers see the distortions in this measure. They will never see a dime of the money affecting the classroom and teaching.

Duane C. Slocum

Colorado Springs

The fox is guarding the henhouse

If you read the entire proposal of Amendment 66, you will see the ongoing damage to your wallet. The state education fund “shall (this means legally it must be done), at a minimum receive 43 percent…of tax revenue….” At a minimum, a whopping 43 percent of the budget goes to education just like that. But keep reading. This amount can and will be raised to whatever percentage is wanted as it is only a required minimum and “…shall require no additional approval….”

It can only go up. It cannot go down. Bye, bye, TABOR. So who gets to raise it? The Department of Revenue does. This is a position appointed by the governor, so guess who really makes this decision. And who audits this? The state auditor, another appointed position. The fox is guarding the henhouse, and there is no accountability to the voter whatsoever. Finally, as has been pointed out in several news articles, the education system of course supports this, but is going to file a lawsuit to stop the changes funded by this. In other words, just give us a billion dollars a year, but don’t require improvements to education, such as the ability to read, write and do arithmetic. Vote no on 66.

Roger Weed

Colorado Springs