State threatens to withhold federal funds to RTD over Boulder County routes

The Colorado Department of Transportation is threatening to withhold over $34.2 million in federal funds unless the Regional Transportation District restores three key commuter bus routes in Boulder County including the Longmont Express.

The funds are part of American Rescue Plan money set aside to help boost transportation projects in Boulder County communities. CDOT distributes the funding to RTD.

The three routes — Flatiron Flyer 4, Flatiron Flyer 2, and the Longmont Express route (LX1 and LX2) — were suspended during the COVID pandemic, according to RTD.

The three routes are essential to increase mobility in Boulder County, especially for low income, minority and other disadvantaged populations along the corridor, CDOT Executive Director Shoshana Lew said in a letter to RTD General Manager/CEO Debra Johnson.

Lew said RTD has until Friday to agree to reinstate the routes or lose the funding. If RTD is not able to accept the funds under the conditions laid out by CDOT, the state will inform the Federal Transportation Administration that the funds cannot be allocated by the FTA’s Oct. 31 deadline. CDOT will then ask for more time to come up with alternatives to deliver the Boulder County routes, Lew said.

RTD had yet to respond to a Leader request for a comment.

The Flatiron Flyer, which provides express bus services, adds more options for commuters and rebuilds transit use hobbled by disruption caused by COVID-19, Lew said.

Lew also notes taxpayers in Boulder County have paid into RTD’s FasTracks system that has yet to deliver commuter rail to the northwest region.

“...it is important to note that both the Flatiron Flyer services and the express route to Longmont service communities that have long paid their fair share to RTD, without the benefit of the rail service that voters were promised,” Lew said in her letter. “That makes the continuity and quality of these bus routes even more crucial.”

Colorado, she adds, invested roughly half a billion dollars to modernize U.S. 36 with a managed lane that was specifically designed to incorporate Bus Rapid Transit that the Flatiron Flyer express routes provided. “These rapidly became amongst the most successful routes in the region, and one of the premier examples of how transit can be successfully integrated into the state highway system to provide Coloradans with cleaner, better options that improve their commutes and quality of life, and anchor transit oriented development,” Lew said.