Tuesday, Colorado Springs City Council members voted 6 to 2 to extend the life of the Front Range Express, City leaders decided to use the local proceeds from the sales of nine surplus buses to operate FREX service for the remainder of 2010.

Nine extra FREX buses were sold by the city to York County Transportation Authority in Pennsylvania for a total of $1.44 million, an average of $160,000 per bus. Local proceeds amount to about 20 percent of the sale.

Because of budget cuts, FREX was originally slated to stop running daily routes from Colorado Springs to Denver on February 12. Now it will maintain its current schedule without interruption.

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), who owns 80 percent of FREX buses, had already approved use of state proceeds to sustain the service for the rest of the year.

“We have a responsibility to the public to make every reasonable effort to maintain the service,” says Craig Blewitt, Interim Transit Services Division Manager.

Transit officials will continue to look for funding options for FREX in 2011 and beyond.

Copies of the bid from the bus sale can be found on the City’s Web site by clicking on the link below, or for a faxed copy please call (719) 385-5910.