CO: Boulder County Approves 2017 Subsidy of Lyons' RTD Bus Pass Program

Boulder County commissioners Tuesday morning approved spending $18,263 to help underwrite the costs of continuing to provide free Regional Transportation District bus and light rail service to all full-time Lyons residents for at least one more year.

Lyons will contribute $15,000 toward the cost of the $33,263 contract with the RTD in the seventh year of an EcoPass program that makes those passes available to more than 2,000 people living within the town's boundaries.

The commissioners' authorization of the county's share of the EcoPass contract came during their first business meeting of the new year.

The Lyons EcoPass program entitles residents of the town's planning area to unlimited free rides on most RTD bus and light rail services, including free Y Route bus rides between Lyons and Boulder as well as elsewhere throughout the metropolitan transit agency district.

It was funded in its first several years by a combination of federal, state and regional grants, but that grant money had been used up by the end of 2015.

The program would have expired if Boulder County and Lyons hadn't agreed, starting last year, to cover the RTD's $33,000-plus annual charge for the program.

Lyons contributed somewhat less in 2016 - $9,000, compared to this year's $15,000 - while Boulder County's $18,263 subsidy for 2017 is less than the more than $24,291 it spent on last year's contract with the RTD.

Boulder County transportation planner Jared Hall said more than 1,600 total EcoPasses have been distributed to Lyons residents since the program began in 2011.

John Fryar: 303-684-5211, [email protected] or twitter.com/jfryartc

Copyright 2017 - Daily Times-Call