Ride Free in Longmont

Here is the official press release on our new free buses:

Ride Free! Longmont program starts Tuesday, July 1

All local Longmont bus routes are free to ride all year

Boulder County, Colo. – All RTD local bus routes in Longmont will be free for riders of all ages starting Tuesday, July 1.Hop on and off as many times as you want, all day long, through the end of 2014.

No passes, cards or identification of any kind is needed to ride local buses that travel solely within Longmont. Regional routes (BOLT, L, and J) are not included, but riders that access regional routes via a local bus can request a transfer that is good for $2.25 off the regional fare.

Local routes serving Longmont include:

·         323: Skyline Crosstown

·         324: Main Street

·         326: Westside Crosstown

·         327: Eastside Crosstown

More information including route maps and schedule information can be found at www.LongmontBus.com.

Ride Free! Longmont is made possible through a collaboration of the City of Longmont, Boulder County, and the State of Colorado. The six-month cost of the program is estimated at $108,000, which is the fare revenue RTD would have collected over this time from the four routes they provide.

Boulder County obtained a State of Colorado grant that will cover 50 percent of the total cost of the program. The grant is aimed at providing transportation assistance to low-income families. The remaining half of the costs will be split between Boulder County and the city of Longmont. Boulder County’s funding source comes directly from the voter-approved Transit and Trails sales tax that is intended to increase transit ridership in Boulder County.

“This is a great program for Longmont residents and visitors and an opportunity to increase ridership on Longmont buses,” said Boulder County Transportation Multi-Modal Division Manager Scott McCarey. “Transportation costs in low and moderate income families can rival the cost of housing, and RTD surveys show that 62 percent of passengers on the four local Longmont routes have total annual incomes of less than $25,000. A free bus ride each day can save a family a lot of money that can go to other necessities. We see this as a win-win-win program for Boulder County, Longmont, and RTD.”

For more information on the program, visit the Ride Free! Longmont website, or contact Scott McCarey at smccarey@bouldercounty.org or 303-441-3900.

Now we just need to get free buses in the rest of the metro area.