A commuter bus service started between Loveland and Greeley barely two years ago appears all but dead because of a lack of riders.
The Greeley and Loveland city councils each voted this week to kill the 34-Xpress bus route along U.S. 34.
Started as a three-year pilot program in August 2008, 34-Xpress cost about $500,000 a year to operate with funds from the Colorado Department of Transportation and the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization.
But ridership was always low, with about three to five riders per hour, well below the 10 to 20 riders per hour needed to justify the route, city officials said.
“Nobody wants to see empty buses,” said Cliff Davidson, executive director of the planning organization. “With those numbers, it would have been difficult for us to go back to the cities involved after three years and ask them to pony up to continue this route.”
In May, the planning group will determine when service on the route ends.
Three buses used on the route will be put on the road elsewhere. Greeley managed the system with employees hired by the organization, who will now be laid off, say officials.
The 34-Xpress runs Monday through Friday every hour on weekdays and every two hours on Saturdays. The route includes the Greeley Mall, Promontory Circle in west Greeley, the Promenade Shops at Centerra and Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland.
Transit managers tried to spark interest in the bus service by offering free rides and adjusting schedules.
“We saw that those changes were not going to lead to any appreciable increases in ridership,” Greeley City Manager Roy Otto said.
The relatively small population base and a swath of layoffs among northern Colorado businesses are also blamed for the low ridership.
“Even our van pooling is down 12 to 15 routes from a year and a half ago,” Davidson said. “It was just bad timing.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
