Trump’s withholding of transit funds could shrink CDOT’s bus expansion plans on Federal Boulevard
With major work underway on Colfax Avenue, it's the projects that haven't broken ground yet that state officials worry could be pained by federal uncertainty.
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Plans to enhance bus service on Denver’s Federal Boulevard could be scaled back as the Trump administration pauses new grants for transit projects.
Colorado transportation planners have embraced upgraded bus service, known as bus rapid transit, or BRT, in an attempt to reduce congestion in Front Range commuter corridors. The concept mimics some features of train service, like upgraded stations and more frequent service, but with a significantly lower price tag than building rail lines.
The Denver metro area’s first introduction to BRT, the Flatiron Flyer between Denver and Boulder, was part of RTD’s FasTracks project and began service in 2016. The route weaves in and out of the U.S. 36 express lanes. In 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, RTD reported more than 3.3 million boardings. In 2024, it saw 1.3 million boardings, up 9.6% from 2023.
Construction is currently underway on dedicated bus lanes and other changes to bring bus rapid transit to Colfax Avenue in Denver and along the Diagonal Highway in Boulder County. Those projects combined received $175 million from the Biden administration.
Additionally, the Colorado Department of Transportation hopes to have bus rapid transit on Federal and Colorado boulevards in Denver and Colorado 7 from Boulder to Brighton in the near future. While the Colorado Boulevard and Colorado 7 projects are still in their early stages of planning, Federal Boulevard construction is set to begin by 2027. The project had a 2024 price tag of $281 million that could increase to $318 million by 2028.
In August, CDOT applied for a Federal Transit Administration grant for Federal Boulevard. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided $4.6 billion per year in grants for public transit projects. CDOT asked for $149.9 million from the FTA’s Small Starts program. Now, with President Donald Trump’s move to freeze many Biden-era funding initiatives, that money is in limbo.
“While the program still exists, the administration has paused new grant awards,” CDOT Communications Director Matt Inzeo said in an email.
In a project update email March 14, CDOT said it had planned to seek key funding from the Small Starts program. While the agency will explore ways to build the BRT without those federal dollars, “a project would need to be smaller, and potentially broken into smaller phases.”
The current Federal Boulevard plan would start at the RTD Wagon Road Park-n-Ride in Westminster and run south along Federal to Englewood Station off Hamden Avenue.
Unlike the Colfax project, it would not have a dedicated center-running lane.
Instead, buses would run in a patchwork of dedicated and general traffic lanes. Some intersections would also be updated with transit signal priority and bypass lanes. CDOT projects 10,700 people a day could use the service by 2045.
The advocacy nonprofit Greater Denver Transit has pushed agencies including CDOT and RTD not to rely on federal money to complete transit expansion projects like the Federal Boulevard bus rapid transit.
“These funds, we believe, should go toward accelerating the projects and kind of flushing up and upgrading them. Rather than risking the outcome where there isn’t enough money, because either the federal grant isn’t there anymore, or the grants application is rejected,” said James Flattum, one of the group’s co-founders.
While CDOT waits for news of its grant application, it is still proceeding on schedule with the design and study phase of the project and continuing its outreach efforts. It canceled a March 18 town hall that was supposed to coincide with news about its grant application.
“We have not quite reached 30% design, so much work remains in the study phase before we can move to construction,” a CDOT spokesperson said in a statement. “We are committed to delivering a high-quality BRT on Federal Boulevard, and we will be holding additional public engagement opportunities in the near future.”
There have been no impacts to the federal funding received for the Colfax bus rapid transit, according to a spokesperson for RTD. Boulder County confirmed Diagonal Highway’s federal funding has not been affected either.
The Colorado Sun reached out to the Federal Transit Administration for comment and has not received a response.
