A feasibility study is currently looking at the possibility of bus service between Cheyenne and Fort Collins, according to officials with the Cheyenne Metropolitan Planning Organization [MPO].

Tom Mason is the organization's Director, while Ginny Stevens is the organization's Senior Transportation Planner. They appeared on the ''Weekend in Wyoming" program on KGAB, am 650 on Saturday to discuss the study. You can read more about the study here.

The study is a joint project of the MPO, WYDOT, and the Colorado Department of Transportation [CDOT]. Stevens says the study should be completed by the end of this year, or within the next couple of weeks or so.

The transit plan is not in regard to high-speed rail service between the communities which is also under consideration. Stevens says ''What this study is mostly evaluating is what type of short-term transit would be most feasible and most ridden." She says that likely means bus service over the short term because it doesn't require additional infrastructure.

Mason says that while there is a movement toward rail service between Cheyenne and the Front Range, that is more of a long-term project. He says that proposal has moved out of the planning stages at this point, with the Colorado legislature approving the formation of a passenger rail district. But he adds that "they are in the beginning stages of formulating their organizational structure. The next step will be to ask communities for funding.

That might require voter approval in the various communities of taxes to pay for the service, and federal funding might also be included. Mason says Cheyenne and Wyoming officials have been involved with the planning stages on the proposed rail service ''so that we can stay on their radar so that Cheyenne is considered, ultimately maybe for the northern terminus." Mason says all in all the rail service could be "many years off.''

By comparison, bus transit could become a reality within 1-2 years if all goes well. You can hear the entire ''Weekend in Wyoming" interview with Mason and Stevens in the audio attached to this article.

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