CSBJ Daily

The city will launch a new downtown shuttle service and unveil seven new free shuttle buses on Monday.

Seven new “DASH” buses will replace the free downtown shuttle buses on Monday.

The new service, called DASH – short for downtown area shuttle, will run routes between the Park-n-Ride at Tejon Street and Interstate 25 and Colorado College every eight minutes.

The free shuttle service, which up until this point has been funded by a federal grant, was in danger of being cancelled earlier this year when the city faced budget shortfalls.

But, city spokeswoman Amy MacDonald said the shuttle service was rescued when officials decided to pay for it through the city’s parking venture. She also said that five of the new buses were paid for by the college and the Downtown Partnership and that the city paid for the other two.

“I think people understood that the shuttle service was just too popular to let go of,” she said. “And now we have the great new buses and better service.”

Each of the new buses are painted with different colors and feature different downtown lifestyle themes, such as dining and shopping.