It turns out that Aspen skiers really dig fossil fuels, especially when used to power those ridiculous Velociraptor buses running to Glenwood Springs at an astronomical cost of $36 million to American taxpayers.
The express bus service dubbed the VelociRFTA (Roaring Fork Transit Authority), offers the 40-mile excursion to and from the ritzy resort at a federally subsidized cost of $600 round trip, and tops this year’s list of pork projects funded by Congress.
And by Congress, we mean U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, and former spender Senator Mark Udall. Bennet actually conducted a town hall meeting on one of the buses, where he declared his support of the project and pledged to push for funding.
The total project cost was $46 million, and it bought us a fleet of buses with dinosaurs painted on the side, wireless Internet service, and stations with heated sidewalks that are decorated with dinosaur footprints and gigantic replicas of dinosaur eggs.
According to the pork report issued by GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona:
This surely represents the kind of deal whose extinction any taxpayer would hope for. It seems that the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority should concentrate more on running an efficient and busy transit system and less on marketing and branding schemes. RFTA has received numerous capital investment grants from the (U.S. Transportation Department) after the earmark moratorium and continues to apply for federal assistance for their buses.
There is no doubt that RFTA officials are claiming victory over this government grab. However, taxpayers will be happy when federal spending like this is just as extinct as the dinosaurs that the buses claim to emulate.
Although we personally think it’s rather clever to operate dinosaur buses on fuel created by dead dinosaurs, we’re not keen on actually subsidizing this Jurassic pork project for Aspen.