A new version of the Bustang will gallop across the Eastern Plains, the Colorado Department of Transportation announced Wednesday morning.

The popular bus service up and down most of the Front Range and into the mountains and back will add service on U.S. 50 between Lamar and Pueblo, starting next Tuesday. The line will be called the Outrider.

“When we launched Bustang, it introduced a new era in the state’s transportation system,” CDOT executive director Michael Lewis said in a statement. “Now with Outrider, it marks another crucial step at creating the healthiest multi-modal transportation system in the country.

“Linking the rural areas of the state will provide a vital service for those who need or want the amenities that larger communities provide.”

The Bustang Outrider will run once a day in each direction, starting in Lamar at 7:10 a.m. and arriving in Pueblo 10:15 a.m. The Outrider will depart Pueblo at 3:45 p.m. and arrive in Lamar at 6:48 p.m., CDOT said. The bus will include stops in Fort Lyons, Las Animas, La Junta, Swink, Rocky Ford, Manzanola and Fowler.

A one-way ticket is $21 for the 123-mile trek.

The 38-seat Outrider coach offers many of the same amenities as the Bustang: restrooms, bike racks, free WiFi, power outlets, USB ports and it’ss handicap accessible.

Bustang currently terminates in Colorado Springs but CDOT said it expects to end the line to Pueblo sometime in 2018, while the Outrider could expand its services next summer between Alamosa and Pueblo, Gunnison and Denver and Durango and Grand Junction.

The Bustang celebrated its second year  of operation in August.  The line had a $10 million startup cost and takes about $3 million a year to operate. Last year it brought in about $1.5 million. The cost is covered by existing state transportation money and rider fees.

The state highway department laid out its rural transit plans in an April memo, which includes goals for where the buses might roll next. Read that memo by clicking here.