Is the express bus even still running? When LR extensions in the Sac area were done, the commute expresses between the new end of the line and downtown were cancelled, allegedly because "FTA doesn't allow competition between federally funded transit services."

Of course, it could be (and most likely was) because the City only wanted to fund one of the commuter services, and they were required for other reasons to fund LR, so the bus had to go. OTOH, adding up all of the commute buses we had before LR, there were maybe 400-500 riders served; with the crowds that showed up on LR, that was covered by only 1-2 trains, right away. In our case, the commute bus in the morning typically made the run in 35-40 minutes, though the PM commute (before diamond lanes opened on most of the freeway) was usually closer to an hour (compared to 50 on LR when it started, about 60 now). BTW, in about 7 years of bus commuting (before LR arrived), I recall only 2-3 cases where the ability of the bus to detour was useful, and only one where it was actually necessary (due to an all-day/eve emergency closure of the freeway and the only parallel alternative, where LR is also now located). If Foothill is a standard transit operator getting federal subsidy, I'd expect them to lose enough traffic to LR that the express will go away soon even if the FTA excuse is bogus.