Mountain Metropolitan Transit

[TransitFan93]

Nobody's started a thread about Mountain Metropolitan Transit in Colorado Springs, Colorado. So I've decided to start the thread with some history of the system from 2005 to the present day, an up to date fleet roster to the best of my knowledge, and some photos I've taken of some of the buses in their fleet.

Mountain Metropolitan Transit was once a good bus system with many local routes, a few express routes, and dedicated express routes to Woodland Park (Ute Pass Express) and to Denver (FREX). Many routes ran evenings and on Sundays. The system was called Springs Transit prior to November 2005 and was renamed due to the system serving more areas outside the Colorado Springs city limits. When the system was renamed, all the local routes were renamed and renumbered, evening service was added to more routes and was expanded to include Saturday as well as weekdays. Sunday service was added for the first time since the early 1960's, which many riders wanted for many years before then.

However, the system is owned by the City of Colorado Springs, which was unfortunately hit very hard by the economy crisis in late 2008. The fare was already raised from $1.25 to $1.50 in 2008 to avoid service cuts, and to $1.75 in January 2009. But the second fare hike wasn't enough and major service cuts took place in April , eliminating many lower ridership routes, most of the express routes, and even the free downtown shuttle (DASH). Also, there was a reduction of evening and Sunday service to trunk routes only. Some of the routes were adjusted to compensate for the loss of many of the routes. Most of the 21 1999 Gillig Phantoms (9901-9921) that were in service at the time were parked due to the cuts. Only five 99 Phantoms remained in active service starting April 2009. All but five of the 99 Phantoms were sold in October 2010.

The city offered Proposition 2C which would have gradually raised taxes over a period of a few years to prevent cuts to police, emergency personnel and further cuts to the bus system. Sadly, it was turned down and Mountain Metropolitan Transit was forced to make even more drastic cuts, this time all evening and weekend service was eliminated. Bus service to Fort Carson and Schriever Air Force base was eliminated, and one high volume route (Route 14) had its frequency reduced to 60 minutes. FREX was almost eliminated, but the sale of nine of their nineteen Gillig BRT 40' suburban buses saved FREX from being cut. All the remaining 99 Phantoms were retired from service, along with their three 2002 NovaBus RTS-06 WFD suburban buses (0201-0203) were retired.

However, as Colorado Springs recovered from the economy crisis, Saturday service returned to half of the eighteen remaining routes in March 2011. As of April 2013, limited evening service was restored to seven trunk routes (weekdays only). A free shuttle was started in Manitou Springs on Sunday May 19, 2013. It's kind of weird that they have the Manitou Shuttle running seven days a week with no other routes currently running on Sunday.

Sadly, Ute Pass Express was eliminated in fall 2011 due to very low ridership. FREX, despite its success, was eliminated in September 2012 to focus on improving bus service inside the Colorado Springs city limits.

Full Saturday service and some Sunday service will likely see a return in the next one to three years. In my opinion, they should have privatized the entire system, which would help restore service to 2008 levels and allow the city to hire more police officers and emergency personnel.

Current fleet roster:

0101-0105: 2001 Gillig Phantom C20B102N4 (most if not all are retired; Most now in Pueblo Transit's fleet)

0206-0207: 2002 Gillig Phantom C18B102N4

0208-0209: 2002 Gillig Low Floor G18D102N4

0501-0504: 2005 Gillig BRT G27B102N4

0505-0507: 2005 Gillig BRT G27D102N4

0601-0612: 2006 Gillig BRT G28D102N4

0700-0707: 2007 Gillig BRT G28B102N4

0800-0805: 2008 Gillig BRT G28B102N4

5500, 5506: 2008 StarTrans Senator on Ford E-450 chassis (5501-5505 are retired due to service cuts in 2009-2010)

For the photo section of this post, I'm posting photos of one Gillig Phantom, one Gillig Low Floor, and five Gillig BRT's. Sadly, I have no photos of the StarTrans Senator cutaways as they are currently running the Manitou Shuttle. If you want to see more photos or videos of Mountain Metropolitan Transit buses, you are more than welcome to go to my Flickr account or my YouTube account. My username is MMTfan1 for both my Flickr and YouTube accounts.

[MAX BRT]

Thanks for the detailed synopsis! Its impressive how much you know.

I dig the Gillig Phantom with the tip-in windows.

[bzcat]

Are the different color buses just for fun or do they suggest different service mode?

[TransitFan93]

Are the different color buses just for fun or do they suggest different service mode?

They just decided to paint the Gillig BRT's mulitple colors just for fun.

[TransitFan93]

There is good news for Mountain Metropolitan Transit for 2014. Sunday service will see a return, with seven routes running hourly from 7:30 AM to 5:45 PM. Summer holiday service will also be added, as the service will run at Sunday-level service on Memorial Day, Independence Day (4th of July), and Labor Day. However, there will continue to be no service on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day for the time being. Those will be the only days that no bus service will be provided.

A new route has been approved that will readd service along the Powers Blvd corridor. It is considered a "local express" route as it will run hourly five days a week from 6:15 AM to 7:15 PM and it's stops are on side streets. It will be known as Route 23 - Tutt Blvd via Powers Blvd. It is weird that they are reusing numbers of old routes that were cut.

Route 14 has been expericing overcrowding due to having it's frequency reduced to 60 minutes in January 2010, the relocation of the El Paso County Citizen's Service Center to Garden of the Gods Rd in late 2011, and problems with on-time performance caused by the combination of the overcrowding, an extension to Barnes Rd, and changes to the Chestnut & Fillmore since September 2013, it has been proposed to split the route into two routes to improve on-time performance. The existing Route 14 will be rerouted slightly to cut six to eight minutes off the round trip and will now terminate at Garden of the Gods Rd. The other segment will be known as Route 34 and will service the remainder of the current 14 from the Citizen's Service Center to Austin Bluffs & Barnes Rd. It is being proposed to increase the headway of the new 14 to 30 minutes as soon as possible.

Route 9 is also going to experience some changes. It will be split into two routes, Route 9A and Route 9B. Route 9A will run the whole route from the downtown terminal to Research Pkwy, while Route 9B will only go from the downtown terminal to UCCS. Both routes will run hourly, reflecting the current headways on route 9. The changes will not affect headways or routing, but will make it easier for riders to distinguish which runs will service the north half of the route. However, evening service will be added to the north half of the route as Route 9A will run evening service. Only Route 9B will operate on weekends as service currently terminates at UCCS on Saturday (and Sunday come April).

However, the City of Colorado Springs still does not have a healthy budget. As a result, there will be some forced cuts to the current limited Saturday service. Route 14 will stop running on Saturday due to "low ridership", despite Route 12 being the lowest volume route that currently runs on Saturday. The new route 34 may not run all-day on Saturday, but instead may only run from 6 AM to 10 AM and from 2:30 PM to 7:00 PM. These proposed cuts to Saturday service are likely to be temporary.

The seasonal Manitou Shuttle will be running this year, most likely from the start of May until Labor Day. The service will likely run seven days a week from 6 AM to 6 PM just like last year. Headways will most likely remain at 20-30 minutes.

Due to these service changes, it is imminent that new buses will be coming in as the 02 Gilligs (0206-0209) are now 12 years old and may be retired this year, and more buses will be needed for the Manitou Shuttle, Route 14 (to allow for 30 minute headways) and the new Route 23. They will very likely be Gillig BRT's just like previous orders from 2005-2008. I won't be surprised if they get a mixture of 30, 35, and 40 footers. Some of the new buses may be hybrids and/or CNG powered.

[roamer]

(self-deleted ...questions retracted)