Mountain Metropolitan Transit

Mountain Metropolitan Transit is the public transportation operator for the metro area of Colorado Springs, Colorado, providing service to Peterson Air Force Base, Manitou Springs, Widefield and Chapel Hills.^[1] It has 18 local routes, and used to provide a commuter bus service (FREX) to the city of Denver.

History

Prior to November 2, 2005, this transit system was called Springs Transit. The week of November 2, 2005, it also introduced bus service on Sundays for the first time. A lack of Sunday bus service was a common complaint among riders.

By early 2006, the number of transfer stations increased from two (Downtown Terminal and Citadel Mall) to eleven stations throughout the city (UCCS, Chapel Hills Mall, Hancock Plaza, PPCC Centennial Campus, etc.). This allowed more direct bus service and allowed more routes to be created that don't have to go to the downtown terminal to transfer. For example, there were two routes running on Academy Blvd, one on the north part of Academy and another on the south part. That was reduced to just one route (25) running the length of Academy Blvd.

Frequency on weekdays for the most popular routes was 35 minutes. Medium ridership routes ran every 35 minutes during the peak hours. Frequency for medium ridership routes during the off-peak hours and lower ridership routes was every 70 minutes. Frequency on evenings and Sundays was 60 minutes. Frequency on Saturdays was 30 minutes for the higher ridership routes and 60 minutes for the other routes. Evening service ran Monday through Saturday. All routes were changed to run on the current 30 and 60-minute headways in the fall of 2008 after the debut of the Ute Pass Express.

Colorado Springs was deeply affected by the budget crisis. In January 2009, the fare increased from $1.50 to $1.75.^[2] Several routes were eliminated in April 2009, including most of the low-ridership routes, five express routes, eight transfer stations, and the free downtown shuttle (DASH). In addition, a few of the remaining routes had their frequency reduced from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Due to the elimination of all dedicated evening/Sunday routes, routes 5, 9 and 14 began running evenings and Sundays.

All evening and weekend bus service was terminated on January 1, 2010, along with the elimination of routes 30, 92, 93, and 95 due to the failure of 2C. As a result, from January 1, 2010 to March 7, 2011, Colorado Springs was the largest city in the United States that had no public transit service on weekends.

Also as a result of the 2010 service cuts, Route 14, a higher volume route, had its frequency cut from 30 minutes to 60 minutes. Many riders believe this was a major mistake, as it caused the route to become overcrowded during certain parts of the day, especially after Pikes Peak Workforce Center and the Department of Human Services were relocated to their current locations at 30th & Centennial.

In 2009, Mountain Metropolitan Transit received $8.8 million in ARRA funds.^[3] This money is being used for many things, such as allowing subcontractors to provide bus service, preventative maintenance, a new transit facility, 29 new paratransit vehicles, three new service support vehicles, security cameras installed on the buses, and improvements to the downtown terminal.

It was announced that partial weekend service would return for 2011 due to the city's budget being higher than expected. On March 12, 2011, limited Saturday service returned, with Routes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, and 25 running at hourly intervals.

On October 31, 2011, the service for Ute Pass Express, which was an express service for the city of Woodland Park, Colorado, was cut due to low ridership.

For the start of the 2012 year, it was proposed to test the feasibility of smaller buses for low-ridership routes. This would remove the normal 35 foot Gillig Phantoms and Gillig BRT's, to a 16 passenger cutaway bus. These were tested on routes 15, 16, 22, and 24.

On April 2, 2012, route 31 was eliminated due to the city of Fountain, Colorado not contracting with Mountain Metropolitan Transit anymore. Also, Mountain Metropolitan Transit split Route 22 (which also ran into Fountain near Fountain Mesa & Mesa Ridge) into two different routes. Route 22 was changed from running its normal route, and started to run the south part of Colorado Springs under a new route known as Southborough. The new Route 32, however, will run most of the normal Route 22, but will not continue to the city of Fountain. Along with these spring changes, its ADA paratransit (Metro Mobility) has increased its fare from $0.36 a mile to $0.38 a mile. The changes also changed the direction of Route 14, although no riders were affected. The change was to accommodate a new ridership pattern and the relocation of the El Paso County Human Services. Finally, Front Range Express (FREX) had its final service to and from Denver on August 31, 2012.

On April 1, 2013, some evening service returned, with Routes 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 25 running evening service The final 25 run will meet the last buses arriving at the Citadel. Route 25's last departure from the Citadel is at 9:44 PM. One additional trip was added to Route 10, leaving the downtown terminal at 6:45 PM and terminating at PPCC at 7:08 PM. Route 14 received some minor schedule changes to reduce delays caused by large numbers of people boarding at 30th & Centennial at certain times of the day.

Starting May 19, 2013, a free shuttle began in Manitou Springs. The shuttle runs along Manitou Avenue and connect the Cog Railway and Manitou Incline along Ruxton Avenue. It runs daily from 6 AM to 6 PM. Service frequency is 20 minutes from 6 AM to 8 AM, and 30 minutes afterwards.^[4]

On September 8, 2013, bus stop standardization was implemented on routes 1, 3, 5, and 25 to help with on-time performance. A new transfer station was built two blocks north of the Chapel Hills Mall on Voyager Pkwy, and buses that terminated at Chapel Hills Mall now terminate here instead. The change was made to prevent buses from having to enter the Chapel Hills Mall parking lot to service the mall, which can get crowded during the holiday shopping season. Route 14 was extended to serve Doherty High School on Barnes Rd.

Bus Fleet

The current bus fleet consists primarily of Gillig Phantoms and Gillig BRT's. Mountain Metro Transit also has two Gillig Low Floors, purchased in 2002.

Buses manufactured prior to 2005 are painted white and sport a large purple "metro" logo (as seen in the photograph). All buses purchased from 2005-onwards are painted in a variety of colors (blue, green, purple, lavender, gold, maroon, aqua, teal, silver, orange, black)and have a purple interior scheme.

Most of the 1999 Phantom fleet (except for 9908, 9909, and 9917) was retired and sold in October-November 2009 due to the April 2009 service cuts. The rest of the 1999 fleet was sold in April 2010.

The 2001 Gillig Phantoms are mainly used as backup buses due to the January 2010 service cuts. These buses still occasionally run routes (such as Route 24-Peterson AFB) until their retirement in early 2013.

The NovaBus RTS's were bought to be used on the 94-Monument Express route that went to Monument. In 2004, they began running on the newly introduced FrontRange Express (FREX). When the FREX received 19 new Gillig BRT's in 2007, the RTS's were painted in a new livery and ran on various express routes. As of 2010, these buses have been retired from active service because the last of the express routes (92, 93, and 95) were all eliminated.

The following chart lists all buses bought from 1975 up to the present day.

F0701-F0719 were bought to be used on the Front Range Express (FREX) to replace older buses that were prone to breaking down. They all feature a black paint scheme with high back seating & WiFi on board.

The Champion Defender buses were bought to be used on the Ute Pass Express. However, the Ute Pass Express was eliminated in late-October 2011. It is currently unknown if the buses are going to be used on existing fixed-route service or be retired altogether.

Most of the ElDorado buses were retired and sold after only one to two years of service due to the 2009 and 2010 service cuts. At least one, possibly two remain in service running the newly introduced Route 32.

Route list

• Front Range Express (FREX)
• Mountain Metropolitan Transit

Transfer Stations

Fares

November 2005 Route list (At Launch)

When Mountain Metropolitan Transit (Metro) launched on the 1st Thursday in November 2005, it changed almost everything the city of Colorado Springs had come to expect from the previous system, Springs Transit.

Please remember, some of THESE ROUTES ARE NO LONGER ACTIVE! (Please refer above for current info.)

References