Mountain Metropolitan Transit is the public transportation operator for the metro area of Colorado Springs, Colorado, providing service to downtown Colorado Springs and surrounding areas within city limits and to the city of Manitou Springs, Widefield and Security. It has 27 local routes. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .
History
Before Mountain Metropolitan Transit
Prior to Mountain Metropolitan Transit's launch on Thursday, November 2, 2005, the city of Colorado Springs had a transit system called Springs Transit. It was a service that had Weekday services, Saturday service (implemented in 1989), & Evening Service (implemented in 1992). The system used to span the city between Chapel Hills in the north to Widefield in the south, Manitou Springs in the west to Peterson AFB to the east, and much in between. The Downtown Terminal was the primary hub and every bus went to the Terminal (with the exception of the Route 5 – Eastern Crosstown, which used the Citadel as the primary transfer hub). The alternative main transfer points were The Citadel (#1, 2, 4, & 5) & PPCC (#2, 5, & 9). The color scheme was a sky blue with "Clean Air: It's Up To Us!" as their slogan. The signage at stops were a huge CS Transit logo that looked like a transit bus.
In 1992, there were 10 routes which were: (* indicates the route with the new evening services) Route 1 – North Academy* / Manitou* Route 2 – Fort Carson* / Peterson AFB Route 3 – Cascade* Route 4 – Wahsatch / Broadmoor Route 5 – Eastern Crosstown* Route 6 – Rustic Hills / West Uintah Route 7 – Hillside / Constitution Route 8 – Eastborough / Holland Park Route 9 – Widefield No Number – Union Express.
The route brochures were color coded & had both routes listed and was really simple to use. There was also a newspaper sized foldout that had the system map on the front, routes timetables listed inside, & the new Evening Service map/schedule combo on the back, simply easy to use. The fleet was aging, with most buses from the 1970s (see bus fleet grid below), the city bought 14 new Gillig buses, 1673–1684 Gillig Phantom's & 1617–1618 Gillig Spirit's, which helped with the new Evening Service implements.
In 1994, Springs Transit bought 10 new Gillig Phantom's 1685–1694, which were the first buses in Colorado Springs that had "working" Air Conditioning units, since the 1979 GMC RTS buses AC units were not fully functional due to a design flaw.
In 1995 & 1997, many routes were changed & a few were completely decommissioned during the service changes of those years. The routes were still interlined except they were given their own route numbers with a 1 in front (example: Route 11 – Manitou, etc.), and they introduced a more flimsy brochure with useless repetitive rules & information listed on each one. There were a couple of new routes including the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo extension to the Broadmoor route, Colorado Springs Airport saw 8 trips per weekday, and the 6-West Uintah & 9-Widefield routes were eliminated. Also, Springs Transit bought another 8 buses (9701-9708), 30' New Flyer Low Floors. In 1997, Springs Transit changed their color from sky blue to a burgundy wiggly stripe & the removal of the "Clean Air" campaign & logos.
In 1997, the routes & services were altered massively. Evening Services were changed frequently to try to fine tune ridership needs. The routes were still interlined, yet the numbering was changed to avoid confusion. The conversion of the curtain destination signs to digital made it much easier to make this happen. The 1997 routes offered were: Route 1 – North Academy Route 2 – Fort Carson Route 3 – Cascade Route 4 – Wahsatch Route 5 – Eastern Crosstown (Citadel/PPCC) Route 6 – Rustic Hills (Services were chopped from going to Hathaway to Paonia) Route 6 – West Uintah – ELIMINATED (Merged with Route 11 to form 11B AKA 11U) Route 7 – Hillside (7A-Ran the Winnipeg/Tahoe while 7B-Ran the Parkside/International) Route 8 – Eastborough Route 9 – Widefield – ELIMINATED Route 11 – A-Manitou/B-30th (11A AKA 11M ran to Manitou 11 times per day while 11B-Ran the 30th St.) Route 12 – Peterson AFB Route 14 – Broadmoor Route 15 – Eastern Crosstown (Citadel/East Library) Route 17 – Constitution Route 18 – Holland Park Route 21 – South Academy *NEW ROUTE* (Services between The Citadel and PPCC running every 70 mins.) Route 27 – Gateway Park (Similar to Hillside, departed the Terminal at :15 after the 7A departed) Route 27 – Las Vegas/CJC (The replacement for Gateway Park route after its demise from low ridership) Route 71 – Fountain Route 91 – Union Express