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The primary
mission of the Pikes Peak Historical Street Railway Foundation is the
restoration and operation of electric trolleys in Colorado Springs and
Manitou Springs, with limited operations anticipated to commence in the
year 2003.
In
the past six years, the Foundation has completed a feasibility study of a
West Side route, leased and improved a heavy maintenance facility and
museum, assembled a fleet of fourteen streetcars, ranging in age from 57
to 103 years old, obtained a voter-approved operating franchise from the
City of Colorado Springs, and worked out most of the details of its
proposed operating system with City officials and neighborhood and retail
associations. An engineering firm was retained to finalize system details
with the City, to assist the Foundation in costing the project out and in
securing bids to build it, and to put together a final proposal for
Colorado Springs City Council approval.
The above project has been
placed on hold at the request of the Colorado Department of Transportation
due to major rebuilding of I-25, which will cross over Colorado Avenue.
The placement of four bridges, where there are now two, and their desire
to build these bridges without having to work around live wires and since
they will be doing us some very big favors, we in turn have agreed to hold
off construction until their work is complete. However, in the meantime we
have directed our attention to building a line into the downtown/urban
renewal area, which now is beginning to develop and will be offering us
some exciting opportunities. This line, which will be known as the
Monument Valley, route will begin at our present car house facility in the
Roswell area and operate directly south parallel to the Union Pacific
Railroad and Monument Valley Creek for three miles on private right away.
Coming into the downtown area of Colorado Springs at the north end of
Giuseppe's Depot Restaurant and then on into the urban renewal area on a
route yet to be determined. This area will contain a new convention
center, hotel, the US Olympic Committee's general office building, and
possibly a Sky Sox baseball stadium. The first mile and a half of this
route will be built between Roswell and the north end of Monument Valley
Park where a wye will be installed; once this is up and running, we will
concentrate on the balance of the trackage to the south. We are looking
for this first mile and a half to be up and running in about two years. We
expect to have four cars operational for this mileage. The cars that we
intend to operate are as follows: PCC 2129, 2131, and Birney Car 135. All efforts and resources are now being directed to
bringing this project to a reality.
The initial
segment of our proposed route from Colorado Springs to Manitou Springs
will be a loop through the north end of downtown. This two-mile loop will
be placed in operation or construction on West Colorado
Avenue. |