The Trolley Project

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The Trolley Project

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.

 

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