Saturday bus service is back in Colorado Springs
/ FOX21: Adam Jukkola
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- Facing a nearly $30 million budget deficit in 2010 forced the Colorado Springs City Council to cut costs and cut Mountain Metropolitan Transit's night and weekend bus services in the city.
About one year later, local riders are back aboard as Saturday bus service is reinstated and bringing 14 jobs with it.
Riders like Amy Buckman and her children use the bus four times a day and are dependent on the service to get to and from work and daycare.
"We can't go to the park, we can't have fun, we're more or less trapped if we don't have the bus service," Buckman said.
Mountain Metropolitan Transit restored the Saturday service after an in-depth evaluation. They said, "They're squeezing as much service as possible out of the available funding."
Saturday start time is approximately 6:30 a.m. for routes 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 9 (UCCS only), 12, 14 and 25. The end time is approximately 7 p.m.
Allison Childs has been looking up bus schedules and using public transportation since 1982, when she first moved to Colorado with her then husband.
"Usually [board] between 12-2 p.m. and take the buses wherever I'm going, and then take buses back," Childs said.
According to Metro officials it's going to costs $900,000 to reinstate the service. It also brings paratransit back for people with disabilities.
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