Pueblo Transportation Infrastructure (Denver, Colorado Springs, Durango: 2013, maintenance, cost of)

[livecontent]

One does not need to be a large city to have an excellent public transit system. We have an excellent example of a city here in Colorado. Boulder is about the size of Pueblo and has an outstanding mass transit bus system. Boulder adds to the RTD district budget by providing circular buses to the local bus service. Of course, it is because of the demand of the large university and the liberal mindset of minimizing the impact to the environment. You find the same attitude in many other college communities across the country.

Unfortunately many cities have a preponderance of people that will never get out of their car and fail to support public transit spending. However, they fail to realize that a good public transit provide services to the elderly, the disabled, the youth and those who cannot afford a car. It also allows these people more room on the highways for their car lifestyle.

I have examined the Pueblo Transit

City of Pueblo, Colorado - Pueblo Transit

I do not think it is such a bad system. It provides the level of service that meets the demand for service during the main part of the day. It certainly can provide good service for the elderly who live in the denser parts of town and these people usually do not venture out at night.

I like the idea that buses are free for kids all summer. It gives them some freedom of mobility and saves the parents from being a taxi service. In addition, it keeps them out of cars driven by immature older kids.

I am a big supporter of public transit and do have a need for the service, as I have difficulty driving because of a disability. Pueblo does provide the basic service to the disabled with the Citi Lift service. Also, I have very little need for a evening bus service. I probably could easily live in Pueblo in the inner part of the city and be quite happy. I have lived in NYC and Europe and I am very familiar with an extensive system but as I have got older my needs are less, and I just do not move around as much. A smaller city with good simple amenities, like Pueblo, is inviting.

Again, I say Pueblo can be a very nice little city for us retired senior citizens. The weather is better than most areas of the State. With some marketing and improvements to provide a draw for seniors, Pueblo could be another Las Cruces, NM or Palm Beach, FL. It could become the new big retirement center on the High Plains. Senior citizens with good pensions and retirement benefits can provide jobs and bring in cash to an area--with monies that come from other municipalities where pensions were earned.

Provide Senior Citizens with a good health care, a feeling of safety and security, some amusements and also good public transit system; you will then have a big clean industry that will continue to grow.

Livecontent

[Josseppie]

Pueblo's airport is getting a boost. The FAA is going to pay 95% of the cost for a 3rd runway and that is largely due to the USAF pilot school. I have heard that it is one of the busiest airports in the country for take off and landings and this just proves that. Passenger boardings are going up as well and the airport is expected to get over 10,000 passenger boardings by this summer and that will permit it to get a federal grant that is $850,000 dollars for much needed improvements. One of the areas they want to improve is the ticketing and boarding areas. Right now it's inadequate for the amount of passengers who use the airport. Pueblo might not be growing as fast as our northern neighbors but the entire city is growing and that is fun to watch.

Here is the article on the new airport runway from the Chieftain:



The Federal Aviation Administration is paying 95 percent of the cost for the new 5,000-foot runway, which will both help commercial traffic at the airport as well as support the Air Force's flight-training program operated by Doss Aviation.

The link: Construction starts on training runway - The Pueblo Chieftain: Local

Here is a picture I took of the USAF pilot school in Pueblo.

[Josseppie]

There was a interesting story on KOAA about the role Pueblo's Memorial Airport is playing in fighting the forest fires. It is home to the Pueblo Air Tanker Base so the planes being used to fight the fires come to Pueblo to refuel and get more fire repellent. An interesting side story is when a jet like a 747 or 777 flies into a airport the air traffic controllers refers to the flight # then say heavy. An example is "United 123 Heavy". Since obviously Pueblo does not get those passenger planes the air traffic controllers rarely use that here but with the tankers they are refereed as "heavy" so for a while our traffic controllers will be saying it many time a day, 7 days a week.

Here is a link to the story:

NewsFirst5.com | Colorado Springs | Pueblo | View Videos

I want to add that obviously I am not happy there are forest fires but I found the story interesting that is shows Pueblo is part of the fire fighting effort.

[McGowdog]

Nice info about the airport. Touch and go's are sure keeping that airport busy.

But other than that, it sure don't seem like a very busy airport.

For example, just a few months ago, I did my CDL maneuver training in the Pueblo Airport parking lot.

[Josseppie]

There is defiantly room for improvement. Personally I would be happy with 4 flights to DIA and 4 flights from DIA on a regional jet. A schedule like this:

To DIA:

6 am, 10 am, 2 pm, 5 pm,

To Pueblo

9 am, 1, pm, 4 pm, 10 pm (this plane stays overnight and is the 6 am morning flight back to DIA)

We are close to it now with Great lakes but its not a regional jet. I would take it more but there is no night flight and most of the trips I take seem to get me back to DIA at night so the only connection I can make is to Colorado Springs.

[McGowdog]

I can be at the ticketing booth in the Springs airport from my home inside of an hour.

Or... you could always fly to Springs I guess. What's that? a 7 minute flight? With a 27 minute trip to and from the Pueblo Airport? Thank you no.

[Josseppie]

I don't want to fly to Colorado Springs from Pueblo I want to have a regional jet fly non stop to DIA from Pueblo. For me that works because when I fly out of the Springs I always fly to DIA and connect on to the larger planes.

Flying out of the Springs is not bad but I would prefer to fly out of Pueblo.

[Josseppie]

Some good news as Pueblo Memorial Airport has past the 10,000 mark in boardings and should get over 20,000 by the end of the year. This allows the airport to get federal grants of $850,000.

This is from the Pueblo Chieftain:

Those regular Allegiant flights to Las Vegas have helped the Pueblo Memorial Airport hit its own jackpot — boarding more than 10,000 passengers this year and qualifying the airport for $850,000 in additional federal funding next year.

The link: City airport hits 10,000 passenger jackpot - The Pueblo Chieftain: Local

[phetaroi]

2010 full year passenger emplanements (rounded) in Colorado:

1. Denver -- #5 in U.S. -- 25.2 million (+5.1%)
2. COS -- #89 -- 877,000 (-5.9%)
3. Aspen -- #170 -- 222,000 (+2.7%)
4. Grand Junction -- #172 -- 219,000 (-4.2%)
5. Eagle -- #176 -- 201,00 (+10.6%)
5. Durango -- #188 -- 164,000 (+10.5%)
6. Yampa -- #213 -- 110,000 (-10.2%)
7. Montrose -- #221 -- 96.500 (+4.8%)
8. Fort Collins -- #297 -- 35,671 (+14.8%)
9. Pueblo -- #380 -- 11,641 (+124%)

Just the data, no comment.

[Josseppie]

Thanks for the data.

What I find interesting is how numbers at the airport are up even during this bad economic period. I am curious to see what happens once the economy really begins to recover. Especially if Pueblo gets the state tourism grant and we get 200,000 more tourists a year as predicted.