![]() The corridor was purchased in 1996 at a cost of $8.5 million. In 1994 the Roaring Fork Railroad Holding Authority (RFRHA) was created as a public entity to purchase the former Denver and Rio Grande Aspen Branch between Glenwood Springs and Woody Creek. Also during this time period, the Environmental Protection Agency designated Aspen as a PM 10 non-attainment area, resulting in RFTA increasing services to reduce air pollution and vehicle miles traveled, particularly along the SH 82 corridor. Ridership increases were contributed to service extension to Glenwood Springs, a free downtown circulator in Glenwood Springs, frequency increases, and the introduction of paid parking in Aspen. īetween 19, RFTA experienced incredible growth of 85% from 1.9 million to 3.5 million annual rides. From 1984 to 1989, yearly ridership increased 36% from 1.4 million to 1.8 million. Service was extended to Carbondale in 1989. In 1983 the Roaring Fork Transit Agency (RFTA) was formed by merging the two systems, funded by a 1¢ sales tax. Aspen Free Shuttle operated fixed routes within the city and to Aspen Skiing Company mountains, while Pitkin County bus operated on the SH 82 corridor to El Jebel. RFTA's origins dates back to the mid-1970s when the City of Aspen and Piktin County implemented separate free transit services for the area, Aspen Free Shuttle and Pitkin County Bus, respectively. Due to early abandonment, the Aspen City Railway never converted to electric streetcars as was common during that time. The repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1983, Aspen's economy collapsed, and it is assumed operations were abandoned sometime afterwards. The system was the smallest in the state, owning only two cars and five horses. In June, the Aspen City Railway opened a 1.2 mi (1.9 km) narrow gauge horsecar line that zigzagged through the city. In 1890, Aspen's economy boomed after the passing of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, becoming the largest silver producer in the United States. The Colorado Midland Railway's route was later converted to Colorado State Highway 82 (SH 82). Denver and Rio Grande's competitor, Colorado Midland Railway, reached Aspen the same year, and completed their connection downvalley to Glenwood Springs on December 9, 1887. ![]() The railroad continued extending their line upvalley to Aspen, completing the Aspen Branch on October 27, 1887. Transportation in the Roaring Fork Valley dates back to the late-1880s, when the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad ran their first train to Glenwood Springs on October 5, 1887. In September 2013, RFTA became the first rural transit provider to construct and operate bus rapid transit in the United States. RFTA is the second largest transit provider in Colorado (after Denver) and the largest rural transit provider in the United States. RFTA also operates seasonal ski shuttles, guided bus tours to Maroon Bells, paratransit, and manages the Rio Grande Trail. RFTA's service area stretches 70 miles (110 km) from Aspen to Rifle, serving major cities of Basalt, Snowmass Village, Carbondale, and Glenwood Springs in between. The Roaring Fork Transportation Authority ( RFTA pronounced / r æ f t ə/) is an agency that operates public transportation for the Roaring Fork Valley in Colorado. By 1966, the one-room country school had become a thing of the past.A hybrid electric bus brings visitors to and from the picturesque Maroon Bells on an autumn morning.Ġ051 Service Center Drive, Aspen, Colorado 81611īiodiesel, CNG, Gas, Battery electric School districts consolidated, pooling their resources to provide more teachers, broader curriculum, and opportunity for extracurricular activities. Equipped with little more than a blackboard and a few textbooks, teachers passed on to their pupils cultural values along with a sound knowledge of the three Rs.īy the turn of the century, the population began to shift to the cities and country schools began to lose students and tax support. She had to be a nurse, janitor, musician, philosopher, peacemaker, wrangler, fire stoker, baseball player, professor, and poet for less than $50 a month. The school teacher, sometimes slightly older than her pupils, was a renaissance individual. When they arrived on their first day of school they may have only known how to speak a foreign language but they soon learned how to speak, read, spell, and write English. They got to school on foot, on horseback, or in a wagon. The children who attended ranged in age from five to 21 and endured dust storms, prairie fires, and cattle drives swirling past the school house in order to get an eighth grade education. They were called names like Prairie Flower, Buzzard Roost, and Good Intent. For a hundred years, white frame or native stone one-room schoolhouses dotted the section corners across Kansas.
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