Industry News
New this winter, Snowstang is a series of bus routes attempting to alleviate traffic in the I-70 corridor. The three routes are the newest of the innercity Bustang routes rolled out by CDOT four years ago. Snowstang will ferry passengers to Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, and Steamboat ski areas. Roundtrip tickets will start at $25 for Loveland and Arapahoe Basin and $40 for Steamboat. This is a competitive price point for any individual driving a large 4×4 vehicle, not to mention the peace of mind of not having to drive home. The route will not only mitigate the number of cars on the road but also limit the number of accidents. Public transportation is a better plan then loosely enforced traction laws. Two-wheel drive cars continue to spin their wheel heading up the steep mountainous highway.
Colorado’s Governor saw the effects of ski traffic first hand. On December 4th Jared Polis said “Last year, our family went skiing in Vail, and it took us about six hours to get back on a Sunday night. We want to offer a solution to that. There’s a better way.” It is interesting that even the governor gets stuck in I-70 traffic. It is nice to know that he is doing something to try and mitigate it. That being said it is somewhat disappointing that it took this long for a major metropolitan area like Denver to get public ski transportation going. Salt Lake City has bus routes up Little and Big Cottonwood canyons. They even have a ski bus route that goes to Jackson Hole. Snowstang is now shuttling skiers to and fro the alpine playground of summit county. Hopefully, we will see ridership increase and keep the program running.
Good luck getting the train approved through all the Enviro regulations put in place by Obama.
Trump2020
Face it. Who the hell prefers to sit on a bus instead of their own car?? Seriously. Nobody. Especially the hundreds of thousands of visitors that fly in. Train, monorail, maglev are only real public options people will want to actually use.
$25 round trip is an acceptable solution. For most people, the gas to get out and back from one of these close ski resorts is between $15 and $20. Combine that with the fact that the majority of people DO actually try to carpool – after all skiing/snowboarding alone isn’t as fun as shredding with your buds. That ends up being $50 for 2 people rather than $20. If you’re a frequent visitor, it’s not worth it.
Then, there’s the fact that CDOT actually wanted to charge more for the service, but the resorts subsidized the project to try to keep the price down. Allegedly, you can get a cross-country ticket on a greyhound for $141. Charging $25 PP for a 40 mile jaunt down I-70 is ridiculous and most people know it. CDOT is just trying to make a profit. I don’t think we’re going to see any real progress here unless the state sponsors some type of public transportation or people actually start traveling with proper equipment (snow tires, chains, etc.)
You gave us the where to, but where FROM? “Denver” is a big place……
Union station and federal center station