Rapid transit - the early years

Getting around in the Pikes Peak region before 1887 was difficult unless you had your own coach or could afford to take one of the few expensive horse-drawn taxis.

James J. Hagerman, who steered the Colorado Midland Railroad to completion, recognized the need for public conveyances and recruited several businessmen to back a streetcar system. On Nov. 2, 1887, the first horsedrawn streetcar of the Colorado Springs & Manitou Street Railway Co. journeyed north on Tejon Street from Costilla Street to the Colorado College campus. A second line was built to Colorado City in 1888.

By 1891, the 10 horsedrawn cars had been replaced by electric models, the system had been expanded north to Harrison Street and a new line had been added to serve Spruce Street, Mesa Road, Walnut Street and Yampa Street. Subsequently, lines were built to Austin Bluffs (it was soon scaled back to the Union Printers Home) and to the Broadmoor Casino.

Eccentric millionaire W.S. Stratton bought the system in 1900 with the intention of making it the finest in the nation. It cost him $2 million. Stratton changed the name, then Colorado Springs Rapid Transit Railway, to Colorado Springs & Interurban Railway. He upgraded the tracks and cars and built a line southwest to Stratton Park, one of his gifts to the city. The motormen got new uniforms, a home-loan plan and the first group insurance offered by a transit company in the United States.

El Cana Shideler was employed as a motorman and conductor in 1895, making 15 cents an hour. The fare then, he recalled, was 5 cents, though it was doubled for transit to outlying areas. It was difficult to get a seat on the cars, most of which carried 20 people, during the peak of the summer season.

Stratton lived just long enough to see the streetcar system become a first-class operation. He died Sept. 14, 1902. The day before his funeral, the cars stopped in their tracks at 2 p.m. for five minutes.

The green-and-gold trolleys ran the streets of the Pikes Peak region until April 30, 1932. Rides were on the house that Saturday, and 40,000 passengers climbed aboard for one last trip.

The last cars left Pikes Peak Avenue and Tejon Street at 12:05 a.m. May 1, and the city's new bus service was inaugurated with a ceremony at 5:45 a.m.

Copyright 2001
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