Posted inClimate, News

Summit Stage gets $35 million federal grant for electric bus operations center that will serve ski country

Summit Stage, the transit lifeline linking ski areas, workers and mountain towns in three counties, will get nearly $35 million from the federal infrastructure law to build an electric bus operations center and edge toward Summit County climate change goals.  It’s the largest federal grant Summit County has ever seen, and funds most of the […]

Posted inBusiness, Growth, Health, News

The only hospital in the country’s highest altitude city is thriving after near-closure 7 years ago

When the only hospital in Leadville started to close down seven years ago, officials in the highest-altitude city in the country worried they would lose their “heart and soul.” There were layoffs in the nursing department. Extended care patients were moved to nursing homes. A city council member feared retirees would flee to other areas […]

Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Outdoors

Leadville’s gear-lending “library” is tearing down barriers to build a new generation of outdoor adventurers

LEADVILLE — Vanessa Saldivar was 5 when her father hiked her up the bunny slope at Mt. Hood Skibowl in Oregon. She didn’t have a fancy jacket. She used socks as mittens. Her dad gave her a nudge. And she was hooked.  “All these barriers just broke down in that moment,” said the new executive […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Outdoors, Transportation

Transportation board kills plan for trains to return to Colorado’s dormant Tennessee Pass

The Surface Transportation Board on Thursday rejected a plan by a rail operator to revive train traffic on Colorado’s mountainous Tennessee Pass Line.  Colorado Midland & Pacific Railway Company — a new division of Texas-based Rio Grande Pacific Corp. — asked the transportation board on Dec. 31, 2020 for streamlined approval of its plan to […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Newsletters, Outsider, Transportation

Potential operator of trains on Colorado’s Tennessee Pass promises rail line wouldn’t transport crude oil

Colorado Midland & Pacific Railroad, which is vying to run trains across the long-dormant Tennessee Pass Line between Cañon City and Gypsum, promises it will never transport crude oil, coal or hazardous materials on the line.  The nascent railroad operator’s plan to return trains to the line that has been idle since 1997 riled residents […]

Posted inBusiness, News, Newsletters, Outsider, Transportation

Opponents urge federal board to reject revival of Tennessee Pass railroad along Arkansas, Eagle rivers

Opposition to the plan to revive long-dormant rail traffic on Tennessee Pass is growing by the day.  Residents of Chaffee, Lake and Eagle counties buried the Surface Transportation Board this month with opposition to the plan proposed by a Texas-based, short-line operator to begin running freight and possibly passengers on tracks that last saw trains […]

Posted inBusiness, Economy, Environment, Transportation

New plans for rail traffic over Colorado’s Tennessee Pass spark protest from grain-hauling competitor

The Rio Grande Pacific Corp., based in Fort Worth, Texas, has the lease to run trains on the long-dormant lines between Cañon City and Dotsero. But it will be many years before passenger cars and tankers filled with the freight-mover’s crude oil traverse Tennessee Pass — and not just because costs to fix the line […]