COLORADO SPRINGS — There are now 175 school bus spots at the new D49 Transportation Center in Falcon. That's up from only 98 spots for 105 buses at the old facility.
The district's transportation director, Jack Pietraallo, said they needed more space to keep up with the number of kids coming to the district.
"When I started at this district, we had 5,000 kids, I think the number is around 32,000, so it's a lot, so yeah it's a lot of growth and it's still growing," said Pietraallo.
The new facility has been about six years in the making.
Pietraallo said they hired about 25 more bus drivers this summer, which allows for more routes and riders this upcoming school year.
"We know that we have areas that there are kids waiting for a bus ride and as soon as we get a route on that area, it's going to grow that number," said Pietraallo.
Pietraallo said the facility could potentially hold 300 buses down the line if needed.
The fee to ride a school bus is going up this year from $200 to now $300 a rider.
The new center also comes with more space to fix buses. From three to now nine bays, one technician said they can get buses in and back out on the road faster.
"I feel happy, I feel like I got the lottery 'cause coming from the small shop to the big shop, it's a big improvement, it's awesome," said Rafael Negron.
Negron said they have more tools there and room for safer working conditions.
"I feel like right now, productivity has increased about 75% by the way we was doing it in the old shop because we can work on 2, 3, 4 vehicles, 6 trucks at the same time," said Negron.
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