For Transfort and its riders, 2017 has been a big year.

In the past 12 months, the city-owned transit system helped usher in a new era of Colorado State University football, expanded its service to include every day of the year — a big step as it previously only operated bus routes six days a week — and saw more passengers than expected on its new Sunday routes.

From loads of passengers on game days to new Sunday bus service, here are some of the highlights from the year:

Game day bus service

Long before Colorado State University put the final touches on its on-campus stadium, Transfort planners were hard at work gearing up for the first home game.

In the year leading up to the opening of the new stadium, Transfort partnered with CSU to plan exactly what it would need to get people to the game on time and prevent traffic gridlock on the busy roads surrounding the stadium.

Transfort had some experience with larger events — Bohemian Nights at NewWestFest and Fourth of July festivities, for example — but 40,000 people all trying to get to and from the same place at the same time was a whole different animal.

"It was the biggest event, ever, that we've tried to serve," Transfort Service Development Manager Timothy Wilder said. "We carried almost 90,000 trips over that six-game period. So those are big numbers for us."

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A trip is defined as a time when anyone boards a Transfort bus in a given period of time. A person who took a bus to and from the game would count as two trips.

On Saturdays with home football games, Transfort was out in full force, offering free bus service and additional routes designed specifically for Rams fans trying to get to the game.

It ran 16 buses along its MAX line — that's 10 more buses than usual — picking people up every three minutes along the route on Mason Street. Transfort also ran buses that shuttled people in from parking lots on the outskirts of the CSU campus.

On the first game day, Transfort saw more than 21,000 trips. For comparison, Transfort gets about 5,200 on a normal weekday.

Wilder said Transfort expects to offer similar service next year, though it will work with CSU to make any necessary adjustments.

"The bottom line is every season will be different," he said. "But we do feel this first season was a good pilot, as well as provides a really good baseline for how we'll serve those games in the future."

Sunday service

The day after Transfort tackled the first home game at CSU's new stadium, it entered into uncharted territory.

It launched its 365-day-a-year bus service on Aug. 27. Sunday service is limited to the MAX line, which runs up and down Mason Street, and five other routes rather than the entire system.

The first day of Sunday service had about 2,000 boardings, with most of those riders taking MAX. Ridership has stayed around 2,000 boardings on Sundays, Wilder said, which is about double what officials expected when they first launched the service.

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Wilder said heading into 2018, Transfort will work to maintain the partnerships that made the 365-day service possible. ASCSU paid $40,000 for the service in 2017 and pledged $105,000 for next year. CSU pledged $40,000 for 2017 and $52,500 for next year.

"We continue to operate and see success," Wilder said. "There have been community members who have expressed interest in adding additional routes to our Sunday and holiday service, so that might be something we're looking into (in the future)."

Other milestones

While Sunday service and game day bus routes were Transfort's most notable milestones of the year, it also hit other benchmarks. Take a look:

Transfort updated 47 bus stops to make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city's goal is to have all its bus stops ADA compliant by 2025.

Transfort was named the Large Transit System of the Year by the Colorado Association of Transit Agencies. It was recognized for its work during football games, adding 365-day service and its 26 percent ridership increase in 2016.

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