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Volume 15, Number 50 | January 18 - January 24, 2024
I N L GW L O R
FT H R A! IT Longtime RFTA CEO Dan Blankenship at the South Glenwood park-and-ride bus station at 27th Street in Glenwood Springs, where one of the latest projects that he helped to oversee, a new underpass for the Rio Grande bike trail and Highway 82, is being constructed as part of the Destination 2040 improvements. Blankenship will be retiring later this year after 35 years with the organization. Photo by John Stroud
Blankenship looks back on more than three decades in public transit By John Stroud Sopris Sun Correspondent If you ever wanted the history of today’s version of the Roaring Fork Valley’s public bus transportation system, a long conversation with Dan Blankenship is a good place to start. Be prepared, though … You’ll want to have a full cup of coffee or other beverage of choice and a refresh or two as the longtime CEO of the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority (RFTA) reflects on his 34-going-on-35 years with the organization and its predecessor,
the Roaring Fork Transit Agency, including every complicated detail of how it all came into being. Blankenship, 75, officially announced his planned retirement from RFTA late last year. The RFTA board of directors at its Jan. 11 meeting, named current Chief Operating Officer Kurt Ravenschlag as the sole finalist for the CEO position, with a targeted Sept. 1 transition date. In the meantime, Blankenship will stay on to share his vast knowledge of the inner workings of the largest rural transit system in the U.S. — secondlargest transit system in Colorado,
smaller only to Denver’s Regional Transportation District (RTD).
History of RFTA
The predecessor of today’s RFTA began in 1983, when Aspen and Pitkin County joined forces to combine the local bus system into a regional service that had extended as far as El Jebel by the time Blankenship climbed on board in September of 1989. At that time, RFTA had a contract management firm for which Blankenship and his predecessor, Bruce Abel, worked. Also with the
organization then was longtime general legal counsel for RFTA, Paul Taddune. “Bruce and Paul were great mentors for me, especially coming in cold to the area and into a new job,” Blankenship said. “They knew the organization, and knew the landscape politically, and so they really helped guide me through those early years.” Blankenship grew up in Colorado and had previously worked with the local Area Agency on Aging in Colorado Springs and Durango, before landing his first public transportation job with the Durango continues on page 6