Winter Park Express Ski Train Suspended for the 2020-21 Season

In a joint statement today, Amtrak and Winter Park announced the suspension of all Winter Park Express train service for the 2020-21 winter season. The partners say that they cannot feasibly operate the service next season with required COVID-19 social distancing measures. Plans call for the service to return for the 2021-22 season.

When it ran, this January-March service operated once a day on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Trips from Denver’s Union Station departed at 7am and returned from Winter Park at 4:30pm. The service initially began back in 1940, and trains started running again in 2018 after a previous suspension from 2009 to 2017.

Our Take

While chiefly only useful for those living or staying in Denver (most guests coming from the airport would need to stay overnight in the city to make the train), Winter Park’s train service provided a unique, traffic-free way to get to the mountain. Some will be disappointed in the suspension of service this season, but given the need for social distancing in the COVID era, packing a large number of resort visitors into an enclosed train for a fairly long period of time seems like a bad idea. If an outbreak were to occur on the train, it would be a disaster waiting to happen for Winter Park.

For those intent on using the train to get to Winter Park, Amtrak’s California Zephyr will still stop in nearby Fraser, where shuttle service to the resort is available. This service will runs 3 days a week this winter.

Despite this suspension of service, Winter Park still offers a well-rounded, family-friendly experience. For more on the resort, see our take here.