Grand County · Mountain Rail Update
The Daily Train from Denver to Winter Park
The state is still aiming for November. Here is what is confirmed, what has not been announced yet, and what owners in Grand County should keep an eye on.
By Chris Pritchett · Updated October 22, 2026
The Winter Park Express at the Winter Park Resort station, March 2024. Photo: BUTTON74, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
For years the only way most people got to Winter Park was over Berthoud Pass on US 40, with a seasonal ski train as the exception. That is about to change. The Colorado Department of Transportation’s Mountain Rail program is still targeting November 2026 for a new daily, year-round passenger train from Denver to Winter Park, Fraser and Granby. CDOT’s assistant director of passenger rail, Maux Sullivan, has called that first phase the project’s “North Star.”
We first wrote about Mountain Rail in August, in Mountain Rail Is Coming, and followed it with a look at the Mountain Rail Initiative and the new Granby train station mural. With launch season here, this is a plain status check: what the state has confirmed in writing, what it has not, and where the line goes from here.
What is confirmed for the first train
Phase 1A, per CDOT
- Route: Denver Union Station to Winter Park Resort, Fraser-Winter Park and Granby, about 76 rail miles through the Moffat Tunnel on existing track and stations
- Frequency: one round trip a day, year-round, up from Denver in the morning and back from Granby in the afternoon
- Layover: the train and crew wait in Granby during the day, at a new layover facility CDOT is building there
- Existing trains stay: Amtrak’s California Zephyr and the seasonal Winter Park Express keep running alongside it
The Winter Park Express is the clearest evidence of demand. In the 2025/26 season it carried 39,451 riders, filled about 88% of its seats and averaged a $26 ticket, according to CDOT’s April 2026 season recap. That was with service only Thursday through Sunday, January 8 through March 29.
The money for the first phase comes from a dedicated source. Senate Bill 24-184, passed in 2024, created a congestion impact fee on rental cars that can only be used for rail and related projects. That means the first train does not depend on federal grants or on the state’s general budget.
Up to three daily round trips are allowed under the state’s 25-year agreement with Union Pacific. The first train is only the start.
What has not been announced
As of October 22, 2026, CDOT has not published an exact start date, a timetable, fares or the service’s official name. Naming and branding appeared on the March board agenda, and the operator contract was still being negotiated at that point. You may see a specific November date repeated online. I have not found it in any CDOT or Amtrak material, so I would not plan a trip around it until the state confirms it.
Amtrak also has not released the 2026/27 Winter Park Express schedule. It announced the season in early November for each of the last two years, so expect news soon. Given how full those trains ran last winter, it is worth booking as soon as tickets go on sale.
The second train, and a stop in Arvada
Phase 1B is where the service starts to look like real transportation for people who live here. It adds a second daily round trip that runs the other direction, leaving Granby in the morning and returning in the evening, so Grand County residents could spend a full day on the Front Range and come home by rail.
Coming to the west metro
A planned stop in Arvada
CDOT is studying up to five possible locations in the Arvada area for a new “West Metro” station, over an eight-month study, to give west-metro residents a closer place to catch the train. It’s part of Phase 1B, along with a possible stop in Rollinsville, and CDOT hasn’t set a date or cost for either.
Source: Denverite, March 20, 2026
Beyond that, the agreement with Union Pacific allows up to three daily round trips, or up to 506,000 passenger train miles a year, through the Moffat Tunnel. The long-term goal is to extend service west to Steamboat Springs and Craig.
What it means if you own in Winter Park
Winter Park Express locomotives at Winter Park, January 2024. Photo: BUTTON74, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
I truly believe this is going to be a game changer for the way Winter Park lives, feels and operates. If you are invested in Winter Park, or planning to invest, it is worth watching closely. Daily, year-round rail service, with room for up to three round trips a day, could also have an impact on real estate in our market over time.
Fly into Denver, ride the train from the airport to Union Station, and step off at the base of Winter Park Resort. Few, if any, other ski towns can offer that.
-- Chris Pritchett
For visitors, that is the whole trip without a rental car: RTD’s A Line from Denver International Airport to Union Station, then the train into the mountains. I think it is just as valuable for people on the Front Range. I talk with plenty of Denver-area skiers who have stopped going, or go far less often, because of the weekend traffic to and from the resorts. A daily train is an elegant answer to the I-70 problem, and it gives those people a reason to come back up.
The practical questions are local ones. Which station a property is near, how guests or family would get from the platform to the door, and how a building’s HOA handles parking and visitors all matter more with a train in the picture. In Granby, the Lift has run its free ROX Gold Line bus between the Granby Amtrak station and Grand Lake since June 2026, an early example of how the towns are connecting to the rail.
None of this changes the fundamentals of buying in the mountains. It does add one more thing to weigh, and it is worth weighing with someone who is tracking the details as they firm up. We will update this post when CDOT publishes the schedule and fares.
Kind regards,
Chris Pritchett
Mountain Property Specialist / REALTOR®
Mobile: 720-224-0198
Website | Zillow Profile and Reviews
Sources
- CDOT Mountain Rail update, March 18, 2026
- CDOT Winter Park Express 2025-26 season recap
- CDOT Mountain Rail FAQ
- Colorado Sun, May 5, 2025
- Steamboat Pilot & Today, June 2025
- Denverite, March 20, 2026
- Granby station (ROX Gold Line)
This post reflects publicly available information from CDOT, Amtrak and news reports as of October 2026. Schedules, stops and fares are subject to change; check CDOT and Amtrak for current details before you travel.
