Park City launched a pilot in December 2025 to expand Bonanza Flat shuttle service to the winter — and it was a huge success.
Senior Transportation Planner Julia Collins said the city previously only provided early winter transit up to the top of Guardsman Pass for 10 or 15 days. This winter, they expanded service to run from Friday to Sunday for 15 weeks.
“We changed the model to double those daily hours and triple the amount of operating days than previous winters, which resulted in the shuttle providing nearly 4,000 passenger trips,” she said.
Collins said the pilot’s success is due in part to more accessible transit. Her team reconfigured the 9 Purple bus route and deployed 11-passenger vans to create a shorter, more efficient shuttle route. The route also connected with the broader Park City Transit network so people could access the route from a variety of places around town.
The area was also one of the only spots with consistent snow during the abnormally warm winter.
Collins said her own experience riding the winter shuttle proved its benefit to both visitors and locals. She met riders from Florida heading to snowshoe in Bonanza Flat and a Park City local who made it their mission to use the service every weekend.
“[I] also met an employee living in Midway that would skin up to work on a Friday to get to Montage [Deer Valley], and then take the bus back up to ski home,” Collins said. “These are the success stories of providing something all winter long.”
The winter shuttle pilot would not be possible without its popular sister summer program.
The city purchased the 1,300-plus-acre Guardsman Pass property in 2017 and conserved it as open space three years later through Utah Open Lands.
To help locals access the land, Park City launched the Transit to Trails program in 2021. It provided a free shuttle to Bonanza Flat and Bloods Lake trailheads during the summer.
That program exploded in the summer of 2025 when the city began charging for parking at the trailheads. Collins said the fee system prevented people from illegally parking at trailheads and pushed more to take transit. It also provided funding to expand shuttle service.
“We are able to reinvest those dollars directly back into access and mobility to Bonanza Flat area, and that's now able to provide summer and, through this pilot, all winter-long access up there,” she said.
Parking fees from the summer generated almost $319,000, with over $91,000 left over after operating expenses. Around $64,000 of that money was used to launch the winter pilot.
Given the success of both the summer and winter shuttles, Collins said her team is looking to make the programs permanent and will present a plan to the Park City Council later this year.
The council has already supported the continuation of the programs in one way; it approved the purchase of five 34-foot buses July 9 to support service to Bonanza Flat.
Park City Municipal is a financial supporter of KPCW.
