In summer 2025 the Lions Ridge Loop carried 4,902 passengers, the fewest of any outlying route in the Town of Vail system. Over the same stretch of summer 2026 it carried 16,688, an increase of 240%. The East Vail route posted a 41% gain that looks just as impressive in the Town's October 7 ridership release.
The Lions Ridge figure reflects a route that was given new work to do. The East Vail figure is mostly riders who changed buses. For anyone who rides from West Vail, East Vail or Sandstone, that difference explains where this summer's growth really came from and why the winter schedule matters most on the east end.
The Summer Numbers, Route by Route
The Town calls the schedule that started Monday, June 8, the largest change to Vail's transit routes and frequency in more than 30 years. It adjusted the Lions Ridge Loop, West Vail Red and West Vail Green and added buses on every outlying route between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. The Town compared boardings since that launch with the same period of summer 2025:
| Route | Summer 2025 boardings | Summer 2026 boardings | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lions Ridge Loop | 4,902 | 16,688 | +240.43% |
| West Vail Express | 24,709 | 38,449 | +55.61% |
| East Vail | 58,354 | 82,061 | +40.63% |
| West Vail Red | 42,376 | 52,513 | +23.92% |
| Golf Course | 8,207 | 9,451 | +15.16% |
| West Vail Green | 36,152 | 39,985 | +10.60% |
| Sandstone | 24,790 | 26,491 | +6.86% |
| East Vail Express | 14,640 | Discontinued | n/a |
| All outlying routes | 214,130 | 265,638 | +24.05% |
Every route still running got more frequent service, and the gains still vary widely. Sandstone grew less than 7%, and Green grew about 11%. The routes with the biggest gains are the ones whose role in the network changed.
Read the East Vail Number Twice
The East Vail Express is gone. In the Vail Transit Route Optimization Plan, which was part of the Town Council's February 17, 2026 packet, planners call it the Hiker Express. They acknowledge that cutting it removes one bus per hour from East Vail. In exchange, the regular East Vail route goes from two buses an hour to three.
That means the 14,640 people who rode the Express in summer 2025 had to ride something else in summer 2026, and most of them likely boarded the regular East Vail bus. Add the two East Vail routes together for 2025 and you get 72,994 boardings. Compare that with 82,061 in 2026, and the corridor grew about 12%. That's real growth, about half the systemwide rate, and well short of the 41% in the release.
Under the old setup, a Real Vail report from September 2025 noted that the Express overlapped the regular route at peak times, which gave most of East Vail a bus about every 15 minutes. This summer East Vail swapped that peak-hour overlap for more even service on a single route. That trade is close to neutral, and a 12% gain on a close-to-neutral trade fits.
West Vail Is Where the Growth Came From
Combine the four West Vail routes, Red, Green, Express and Lions Ridge Loop, and the comparison changes. They carried 108,139 boardings in summer 2025 and 147,635 in summer 2026, an increase of about 37%. Of the roughly 51,500 boardings the outlying system added this summer, close to 39,500 came from West Vail.
The optimization plan shows how the West Vail routes were reworked to share the load:
- Lions Ridge Loop took over Chamonix Lane. The plan extends the loop to the stops behind West Vail Mall, adds connections along North Frontage Road, and adds a new stop at Vail Run. The published summer timetable runs it every 30 minutes from 6:15 a.m. to 7:45 p.m.
- Red and Green shortened their loops. The plan has both routes skip the Chamonix and West Vail Fire Station stops on North Frontage Road. Red also stops looping through Chamonix Lane a second time, since Lions Ridge Loop now covers it.
- The Express became an all-day route. The plan pairs the Red and Green changes with a West Vail Express that runs all day, year-round. This summer it ran from 6:05 a.m. to 8:05 p.m.
Some of the Lions Ridge Loop's 240% gain comes from stops Red used to serve, just as some of East Vail's gain came from the Express. Across all four West Vail routes combined, though, the number still rose by more than a third. That's new ridership, not reshuffling.
The plan also proposed moving Red off the Spruce Creek stop in favor of Ptarmigan and Matterhorn. The published 2026 summer Red timetable still lists Spruce Creek, so check the current schedule at vail.gov/bus for the stops you use, not the plan.
Mid-December Is East Vail's Turn
The current summer schedule stays in place through mid-December. The Town says the winter schedule keeps every summer enhancement, raises East Vail from a bus every 20 minutes to one every 10, and brings back the extra Ford Park service during the morning and afternoon peaks. The Council memo summarizes the target for East Vail as 10-minute service in winter and 20-minute service in summer.
That's the change East Vail riders haven't had yet. Summer gave the corridor a steadier single route. Winter doubles its frequency. When the Town releases winter boardings, they'll show whether East Vail responds the way West Vail did once it gets more than a rearranged schedule. The Town hasn't announced an exact start date or posted the winter timetable yet, so for now the date is still "mid-December."
Stops Arriving Ahead of the People Who Will Use Them
The network is also growing toward housing that is still filling in or under construction.
- Timber Ridge Village. Building B, called Black Diamond, opened to residents with 51 homes by the Town's October 5 update. The October 12 update reported closings, move-ins and the opening of the Timber Ridge transit stop that Monday. Crews are still building the western stairs that connect the property to Lionsridge Loop.
- Southface Vail, formerly West Middle Creek, at 351 N. Frontage Road, had started wood framing by October 12. The Council memo plans a new "Middle Creek Circulator" for 2028/29 to serve Middle Creek and Southface every 20 minutes.
- North Recreation Path. Between the pedestrian overpass and Vail Run, this project adds a pedestrian bridge over Red Sandstone Creek, realigns crossings and resurfaces the path. A separated pedestrian detour runs along N. Frontage Road, and Red Sandstone Park stays open with limited parking. Completion is expected November 15, 2026. When it's finished, the walk to the new Vail Run stop on the Lions Ridge Loop gets easier.
What the Extra Buses Cost
The added service has a funding plan behind it, laid out in the same February 17 memo from Public Works. The Town received a $938,000 state SB-230 Transit Service Enhancements grant for 2026. The grant requires at least a 20% local match, which came to $235,000, and it can only pay for service above the 2025 baseline. Running the enhancements meant adding 10 full-time positions, nine bus drivers and one mechanic.
The memo projects grant funding of $1,216,000 a year from 2027 through 2029. Vail's share rises from $400,000 in 2027 to $1,050,000 in 2029, when the Middle Creek Circulator is expected to start. Staff also warned that under current sales tax projections the General Fund couldn't support the added operations without drawing on reserves. They suggested shifting up to 2 percentage points of the sales tax split from the Capital Projects Fund to the General Fund, which would move the General Fund's share from 62% to 64%. The memo also notes that once the enhanced service starts, the Town is "somewhat committed" to it so riders can rely on it. That makes the summer ridership numbers part of the case for keeping the service.
A separate Colorado Clean Transit Enterprise packet from April 2026 recommended $1,254,076 for one battery-electric bus for Vail. That award pays for a vehicle and is not part of the operating grant. In the Town's June 4 announcement, Transit Operations Manager Jordan Winters described the reasoning:
"Choosing greener alternatives is certainly timely given the increasing costs of using and maintaining personal vehicles."
Using It Between Now and Mid-December
The summer schedule still runs through mid-December. The Town offers three ways to check it:
- Real time: ride.vail.gov shows where each bus is and how full it is.
- Full schedule: vail.gov/bus has the current timetable and will post the winter version when it's released.
- Printed grids: posted in bus shelters and available at the Vail Transportation Center.
How often the bus comes at your stop affects how you get around Vail in winter, and it is a fair question to raise about any address. If you're weighing a move between West Vail, East Vail or the Lions Ridge area, or want to know how service near your current address might matter to a future buyer, Dana Gumber can go through it with you. Schedule a private consultation.
