Shuttle thoughts

The big news last week from Glacier National Park was that the Park Service would terminate its agreement with Flathead County to operate the shuttle service in the Park.

The Park was paying Flathead County roughly $800,000 a year to operate and maintain its shuttle fleet (less in years when there were wildfires and shuttles didn’t run). But the county estimated that to properly operate the service, it would cost closer to $1.45 million a year.

So the Park Service bailed on the agreement.

I’ve had long conversations with both Park and county officials since then. My take is the county sincerely wanted to provide the best service it can, and that was going to cost money. It wanted to pay employees a decent wage and it wanted to keep the fleet in good shape.

On the other hand, I think the Park Service wants to be out of the shuttle business entirely.

In 2019, only about 7 percent of the people that visited the Park actually used the shuttle. But the shuttle causes a lot of problems. It constantly drops people off at Avalanche, the Loop, Logan Pass, St. Mary Falls, Siyeh Pass and other trailheads and they’re just way too crowded.

The original intent of the shuttle was to get people off the road during reconstruction, but that’s now over, and the shuttle really didn’t work to that purpose, either — it only reduced traffic on the road about 5 percent.

So what does the future hold for the shuttle?

The Park Service won’t say it publicly, but I believe Glacier is at capacity when 3 million people show up. I remember back in 2010 when more than 2 million showed up and it seemed, at the time, very busy. When 3 million knock at the door it’s just too many.

From a political and social standpoint, the Park Service is going to have a tough time stopping private cars from using the road. It might be able to restrict access through a reservation system at peak times, but it won’t stop them.

It’s pretty tough to spend $180 million of taxpayer dollars on a road and then tell them they can’t drive the thing.

The Park, however, can get out of the shuttle business and I can easily see them handing the entire system over to a concessionaire like Xanterra.

Xanterra could operate the system just fine. It already has a garage and support staff in place.

But if that happens, the shuttle will no longer be free, because Xanterra isn’t a non-profit like the county.

So yes, the free shuttle will end, I strongly suspect. You’ll have to pay to use it. And by default, that will drastically cut back on the number of riders.

And that’s exactly what the Park Service wants. Love it or hate it, it’s good for the overall health of the Park.

Chris Peterson is the editor of the Hungry Horse News.