Glacier's new shuttle system gets thumbs up

As Going-to-the-Sun Road heads for an early closure just west of Logan Pass this Sunday, Glacier National Park officials are giving their shuttle transportation system strong marks in its inaugural season.

"The bottom line, up-front, is that it was a successful season for the system," said Gary Dancyzk, the park's Sun Road mitigation project manager.

Shuttle operations, which ceased on Labor Day, were not without flaws, "but a lot of things were better than we expected this summer," Danczyk said.

Mainly, the system was a success in terms of visitor use as well as the complicated but cost-saving partnership that supported it.

"We ended up transporting 132,000 people in the 65 days we operated," Danczyk said. Based on a long-time statistical multiplier of 2.3 riders per vehicle, it's estimated that about 1,000 vehicles per day were "removed" from Sun Road.

And that was a major purpose of the transit system - to reduce congestion on the road during a long-term reconstruction project that caused traffic delays this summer between the West Tunnel and Haystack Creek.

The shuttles handled an average of about 1,000 riders per day for a system that was designed for roughly 800 to 1,600 riders per day. The average, however, is somewhat deceptive.

"For the prime weeks of the season, the average was up to 2,200 per day" with system use slacking off in the last weeks of summer, Danczyk said.

Peak-use days presented challenges for the system, because managers were learning use patterns for the first time.

"We really didn't know what was going to happen at the start," Danczyk said. "But we basically realized we didn't have coverage for the peak times of day."

Many locals tended to use the system to support hikes, the most popular route being on the Highline Trail from Logan Pass to the Loop. Those riders tended to show up in droves at the Loop stop late in the day.

Visitors tended to have shorter stops, or they were focused on day hikes.

"We would have a surge at the end of the day to Avalanche," Danczyk said, referring to riders interested in the popular two-mile hike to Avalanche Lake.

Danczyk said the park has received "hundreds" of written comments about the shuttle system.

"There was a surprising passion and support of this transit system by the riders," he said.

But there also suggestions for improvements. The most common complaint was that shuttles didn't meet user demand at certain locations and times, causing some riders to wait longer than they had planned.

But Danczyk said the partnership between Flathead County's Eagle Transit management, the Montana Department of Transportation, and the park allowed for flexibility and adjustments. "Floater" buses were used to respond to rider crowds that tended to gather at particular places at certain times of day.

The partnership had other practical benefits.

"The federal, state and local partnership was difficult to coordinate, but it allows us to share capital resources as well as operational resources," Danczyk said. "It also allows us to meet transportation needs in Montana during the off-season."

Without the partnership, he explained, Glacier would have shouldered the maintenance and operation costs for a fleet that would be stored in the winter.

"It allowed us to avoid building a $5 million maintenance facility inside the park, which other parks have to do when they operate a transit system on their own," Danczyk said.

The $4 million price tag on eight 23-passenger Optima buses and 22 12-passenger Sprinters was split by the park and the Montana Department of Transportation.

In the fall, winter and spring, part of the fleet will be put to use by Eagle Transit in Flathead County, while the rest will be dispersed for other purposes across the state.

Department of Transportation officials haven't made final decisions, but the smaller Sprinters with wheelchair lifts could serve elderly populations in rural communities that wouldn't otherwise be able to afford a full-time transit system, Danczyk said.

Part of the fleet may be put to use on campuses in the Montana university system.

Danczyk and other transit system managers intend to further fine-tune the system based on input from upcoming Sun Road "stakeholder" meetings.

The meetings will be held from 2-4 p.m. on Sept. 19 at the new Apgar Transit Center, Sept. 20 at the St. Mary Visitor Center and Sept. 21 at the Waterton Community Hall.

Updates will be provided on Sun Road reconstruction progress and the shuttle system, and public comment will be encouraged.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com