For the past eight years, the city of Denver, Colorado has been without a tradition that has been part of the city for 69 years from 1940 - 2009. The Ski Train was a passenger service provided by the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW) between Denver and Winter Park along the Moffat Route. The train gave skiers and snowboarders the option to not have to drive up to the ski resort. In 1988, the service was sold off to the Ansco Investment Company, which continued to operate the service for the next two decades until 2009. During that same year, Iowa Pacific Holdings, a Chicago-based company attempted to revive the service but was unable to due to insurance issues. In March 2015, Amtrak with the help of the Union Pacific Railroad (UP) revived the Ski Train for one weekend. The demand and popularity of the return of the Ski Train for one weekend were so high, in August 2016, Amtrak announced that with the help of the UP and Winter Park Ski Resort, it will bring back service between Denver and Winter Park from January to March 2017. After a successful season going beyond Amtrak's expectations, the Ski Train named the "Winter Park Express" plans to return again for the 2018 season.
