So far, so good for Glacier National Park’s Logan Pass shuttle system.

Superintendent David Roemer said the operation of Glacier’s new express shuttle service to the popular spot has gone well.

“We’re still in the early days of it, but it’s going pretty well, actually,” Roemer said at the North Fork Interlocal meeting earlier this month.

He noted once the Highline Trail opened to Granite Park Chalet, the shuttles went from seeing little use to being full.

The park began offering a shuttle to Logan Pass from both the west side and the east side for hikers as it now limits parking at Logan Pass to three hours and other places, like Oberlin Bend, are limited to a half hour.

It has been enforcing the time limits as well, ticketing cars that don’t comply.

The new Logan Pass shuttle system was implemented as Glacier no longer has a reservation system to enter the park and its corresponding valleys.

Roemer told the crowd at the North Fork Interlocal meeting that the park has 36 shuttles in its fleet and can serve about 800 people a day.

The early reservations for the shuttle were difficult to get, but the bulk of the shuttle seats are released at 7 p.m. the night before on recreation.gov. When the Hungry Horse News recently checked the website about 9 p.m., some seats were still available. In other words, they’re being reserved in hours, not minutes.

The shuttle itself is free, though there is a $1 service charge.

Roemer noted the park will finalize its transportation plan this summer after years of pilot programs since the pandemic.

The preferred alternative calls for providing low elevation parking instead of in the alpine terrain and pairing that with a shuttle service. The park would add 500 to 600 additional parking spaces in Glacier. 

From a North Fork perspective, the plan also calls for keeping the Inside North Fork Road closed to motor vehicles, save for lower class e-bikes, from Camas Creek to Logging Creek, though the road would be maintained for vehicle travel in the event of an emergency.

That brought a round of applause from the crowd.