The OurWay commuter shuttle service that runs between Ouray, Ridgway and Montrose will shut down at the end of this year due to lack of funding.
After nearly three years, the pilot program’s $531,000 Multimodal Transportation and Mitigations Option Fund grant from the Colorado Department of Transportation has run out, and Ouray County’s local governments haven’t agreed to keep funding the program. The county, the city of Ouray and the town of Ridgway initially contributed nearly $178,000 in matching funds.
Ouray County drafted a letter to officially notify All Points Transit, the Montrose-based nonprofit running the shuttle. The county plans to terminate its participation in the program on Dec. 31.
According to a note on All Point’s website the last day of operations will be Dec. 30.
Commissioner Jake Niece said he met with All Points on Nov. 9. He said All Points will return the shuttle van in the first week of January to the city of Ouray, since the city was the fiscal sponsor that submitted the grant. The county, the city and the town will then have to decide what to do with the vehicle. Niece said it has over 150,000 miles and needs some maintenance.
Niece said All Points still hasn’t returned ridership statistics the county has been requesting for months. He said All Points claimed ridership has been up since after the Gold Mountain Fire calmed down, but the Plaindealer was unable to verify that claim.
“They said that more and more people have been using it,” Niece said. “I think our advertising has been effective in helping with ridership.”
Ridgway Town Manager Preston Neill said during an Oct. 31 budget workshop All Points has not done a good job providing ridership numbers to the town either.
Previous data the Plaindealer obtained from All Points showed annual ridership more than doubled from 1,819 in 2024 to 3,812 in 2025.
The program had a rocky track record under All Points, struggling to maintain a consistent schedule and staff weekend and evening routes.
The service changed its schedule several times since it launched in March 2024.
During the first period of service, operators reduced the routes in response to safety issues with vans driving at night, according to previous reporting by the Plaindealer. Within six months of running the service, the shuttle had collided with wildlife twice, resulting in expensive repairs. After that, All Points cut OurWay evening routes to reduce those types of accidents.
On Dec. 1 last year, All Points again cut back the OurWay schedule to two routes per day. Ridership in January this year was only 112 riders, down from 427 in January 2025.
After pressure from the local governments, All Points increased the OurWay routes in June to six roundtrip runs a day, six days a week, adding evenings and Saturday routes.
The local governments envisioned the OurWay shuttle as a way to transport workers from outside the county to support local businesses.
Earlier this year the Plaindealer profiled workers who don’t drive and depend on the bus to get to jobs at Mountain Market in Ridgway and the Ouray Hot Springs Pool.
“It’s kind of sad,” Commissioner Michelle Nauer said. “I remember when we first started talking about the OurWay bus and hoping the employees could somehow use it.”
Niece said he received a note from one of the riders who works in Ouray asking the county to keep the service. He noted the San Miguel Authority for Regional Transportation’s bus from Telluride to Montrose stops in Ridgway and is still an option for those in Ridgway.
Ridgway Mayor John Clark said he plans to talk with other transit providers to see if the town can come up with another alternative.
