There was one trip in each direction per day, with a travel time of 2 hours and 15 minutes, assuming no delays from freight rail traffic.

On one trip, a youngster pulled the emergency brake on a moving train, damaging one coach's coupler and steam line.

[5] In 1988 the operation was sold to Ansco Investment Company, which made various needed improvements and ran the “New Ski Train” for two decades under the reporting mark SKTX.

[4][7] On January 21, 2006, the return trip was canceled after a coal train derailment blocked the line, leaving some 700 passengers stuck in Winter Park.

It had been burdened with escalating costs such as liability insurance coverage, operational conflicts with freight traffic, and substantial uncertainties posed by the redevelopment of Denver's Union Station.

The F40PH locomotives and most passenger cars were refurbished and repainted to Algoma Central's livery and are now in use on the railway's Agawa Canyon tourist train.

[12] Iowa Pacific Holdings (IPH), a holding company that owned railroad properties across North America and the United Kingdom (including San Luis & Rio Grande in southern Colorado), made a bid to revive the Ski Train using idle equipment from SL&RG's subsidiary, Rio Grande Scenic Railroad.

[20][21][22] In April, Amtrak and Winter Park officials met to begin work on a proposal to track owner Union Pacific for running at least two trips weekly between January and March 2016.

[24][25] In August 2016, Amtrak and its partners announced regular Winter Park Express weekend service from January through March 2017.

[31] Amtrak added a Superliner Sightseer lounge and café car to the train for the 2018–19 season, featuring food and drink service along with floor-to-ceiling views.

[44] In December 2024, Union Pacific and the state reached a tentative agreement to extend the railroad's lease of the Moffat Tunnel by 25 years.

Heading west from Denver, the train climbs 3,960 feet (1,210 m) up the Front Range via a series of 29 tunnels—the "Tunnel District"—through the Plainview, Crescent, Wondervu and Gross Reservoir areas, then generally west along South Boulder Creek through Pinecliffe, Tolland and Rollinsville to the final mountain underpass, the 6.2-mile (10.0 km) long Moffat Tunnel under the Continental Divide.

Instead, riders can disembark several miles down the track at Fraser–Winter Park station, where transit buses operated by the city's "The Lift" service connects to the resort.