Fort Collins Buses Don't Run on Sundays Anymore. Here's How the Week Works Now.

On a Sunday morning at the Downtown Transit Center you can still catch a bus to Denver. No bus leaves for Midtown or the South Transit Center, though. Bustang's North Line runs Sunday trips to and from Downtown and Harmony. Every Transfort route inside the city stopped running Sundays when the new network launched on Monday, Aug. 17, 2026.

The rest of the week got noticeably better. The City put its money into six days of more frequent, simpler service and cut the seventh day to pay for it. The City Manager's recommended 2027–28 budget keeps that arrangement, so the Sunday gap looks like part of the plan, not a stopgap.

Six Days Got Denser

The City's project page describes the change as a simpler, grid-based network designed to improve frequency, reliability and connections "while operating within available resources." Fares stayed free on every route. The biggest single change is on MAX, which now runs every 15 minutes all day along the Mason corridor between the South Transit Center, Midtown, CSU and Downtown.

Here is how the City's August service announcement groups the routes now:

Some of the routes that changed most now run along corridors that matter day to day. Route 2 runs across town on Prospect Road from the Equine Center to Lake and Midpoint, every 30 minutes. Route 8 runs up College Avenue from the Downtown Transit Center to Willox, and its weekday schedule shows a bus every 20 minutes. Route 81 links Downtown with Linden, Redwood and Blue Spruce every half hour. The City also says the new network adds or strengthens service to Timberline, East Prospect, East Mulberry and connections across the CSU campus.

The early signs from campus are mixed. The Rocky Mountain Collegian talked to one off-campus senior who saw some routing differences and said the change affected him "a little negatively," but said it hadn't significantly changed his commute. CSU Transportation told the paper its early indicators showed more bike registrations and higher ridership on several routes serving CSU, but it didn't yet have full data on why.

Where the Five Retired Routes Went

Routes 10, 11, 12, 32 and 92 were eliminated in August. The City doesn't name a single replacement for each one. Its current routes list spreads the old corridors across several routes, so if you used one of the old routes, you're probably looking at a route you didn't ride before:

• Old Route 10 ran a loop from the Downtown Transit Center past City Park and along Laporte and Mulberry to the CSU Transit Center. Route 9 now covers Laporte, Overland and Poudre High School, and Route 14 covers Lincoln, Mulberry, Vine and Timberline.
• Old Route 11 connected the South Transit Center, Harmony, Taft Hill, Horsetooth and Fort Collins High School. Route 6 now runs Taft Hill, Drake, Swallow and Horsetooth, and Routes 16 and 19 cover Harmony and the South Transit Center.
• Old Route 12 served Horsetooth Mall, Swallow Station, JFK and the South Transit Center. Those segments now fall to Route 6 and Routes 16 and 19.
• Old Route 32 linked the CSU Transit Center with Elizabeth, Overland and Prospect, including stops near Overland Park and Sonny Lubick Field. Route 3 now handles Elizabeth out to the Equine Center, and Route 2 handles Prospect.
• Old Route 92 was a school-day trip between Downtown and Poudre High School. Route 9 now connects Downtown, Vine, Overland, Poudre High School and Laporte.

One caution about older references: CSU's transportation page from just before the launch still lists Route 32 as the connection to the Foothills Shuttle. For current routes, ridetransfort.com is the source to check.

What Still Moves on a Sunday

The ridetransfort.com page lists Dial-A-Ride paratransit hours as Monday through Saturday, 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. HORN and the regional FLEX route to Loveland, Berthoud, Longmont and Boulder both run weekdays and Saturdays only. SAINT's free volunteer rides for eligible older adults and adults with disabilities run Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

These options do run on Sundays:

1. Spin e-bikes and e-scooters. The City names Spin as its shared e-bike and e-scooter partner. You find a vehicle in the app, unlock it, ride and park. Check the app for Sunday availability and where you can ride.
2. Dial-A-Taxi, for registered Dial-A-Ride passengers. The program gives a voucher worth up to $15 toward a taxi trip outside Dial-A-Ride's normal hours. Transfort's own Dial-A-Ride page gives "visit a family member at the Poudre Valley Hospital early Sunday morning" as an example. Trips must start inside the Fort Collins Growth Management Area but can end anywhere, and the rider pays anything above $15. Reservations are at 970-224-6066.
3. Bustang's North Line. It runs Sunday service to and from the Downtown Transit Center and the Harmony Transfer Center. The separate Poudre Express service doesn't run on weekends.
4. RamsRoute. Its fall 2026 schedule includes Sunday trips from Denver to Fort Collins, stopping at CSU and the Downtown Transit Center. The listed Downtown arrival is 5:40 p.m.
5. The Mason Trail. It runs 4.6 miles north to south from Laurel Street to the Fossil Creek Trail, a few hundred feet west of College Avenue, along roughly the same corridor MAX uses the other six days. The Spring Creek Trail crosses it west to east, from Spring Canyon Community Park to the Poudre River east of Timberline. The City's 2026 trail project list shows the junction of the two trails in design and construction for a realignment, so check COTREX for closures before a long ride.

For longer rides, Larimer County describes the Poudre River Trail as a connected 45-mile paved path from Bellvue to Greeley. Inside the city, it follows the river for 12.3 miles from North Overland Trail to East Drake Road.

Why the Seventh Day Went

The City's explanation is about cost. Its optimization FAQ says running the same service as in 2019 would cost about $3 million more each year because staffing, fuel and maintenance cost more. Fully building out the Transit Master Plan by 2040 would take another $15 million a year. The quarter-cent sales tax for transit brings in about $5 million a year, and even with it the City estimates a $13 million annual gap. North Forty News led its pre-launch explainer with the end of Sunday service and that same $3 million figure. As far back as April, the Coloradoan reported that the redesign was shifting resources from underperforming routes to busier ones because costs were rising and revenue wasn't keeping up.

The City expects the trade to bring more riders. A presentation to City Council in October 2025 compared 2.62 million rides in 2024 with a projected 3.35 million under the redesigned network. The same presentation listed Sunday fixed-route and paratransit service as a possible long-term expansion, which is an option, not a commitment.

What the 2027–28 Budget Proposes

The City Manager's recommended budget supports "the recently implemented optimized transit network" with what it calls "relatively small adjustments." Those include one fewer bus operator position, one fewer customer support position, and less frequent cleaning of buses that aren't in service. The budget's list of key Transfort changes doesn't mention bringing back Sunday service. Total Transfort funding comes in at about $29.3 million for 2026, $28.5 million recommended for 2027, and $29.7 million for 2028, down from about $39.9 million in 2025.

Council hasn't adopted the budget yet. The City's budget calendar set a final-direction work session for Oct. 27, first reading on Nov. 3, and second reading on Nov. 17, 2026. Meeting materials and video are posted on the same page. Next year, Phase 2 of the plan is expected to bring changes to Routes 14 and 18 in 2027. The City doesn't describe that phase as restoring Sunday service.

Until something changes, the practical routine looks like this: MAX and the denser grid Monday through Saturday, then Spin, the Mason Trail, or a Bustang seat out of Downtown on Sundays.

Which routes stop near a home, and on which days, is one of the details we track for clients across Fort Collins. If you'd like to know how the August route changes affect your street, MCM Collective is glad to help. Request a Home Valuation.