Santa Fe Opera, Rio Metro Regional Transit District launch late-night service for 2025 summer season

The Santa Fe Opera, in conjunction with the Rio Metro Regional Transit District, is launching a late-night train service on Saturdays during the opera’s 2025 summer season from June 28 through Aug. 23.

The service will be accompanied by a shuttle that brings patrons to the opera house from the Rail Runner Santa Fe Depot and back to the station after the night’s performance.

“Albuquerque is such an important community for not only New Mexico, but for the Santa Fe Opera,” said Robert Meya, the Santa Fe Opera general director. “We wanted to provide a better way of getting to the opera and home, particularly after some late-night performances.”

The train will make the regular stops between the Santa Fe Depot and Albuquerque. Tickets will be $25 round-trip, which includes the train and shuttle service, at santafeopera.org.

“We were able to come up with a price that we felt would be accessible for a large number of people,” Meya said.

The shuttle service back to the station will begin 15 minutes after the night’s opera ends, and precautions are being set in place to ensure that no patron misses their train home. Those who purchase the train ticket will be put on a list that will be checked on the shuttle to the opera and the shuttle back.

“The drivers for the shuttles will have communication with the main dispatch with Rail Runner, and so the train will not leave until all the passengers have been returned to the railyard and are on board,” Meya said.

The train service will not be exclusive to those attending the opera, but available for any late-night goers in Santa Fe seeking a train back to Albuquerque. Meya said the Santa Fe Opera has been referring to it as “Summer Nights in Santa Fe” and hopes people will utilize the service to come up in the afternoons, grab dinner and explore Santa Fe nightlife.

The train back to Albuquerque will typically depart between 11 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., depending on performance runtime, with the longest-running show of the season, “Die Walküre,” which starts on July 26, having a predicted 1 a.m. departure.

The Santa Fe Opera aims to continue this partnership into future seasons to further enhance accessibility for attendees.

“This will be our first year doing it, but we have every intention of continuing it, as long as Rail Runner continues to be willing to work with us,” Meya said.