At 6:30 p.m. on a fall weekday, the last scheduled TART Mainline bus of the day leaves the Crystal Bay Casino headed east into Incline Village. The Mainline bus going the other way, from Stateline Road toward Kings Beach and Tahoe City, still has four departures to go. Its last one leaves at 10 p.m.
That gap matters more now than it did two years ago. On-demand rides are gone from the Nevada side of the North Shore, so the fixed-route buses are what's left. From Crystal Bay, those buses connect better to California in the evening than to the town next door.
What stopped running last December
On Dec. 11, 2025, TART Connect stopped serving Incline Village and Crystal Bay. TART Connect was the free curb-to-curb shuttle you booked from your phone. Moonshine Ink reported that the reason was funding. Across the region, the service had given more than 1 million rides since 2017, and 65% of riders were full-time residents. At an April 10, 2026 Nevada legislative hearing, a presenter said the Incline Village and Crystal Bay zone alone had served more than 50,000 riders a year before it ended.
The California side kept its service. TART's current TART Connect page lists Zone 2 as Carnelian Bay, Tahoe Vista and Kings Beach, running 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily this fall. Part of the funding comes from Placer County's TOT-TBID Dollars at Work program. The same page says TART Connect "does not go to Incline Village." So the on-demand map now ends a few blocks west of Crystal Bay homes, and none of it reaches them.
One stop, three directions
The free fixed-route buses are still running, and Crystal Bay sits where three of them meet. TART's fall 2026 schedule runs from Sept. 8 through Dec. 11, 2026. It lists the Mainline North Shore fare as free.
| Route from Crystal Bay | Where it goes | Fall 2026 span from Crystal Bay |
|---|---|---|
| Mainline, westbound | Kings Beach, Tahoe Vista, Carnelian Bay, Tahoe City | Hourly from Stateline Road, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. |
| Mainline, eastbound | Incline Village to Tunnel Creek | Leaves Crystal Bay Casino from 6:30 a.m.; last departure 6:30 p.m. |
| Highway 267 | Kings Beach, Northstar, Truckee Railyard Mobility Hub | Hourly, with southbound buses reaching the Crystal Bay Club stop as late as 9:55 p.m. |
No other stop on the Nevada side of the North Shore links Tahoe City, Truckee and Incline Village. Incline gets the Mainline and nothing else. Crystal Bay also gets the Highway 267 route to Northstar and Truckee, because that route turns around at Stateline Road.
The evening runs west
Look at how late each direction runs and the schedule tilts toward California.
The eastbound Mainline into Incline stops at Southwoods/Toepa, Incline Cleaners, Incline Skate Park, Incline Bowl/Village Boulevard, Hyatt/Lakeshore and Tunnel Creek. It is a daytime service. The westbound trip back from the Hyatt starts at 6:42 a.m., and the last one leaves at 6:42 p.m. Toward Kings Beach, the Mainline keeps running hourly until 10 p.m. The Highway 267 buses run into the evening too.
Here's what that means for an ordinary evening:
- Dinner in Kings Beach or Tahoe City. You can ride the free bus both ways, with westbound departures from Stateline Road until 10 p.m.
- Dinner in Incline. The bus works for lunch, not dinner. The last departure from the Crystal Bay Casino stop is at 6:30 p.m., and the last bus back from the Hyatt leaves at 6:42 p.m., which leaves no time to eat in between.
- Friends from Incline coming to a show in Crystal Bay. They can ride in, but no bus takes them home.
That last case comes up on a full calendar. The Crystal Bay Casino lists Jim Norton on Nov. 6, Shwayze, Asher Roth and Chiddy Bang on Nov. 7, Emo Kids on Nov. 14 and Boot Juice in the Red Room on Nov. 28. Victor Wooten and The Wooten Brothers play Dec. 11, the last day of the fall schedule. All of these shows are 21+, and the venue's calendar can change. For guests coming from Kings Beach or Tahoe City, the bus covers most of the evening. For guests coming from Incline, it covers only the first leg.
Ski days route through the Hyatt
The eastbound Mainline does most of its work in daylight, and that's when ski traffic moves. Diamond Peak's 2026–27 getting-here page notes that TART buses serve Incline Village and Crystal Bay and connect to the resort's free Green Route at the Hyatt.
The Green Route runs from the Hyatt to Diamond Peak every half hour from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., with return trips from 2 to 4:30 p.m. A separate Blue Route serves stops along SR 28. Diamond Peak lists its 2026–27 peak periods as Dec. 19, 2026 through Jan. 3, 2027; Jan. 16 to 18, 2027; and Feb. 13 to 21, 2027.
Without a car, a Crystal Bay ski day takes two free buses: TART east to Hyatt/Lakeshore, then the Green Route up the hill. Coming home works only if the last shuttle down meets an eastbound-to-westbound TART run before service ends for the evening. The same Diamond Peak page also says TART Connect's Incline service has been suspended since Dec. 11, 2025. Once you're off the fixed routes, no on-demand ride covers the gaps.
A second ride ended this year
Losing TART Connect wasn't the only change. IVGID ended its Senior Transportation Program on Aug. 1, 2026. In its July 28 announcement, the district gave two reasons. Its legal counsel had advised that running transportation directly falls outside a general improvement district's authority under Nevada law. And its partnership agreement with Washoe County would not be renewed. The county will keep working with the Regional Transportation Commission and other partners on longer-term options for Incline Village and Crystal Bay.
IVGID directs residents who need rides to Washoe County Senior Services at (775) 328-2575. Within a year, both door-to-door options serving Crystal Bay ended. That leaves the free fixed routes in the table above as the only public transit in town.
Why nothing has replaced it yet
The money explains the timing. Funding for TART on the Nevada side has historically come from a patchwork of partners. Moonshine Ink names Washoe County, RTC Washoe, Travel North Tahoe Nevada, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority, the Tahoe Fund and the League to Save Lake Tahoe. In the same piece, Travel North Tahoe Nevada reported that Washoe Tahoe room revenue was down 30% compared with 2024. It also noted that the Tahoe Biltmore, here in Crystal Bay, is offline. That matters because the Placer County service runs on lodging-generated money through a Tourism Business Improvement District, which Placer County supervisors renewed for 10 years in December 2025.
Since then, the Nevada side has produced discussion but no new funding:
- February 2026. Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill told a TRPA committee that the county had used up the American Rescue Plan funds that paid for TART Connect. She said she intended to pursue a Washoe Tahoe room-tax bill.
- April 2026. At the April 10 legislative hearing, restoring Incline Village and Crystal Bay microtransit was named a top priority. Travel North Tahoe Nevada's CEO said partners were looking for new funding avenues.
- 2027 session. Nevada Current reported that SB 420, the business improvement district bill that failed in 2025, was expected to return in 2027.
None of these steps has produced funding yet. The Nevada Legislature next meets in 2027, so the earliest legislative fix arrives after this ski season.
December 11 is the date to watch
The fall schedule in the table expires Dec. 11, 2026. TART Connect's Zone 2 fall season ends the same day. TART has not yet posted a winter 2026–27 timetable. For comparison, last winter's schedule ran from Dec. 11, 2025 to April 5, 2026, with eastbound Mainline departures from Crystal Bay to Incline hourly from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Whether this winter's Incline leg runs later than this fall's 6:30 p.m. cutoff will show up in that new schedule. Check TART's schedule page before planning holiday trips around it.
Until then, the free buses from Crystal Bay serve two different evenings. One runs west to Kings Beach and Tahoe City until 10 p.m. The other runs east to Incline Village only until 6:30 p.m.
If you're weighing how far a Crystal Bay or Incline Village address puts you from the trips you make every week, transit hours included, Heather Bacon can walk you through what daily life looks like on each side of the Stateline. Schedule a free consultation whenever it suits you.
