ABQ RIDE's Christmas Eve Luminaria Tour was canceled for five days this fall. On September 18, the city said the bus tour would end starting this year. On September 23, Mayor Tim Keller reversed that decision and directed the city to run it on December 24, 2026, while it works out a cheaper model for the years after. The tour's cost covers the bus ride and also the barricades, police traffic control and signage that organize the streets of Old Town, Country Club and Huning Castle for one night a year. That street management became the center of the debate.
A $1.50 ticket and a $341 cost per rider
The Albuquerque Journal reported that the 2025 tour cost about $200,000 and served 586 attendees. That works out to roughly $341 per person, against a $1.50 ticket.
| Figure | Number | Source window |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket price | $1.50 | 2025 and 2026 |
| Total city cost | About $200,000 | 2025 tour |
| Riders served | 586 | 2025 tour |
| City cost per rider | About $341 | 2025 tour |
| Share of ticket holders who showed up | 62% on average | Past 10 years |
| Riders at the tour's citywide peak | More than 5,000 | Before the route was cut back about a decade ago |
Ridership has fallen far from its peak. The mayor's office says the tour once ran throughout the city and carried over five thousand riders. It was cut back about ten years ago and now goes to one neighborhood. ABQ RIDE Deputy Director Bobby Sisneros told KOB 4 that tickets usually sold out within hours or minutes. Even so, many holders never boarded. Each time the agency ran fewer buses to match the lower turnout, even fewer people came the next year.
The money also pays for barricades and traffic control
The $200,000 pays for more than drivers and buses. According to the Journal, the cost covers transit operations, staffing, barricades, police traffic control and signage. The barricades, police traffic control and signage stay on the street for everyone out that night, whether they're on a bus or not.
Those street measures came up at City Council. At the September 21 meeting, Councilor Joaquín Baca said $200,000 is "not that big by city standards." He then laid out what canceling the tour would mean for the neighborhoods, as quoted in the Journal: "you decided to take out a fixed route and security, and we're probably going to drop in 300-plus cars because that's about 650 people who can't now take the bus …, which means we have got a ton of pedestrians out there with no security, with more traffic, with no control." KRQE's coverage of the meeting also centered on his safety concerns about Christmas Eve without signage or traffic control.
Huning Castle Neighborhood Association President Rudy Garcia raised the same issue from inside the neighborhood. He told KOB that the bus event came with barricades and security, and that losing them concerned him.
The neighborhood already got through one Christmas Eve without the buses
Huning Castle has a real precedent here. The bus tour was canceled in 2020, and the neighborhood still put out its luminarias. Garcia told KOB 4 that the transit department had been talking with the neighborhood since April, well before the announcement:
"What I always tell folks, and they forget, is that the bus tour was canceled during COVID year of 2020, so we didn't have a bus tour then, but yet we had a phenomenal Christmas Eve."
Sisneros pointed to the same year. He said the neighborhood had its luminarias out with "no barricades, no APD, no buses, no designated tour," and reported back that everything went fine. Garcia described what visitors can expect either way: "the beauty of what I think our neighborhood has always offered, which is civility, kindness, respect, and love for everybody. That's not going to change. So we don't have buses for two hours. Is that going to make a big difference for us?"
So the luminarias don't depend on the bus. The open questions are how many cars and pedestrians come in on December 24 and who manages them. The tour itself started from a gesture between neighbors. KRQE's history of the tradition traces it to an act of kindness in 1953, followed by a free car caravan organized by the Chamber of Commerce in 1955. Neighbors have kept the lights going for decades. The city added the bus route later.
When Keller reversed the cancellation, Garcia welcomed it. "It is good for the city of Albuquerque to recognize tradition because within our own neighborhood, there's so much family tradition," he told the Journal.
The city is already planning a different tour for future years
The reversal covers this Christmas Eve only. In the mayor's announcement, Keller said, "The current tour costs about $341 per rider, so we know the model needs to change. But we're not going to lose an Albuquerque tradition while we figure out a better way to keep it going."
Over the coming year, the transit department plans to hold community meetings, run surveys and do research. It will gather input on the route, walking options, adding other areas, and what would be most festive for the most Burqueños. Before the reversal, Sisneros told KOB that a walking tour and a revised bus tour were both under discussion with neighborhood associations like Huning Castle. Surveying past ticket buyers was also an option.
Transit Director Leslie Keener's statement points to the staffing cost behind all of this: "Our employees have made this tradition possible for decades, giving up time with their own families on Christmas Eve so Albuquerque families can experience something special." Whatever replaces the current setup will need to manage the crowds in Old Town and Country Club and still give those drivers part of the holiday back. If you live along the route and want a say in that, watch for the meetings and surveys.
How to get a seat on this year's tour
ABQ RIDE bills this year's tour as the 60th annual. It runs Thursday, December 24, 2026. The tour starts and ends at the Albuquerque Convention Center and takes about 45 minutes through Old Town and the Country Club area. Here's what the official tour page lists:
- Buy online starting at 8 a.m. on Black Friday, November 27. Tickets are $1.50 and sold only through the website. The phone line and the Hold My Ticket box office no longer sell them. Tickets typically sell out within a few hours.
- Pick a departure. Four tours leave the Convention Center at 5:30, 5:45, 6:15 and 6:30 p.m.
- Pass your ticket along if your plans change. Forward the email or hand the printed ticket to someone else. No name change is needed. With only 62% of ticket holders showing up over the past decade, passing yours on is the easiest way to fill a seat.
- Arrive at least 20 minutes early. Buses pick up on 2nd Street, on the east side of the Convention Center, and most roads near the Convention Center will be closed.
- Plan your parking. The page recommends the Convention Center Eastside Parking Structure for $10, entered from Broadway Blvd. and Marquette Ave. It also lists parking under Civic Plaza, plus free parking for disabled and special-needs visitors at the surface lot on the northwest corner of 3rd Street and Marquette. Check the page again before you leave home, since its parking directions vary.
- Expect to stay aboard. The tour runs in rain or snow. Passengers can't get off the bus to walk, and ABQ RIDE does not offer planned walking tours.
If you live in Old Town, Country Club or Huning Castle, the four departure times tell you when the managed part of the evening happens on your streets. If you want to see the lights outside that window, Sisneros and Garcia both encouraged people to walk or drive through the neighborhoods to see the luminarias.
The tour's future will come up again over the next year, and the outcome will shape Christmas Eve on some of Albuquerque's best-loved blocks. If you have questions about Old Town, Country Club or Huning Castle, whether you're settled in nearby or thinking about a home along the luminaria route, Carrie Telles is happy to share what she knows about those streets. Schedule a free consultation.
