As federal government considers first big Amtrak expansions in decades, southern Montana has a plan

An Amtrak trains passes Whitefish Mountain in northern
Montana. (Photo by Heath Korvolo, Getty Images)

In 1979, Congress enacted major cuts for Amtrak, which left southern Montana with no passenger train service. "More than a dozen Montana counties have banded together in an effort to bring Amtrak service back to the southern part of the state, hoping that the year-old federal infrastructure law will finally help them restore a train line lost decades ago," reports Daniel C. Vock of Route Fifty. "The one-of-a-kind effort might be unique to Montana, but it underscores the stakes for cities and local governments as the federal government considers major expansions to passenger rail service for the first time in decades."

“There’s a strong economic case to be made for passenger rail because trains are economic lifelines. They’re transportation lifelines,” Jason Stuart, vice chair of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, told Vock. “All these communities in this part of the world here on the northern Plains are all in the same situation: We’re so far distant from anything.”

Dave Strohmaier, a Missoula County commissioner who lives more than 500 miles west of Stuart, is chair of the Big Sky authority. He told Vock, "Restoring an old Amtrak route would also link the state’s major urban centers – Billings, Bozeman, Helena and Missoula – while giving more options to rural communities and this provides transportation options to seniors, to veterans and to students."

Montana is almost as large as California and away from the Empire Builder route in its north, it has four options for travel: motorized vehicles, aurplanes, bicycles and horses. "Several cities have air service, but flights generally connect to out-of-state hubs making travel within Montana expensive and time-consuming. Montana’s landscape makes driving difficult, given the long distances between cities and treacherous winter weather. Montana regularly has one of the highest traffic fatality rates per mile driven of any state in the country," Vock reports.

Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority map of Montana and its counties; for a larger version, click on it.