Hiawatha rail line to be part of federal study

Officials are confident that the long-defunct Amtrak line that once snaked through Montana’s southern tier en route to the West Coast will be part of a forthcoming federal study into discontinued intercity passenger rail lines — an important step in the mission to restore Amtrak service between the state’s most populous cities.

Democratic Montana Senator Jon Tester and Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker worked to include language in the infrastructure bill that set aside $15 million for a nationwide study “to evaluate the restoration of daily intercity rail” along lines that are discontinued or run on a non-daily basis.

Indeed, Strohmaier said federal officials confirmed that both the North Coast Hiawatha and the Pioneer, which until 1997 headed south from Seattle through eastern Oregon and Idaho, would be a part of the infrastructure bill study.

A spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration said the same. Read More