Full steam ahead
BoCo supports Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority’s effort to restore passenger rail in the rural West.
The Sandpoint Reader MAY 20, 2021 - By Lyndsie Kiebert
When Bonner County commissioners voted unanimously to approve a letter of support for the “North Coast Hiawatha Restoration” as part of their May 11 business meeting consent agenda, the item saw very little pomp and circumstance.
It’s not uncommon to see the BOCC issue letters of support on a variety of topics, but in the case of the North Coast Hiawatha Restoration, Bonner County is entering a national conversation on passenger rail, aligning itself with counties throughout Montana whose stakeholders and leaders hope to see the North Coast Hiawatha route reinstated after more than 40 years.
Deputy Clerk Jessi Webster told the Reader that the commissioners drafted the letter at the request of Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority: a group of Montana counties that formally joined forces in November 2020 to advocate for revitalizing passenger rail in the West, starting with the North Coast Hiawatha route, which from 1971-1979 ran from Chicago to Seattle, making its way through southern Montana — and Sandpoint — along the way.