White House awards $500k to Southern Montana Amtrak Route

Revival of a southern Amtrak route across Montana gets a boost this week when the Biden administration awards $500,000 to the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority.

The funding keeps the planning alive for an alternate Chicago-to-Seattle Amtrak route connecting communities like Fargo, Bismarck, Billings, Bozeman and Missoula. Known as the North Coast Hiawatha, the route existed through the late 1970s when cuts to Amtrak ended the service.

The funding comes from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in 2021. The spending package included $12 billion for passenger rail. Read more.