“This is one of the two most significant investments in the past 50 years to modernize passenger train service across the country,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Americans deserve excellent passenger rail services, and through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re working to deliver it.”

In the two years since forming, the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority has grown to include member counties stretching 600 miles from Montana's western and eastern boarders. The counties lie along the old North Coast Hiawatha route, where advocates hope to restore passenger rail in the coming years. The organization has made headway in recent years and strongly believes that a pending federal study on recommended routes where passenger rail should be restored will include the North Coast Hiawatha.

Cuts in the late 1970s ended Amtrak service across southern Montana. Now, a county-led coalition wants to bring it back.

“My goal is that within the next six years, we'll see passenger rail service in Missoula, and I think we're well poised to do so,” he said. “One year from now, there will be recommendations to Congress by the U.S. Department of Transportation. We'll do everything in our power to ensure the restored North Coast Hiawatha route is in the top route restoration recommendations.”

The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority on Wednesday agreed to apply for a federal grant to make improvements to rail infrastructure along the Hi-Line to benefit the existing Empire Builder.

While it may seem a strange play for an authority created to restore service to southern Montana, members of the group believe that a strong Empire Builder will only help enhance the restoration of passenger service elsewhere in the state. Read more.

Diane Magone was appointed the new Mineral County Director of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority

Big Horn County became Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority's 19th member.

It’s been 42 years since passenger rail service ran through southern Montana and a group meeting here in Billings this week is fighting for its return. Some are skeptical the plan will work, but the group is garnering support.

It’s been a while since you could catch a train to another city from Billings. “Many folks forget that there was, until 1979, passenger rail service through Billings, Montana, and through southern Montana,” said Dave Strohmaier of Missoula, the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority chairman.

A “second rail revolution” may be gathering steam. The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority has spent the last two years fighting to get Montana included in a federal study to restore Amtrak service to discontinued routes, and they succeeded.

The re-establishment of passenger rail services is in talks again after their discontinuation 42 years ago in October 1979. The Greater Northwest Passenger Rail Summit in Billings continues to examine everything from social benefits to environmental advantages of having the rail network in our region, especially for our rural and native communities.

Jim Mathews, CEO of Rail Passengers Association, says the development of passenger rail service across the southern region of Montana would help rural communities to connect with other urban communities.

On day two of the Greater Northwest Passenger Rail Summit held in Billings and virtually, a special guest showed up to speak, the CEO of Ukrainian railways, Alexander Kamyshin. Photo: NBC Montana

Passenger rail advocacy groups from across the Northwest, plus federal, state, local and tribal officials are gathering in Montana on Monday for the first ever Greater Northwest Passenger Rail Summit.

The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority is holding its first Greater Northwest Passenger Rail Summit to discuss restoring transformational rail services across the region.

Jason Stuart, Vice Chairman of Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority and Summit Host. “We started out with 12 counties, 12 founding counties. My county, Dawson County, was one of those 12 founding counties. And at present, we are now up to 18 counties across the state of Montana and looking like we're probably about to add number 19 with Big Horn county expressing interest in joining the authority. So we have made considerable strides in the approximately close to two years that we've been in existence of building this movement across the State of Montana. And as this summit proves, not just across the state of Montana, but across the entire Greater Northwest region.”

Advocates for a southern Amtrak route across Montana stoked the engines Monday in Billings during a two-day conference aimed at making the short list for long-distance rail federal funding.

Government and the business representatives from across the proposed route met with federal transportation leaders and experts from other states to discuss advancing the project. At issue is restoring a passenger rail route that once connected Fargo, Bismarck, Billings, Bozeman and Missoula as it passed between Chicago and Seattle.

However, with the federal government opening up $66 billion in funds for passenger rail projects through last year's infrastructure bill, rail advocates in Utah and the West are pushing for states in the region to look into more options to expand passenger rail access.

"Our ultimate vision is for a seamless transportation network," said Dan Bilka, the co-founder of the nonprofit rail advocacy organization All Aboard Northwest. "We don't see passenger rail as an end-all-be-all of transportation but as a crucial missing middle that really makes the other modes of transportation work well and effectively."

The Chair of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Association (BSPRA) says major meetings this week in Billings could be a big milestone for efforts to restore Amtrak service across Montana's "Southern Route"

It was just short of two years ago the BSPRA held its first virtual summit during the pandemic, a fledgling effort to bring passenger trains back to the "Southern Route" hitting cities like Billings, Bozeman and Missoula for the first time in 40 years.