A plan to reinstate a southern Amtrak passenger route in North Dakota would bring no change to Amtrak’s Empire Builder service, said a spokesman for the passenger rail service.

“Billings was founded as a rail hub and played a leadership role in rail in Montana,” said Billings Mayor Bill Cole. “Our community and people want to be part of this process of restoring and bringing connectivity via passenger rail to Billings, Yellowstone County and the region.”

One of the projects, known as Amtrak’s North Coast Hiawatha and overseen by the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, a government agency, will restore an Amtrak route discontinued in 1979 and reconnect North Dakota cities along Interstate 94 to Chicago and the Pacific Northwest.

“This will be one of the biggest infrastructure projects in recent history in North Dakota and Montana,” said David Strohmaier, a county commissioner in Missoula, Montana, and chairman of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority.

With the announcement of this grant, BSPRA is eligible to proceed to the first phase of the Corridor ID Program, which involves developing a scope, schedule, and cost estimate for preparing, completing, or documenting its service development plan."

The federal government announced that they will provide $500,000 in seed money to help kickstart construction of BSPRA North Coast Hiawatha route revitalization between Chicago and Seattle/Portland and connecting communities like Fargo, Bismarck, Billings, Bozeman and Missoula.

An Amtrak route that ran through the southern half of North Dakota and Montana along I-94 and I-90 and was stopped more than 40 years ago could be making a comeback.

“I’m certainly very confident from everything the FRA has told us and that we’ve seen from them so far, that this route is also going to be right at or near the top of their list for the routes that the FRA and USDOT are going to recommend to congress and say, ‘Hey, you need to fund the restoration of this,’” said BSPRA Vice Chairman Jason Stuart.

In a major step forward for the restoration of passenger rail service across Montana's "Southern Route", the federal government agrees to inject a significant investment into pursuing the idea.

It's the latest major move for the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, which has been working hard on the idea for just over 3 years.

Efforts to restore passenger rail across Montana's southern tier received a significant boost on Friday when the federal government announced $500,000 in seed funding and accepted the route into the Federal Railroad Authority's Corridor Identification Program.

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.

As a direct result of his bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), and as a part of his continued effort to better connect Montana families and small businesses, U.S. Senator Jon Tester today secured $500,000 in Corridor Identification and Development (Corridor ID) funds for the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority to develop a comprehensive passenger rail plan to reinstate the historic North Coast Hiawatha Amtrak route through southern Montana.

The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA) has been awarded a $150,000 grant through the Pacific Northwest Economic Region’s Regional Infrastructure Accelerator (PNWER-RIA) to further high-performance rail across the region. This constitutes the largest planning grant received by BSPRA to-date.

The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA) has completed a new report detailing the public input on passenger rail in rural and tribal communities throughout Montana. Tribal nations represented in the project included the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Crow Tribe, and Northern Cheyenne Tribe. Other rural communities in the study included Paradise, Forsyth and Glendive.

Pacific NorthWest Economic Region (PNWER) Regional Infrastructure Accelerator Will Build Capacity, Technical Assistance to Access Critical Infrastructure Funds Across Five-State Region. This funding to BSPRA, as a sub-recipient, will go towards small parcel delivery and first-/last-mile analysis with more details forthcoming.

Stan Parker of Montana PBS on IMPACT, shares the latest on restoring passenger rail to southern Montana and beyond.

The first standard engine to be used on the Livingston Route is shown in 1883. Image: The Livingston Depot Center

The potential to reinvigorate Montana’s passenger rail system got a possible boost from the Livingston quarter this week. Park County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday to appoint Livingston City Manager Grant Gager to the board of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority.

Amtrak is a critical transportation conduit for people throughout our nation, but it is especially important for rural America, where there are significantly fewer options for people who need to get from one place to another. Here in Montana, and I suspect elsewhere, Amtrak is used for a variety of reasons, including transporting people to larger communities for medical care at places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota and facilities in Seattle. It is used to unite and reunite families and is an important component in bringing tourists to our state to enjoy the grandeur of Montana – and spend money on our Main Streets.

MIPRC also said that restoring the following four long-distance routes discontinued in 1979 would “greatly enhance the backbone of service that long-distance routes provide” while also allowing the Midwest’s regional plans to then build upon them, including the North Coast Hiawatha, which ran from Chicago to Seattle via the Twin Cities, Fargo and Bismarck, ND, and the middle tier of Montana.

MIPRC said that these restored routes would provide new north-south “backbone” long-distance services for both western and eastern parts of the Midwest, and a new east-west service for both western and eastern parts of the region.

Vice chair of the Surface Transportation board, Karen Hedlund, and Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority board chair Dave Strohmaier answer questions during a conference at the Finlen Hotel in Butte (Photo: NBC Montana)

Amtrak published survey findings today that demonstrate strong support from American voters for continued passenger rail investments, including infrastructure renewal and service expansion. Conducted by the Mellman Group and commissioned by Amtrak to better understand America’s interest in intercity passenger rail service, findings show consistent support for passenger rail across geographic location, age, race and gender.