A new Golden Age: Sheehy backs restoring Montana passenger rail line

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) Calling it the golden age of transportation, Sen. Tim Sheehy on Wednesday advocated for new investments into passenger rail and restoring the North Coast Hiawatha line across Montana's southern tier.

Sheehy joined Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority board chairman and Missoula County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier in a fireside chat during the Greater Northwest Rail Summit – an event that drew federal transportation officials and rail advocates from across the region.

Restoration of the North Coast Hiawatha line, which ended operations in the 1970s, would serve as a fusion between tourism and practical transportation, joining rural areas of the state with city hubs from Chicago to Seattle.

“I think it will be highly unlikely that we'll have a scenario in America where long-distance passenger rail is in any way cost or time-competitive with air. The cost would be exorbitant through infrastructure and the benefits would be very little,” Sheehy said.

“But where our region can thread that needle is when you're mixing the tourism aspect with the practicality of it. You can hit Miles City, Glendive, Billings, Bozeman, Livingston, Helena, Missoula. When you string those pearls together, it makes it a pretty special experience.”

The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority formed back in 2019 in a push to restore service across southern Montana. Since then, it has gained more than a dozen member counties and crossed party lines in growing support.

Former Sen. Jon Tester ensured the line was included in a federal study on restoring long-distance routes. That led the Federal Rail Authority to identify the North Coast Hiawatha as one of the preferred routes to be restored.

Now, Sen. Sheehy has continued advocating for the line and recently co-sponsored legislation that would eliminate the non-federal match for long-distance routes listed in the corridor identification program.

Sheehy said he believes the measure will pass as an attachment to a larger bill on transportation or national defense.

“I think we have a shot at that passing. It will likely get attached to another piece of commerce,” Sheehy said.

Sheehy cited the success of other nations in establishing a reliable passenger rail line, including Japan and China, and much of Europe. However, he said, the scale of that success is far less than connecting a nation as large as the U.S.

“The logistical challenges we have in America, the scale in which we connect our country, is one of our superpowers,” said Sheehy. “There's no country in the world that has our infrastructure nationally that crosses a continent. But I don't think the government should take over passenger rail and run it. Obviously, Amtrak is a cautionary tail.”

If passenger rail returns to southern Montana, the state's old railroad depots would play a role in the larger experience, Sheehy said.

Historic depots dot the landscape from east to west and could be restored and occupied by opening them to private contractors through food and beverage licenses, or gift shops.

“I don't see a way where we can do this right without leveraging the historical rail depots,” he said. “The beauty of having that tourism nexus, there would be so much private capital available around this that it wouldn't have to be government subsidized. These old rail infrastructure – historic points around the state – are gems that would be a key part of this.”

Sheehy believes the nation has entered a new golden age of transportation. It recently sent humans the farthest from Earth they've ever been. Self-driving cars are becoming more practical and supersonic flight could be back on the horizon.

Passenger rail could play a role in that transportation renaissance.

“Bringing back a more resilient passenger rail network nationwide – that's a priority for this administration and a bipartisan priority, too,” he said. “When folks look back 50 years from now, they'll look at the 2020s as an exciting age of transportation. In this trying to reimagine passenger rail is something that could be relevant into the 21st Century instead of something we look back on fondly.”