"The last time there was a passenger rail train coming through Missoula was in 1979," said County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier at the March 10 meeting of Rotary Club of Missoula. Various attempts have been made to restore passenger rail service to Montana, he added. 

 

Dave, who also spent eight years on the Missoula City Council, has been a part of the effort to restore a passenger train. A government structure through a Joint Authority would make this effort real. Because of the pandemic, Dave said, more people are feeling isolated but still want to travel. What better way to travel than to take a train from various towns in Montana, especially on the southern route?  Dave said that counties are working together to establish a rail authority. By discovering a statute on the books created in the 1990s, counties now have more hope that a rail authority could become a reality. 

 

"We need to create a government structure to analyze and seek funding for inner city service," said Dave, "and knit together communities and connect to east and west around the state. We need to set our sights higher and seek a bold vision for the state. The light is a passenger train."  

 

Dave showed our club members a map outlining an existing rail system and the connection they wish to go. Green counties on the map are in the authority and grey counties are not in the authority, but petitioning to join. The red line shows past rail lines that can be fixed up and used. Many counties are considering this project. A passenger rail will also be an economic driver through the return of investment and economic benefits from the empire builder route. Dave said that $36 million could come to the state through this railway. 

 

The first task will be to take a look at the social economic impact studies that may begin in Montana and extend across the entire state. We are looking at not just a new rail system, but a new long distance route and older long distance routes. There are only a handful of east/west routes and no north/south connections between the state and the national system. Safe, reliable and affordable inter-city, long distance passenger rail service would be a transformational project for Southern Montana. Dave said an aerospace company CEO in Bozeman is very interested in this project for productive time where staff can do business while traveling. 

 

"If you want to fly between communities to fly out of state and then fly back to the state, the benefit is that the train provides constituencies a different mode of transportation. Dave pointed to Prairie County whose interest is in saving lives. With communities 175 miles away from any medical service or airport, Glendive has lost workforce because there is no place for people to live and they are trying to recruit more people in that direction. The railway would capitalize more on tourism, as well. An Empire builder is Glacier National Park and Yellowstone Park. 

For purposes of governance, each county in the authority assigns one director and currently 12 members meet monthly. They are developing by-laws, procedures, budget, etc. They are engaged with host railroads and congress. This has captivated the imagination of the nation. Dave appeared in the New York Times and CBS news is slated to do a story about this project. A Podcast in Portugal has been talking about it as they have an interest in bringing back rail service. According to Dave, this is the first time a diverse group of people are in agreement on a project, even in these difficult political times.