Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KFGO) – Efforts to restore passenger rail service on Amtrak’s North Coast Hiawatha Chicago-to-Seattle route have received a big boost from the the Federal Railroad Authority.
Through its Corridor Identification program, the FRA announced a $500,000 grant to Montana’s Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority to continue planning for the restoration of the line which provided the long-distance passenger route until the service was discontinued 43 years ago.
Rail Authority Chairman and Missoula County Commissioner Dave Strohmaier said acceptance into the program also brings a commitment to future funding that will help push the line’s restoration closer to reality.
He said when the planning starts it will identify the infrastructure needs for the route and after a service development is created, the preliminary engineering phase will occur, and finally, an environmental review which will eventually get the project to “break ground and hopefully in the not too distant future seeing restored passenger rail service.”
A spokesman for Governor Doug Burgum says while the state has not committed resources to the restoration of the Hiawatha Amtrak route through southern North Dakota, the Governor is “generally supportive of the concept.”
The Rail Authority in Montana has been working on the plan for three years.
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