(The following article by Jennifer McKee was posted on the Billings Gazette website on June 2.)
HELENA, Mont. — Montana politicians of every stripe agreed on one thing Wednesday – Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train should stay the way it is.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer kicked off his whistle-stop tour on the train from Havre to Whitefish to show his support. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., joined the governor on the tour, while Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., reiterated his support for the railroad.
Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., announced that he is co-sponsoring a measure that would set aside money to maintain Amtrak, while asking the government-run railroad’s managers to improve the service and save money.
Javascript disabled. Cannot display HTML ad.
Democratic State Auditor John Morrison, who announced in April he’s running for U.S. Senate in 2006, will be at an Amtrak rally in Whitefish today. State Senate President Jon Tester, D-Big Sandy, who announced last week he’s in the U.S. Senate race, attended a town meeting with 300 people in Havre to talk about the rail service.
The Bush administration has proposed eliminating Amtrak stops in states that do not agree to help pay for and run the government-backed railroad.
“Amtrak is important to Montana and this is a great opportunity for folks to show their support for something vital to our communities,” Schweitzer said.
Baucus said the Bush administration could eliminate Amtrak stops in Montana “over my dead body.”
“We have our work cut out for us, but we’re going to do whatever it takes to keep Amtrak in Montana,” Baucus said in a prepared statement.
Burns, who hosted a whistle-stop tour of his own last month, restated his support for the service.
“I think we’ll come up with a long-term solution to the Amtrak problem,” said Burns spokesman James Pendleton.
Rehberg said he has co-sponsored a bill that sets aside $2 billion in federal money every year for the next three years to keep Amtrak going, while asking the service’s manager to make changes.
“Essentially what this says (to the Bush administration) is ‘We don’t agree with you,'” Rehberg said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “We think you’re wrong in Montana. The state of Montana realistically couldn’t afford (to help pay for Amtrak.) There’s just no way we could do it.”
Morrison said in a telephone interview it doesn’t make sense for the Bush administration to go after Amtrak, which amounts to just 3 percent of the nation’s transportation budget, compared with 30 percent in some European countries.
“At a time when the price of fuel is going through the roof, the last thing we should be doing is destroying public transportation,” he said.
Tester said the Bush administration plan shows how little its crafters know about Montana.
“If they knew anything about Montana, this would not be on the chopping block,” he said. “That rail is probably 30 miles from my house and it’s darned important. We should be talking about improving rail service.”