(The Associated Press circulated the following story on April 15.)
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A study on the feasibility of restoring passenger train service in southern Montana is in jeopardy, after the Senate rejected several funding attempts Friday.
Money for the study wasn’t included in the state budget, and senators voted against two amendments to set aside $100,000 and $150,000 for it.
Sen. John Esp, R-Big Timber, also unsuccessfully tried to amend the budget bill to spend more than $3 million to set up the Missoula to Billings route.
A study of the proposed service is needed so the state can apply for matching federal dollars. About $340 million in nationwide capital matching grants is expected to be included in a bill before Congress reauthorizing Amtrak funding.
Sen. Jim Elliott, D-Trout Creek, said every state wants Amtrak, but none of them wants to fund it.
He added he doubted a southern passenger route would be financially feasible.
“I believe that Amtrak is kind of like an ugly dog that comes to your door and you don’t have the heart to turn it away and you don’t have the guts to destroy it, so you feed it,” Elliott said.
Passenger trains rumbled through southern Montana for decades before cuts in federal funding phased out the service in 1979.
The idea of restoring that service has been debated before, the last time in 2000. Supporters want a route that would run from Missoula through Helena, Bozeman, Livingston and Billings before heading east to Chicago and the East Coast. Eventually, it could stretch west to Spokane, Wash., and Portland, Ore.
A government-owned corporation, Amtrak reported record ticket revenue of $1.37 billion in the last fiscal year, an 11 percent increase over fiscal year 2005, with ridership up 1 percent to 24.3 million passengers. The system, created in the 1970s to take over declining passenger rail service, is heavily dependent on government funding; it received $1.3 billion from Congress, including a $485 million operating subsidy, for the 2006 fiscal year.
The corporation hopes to receive $1.5 billion in the coming year.