SHELBY, Mont. — Life always has been tough along northern Montana’s 660-mile Hi-Line, a route named by the railroad that began passenger service through the region in 1929, the Chicago Tribune reports.
After four years of drought, topsoil is blowing away. Prices for grain and cattle are way down. An increasing amount of farmland is being taken out of production.
Now Amtrak’s twice-daily Empire Builder train, what Montanans view as their main mode of public transportation and a vital element of the state’s economy, may be on its way out.
Facing a huge budget deficit, Amtrak is considering cutting 18 cross-country passenger trains that have long lost money, including the Chicago-to-Seattle Empire Builder. Seven of the other endangered routes go through Chicago, including the fabled City of New Orleans.
The General Accounting Office projects that to avoid the cuts, Amtrak needs a $1.2 billion appropriation for its next fiscal year, or about double what it received 12 months ago. Congress has until the end of September to appropriate the money.
Next week, Amtrak is scheduled to send out a 180-day notice that long-distance rail service may be cut by Oct. 1. Regional and intercity routes would remain.
`A way of life’ for decades
Losing Amtrak would be devastating, said Shelby Mayor Larry Bonderud.
“It’s been used for commerce and is the only means of travel east and west,” he said. “It’s been a way of life back to 1929, so we’re very concerned and we’re dependent on it for employment and transportation.”
Going by road is not a good alternative. U.S. Highway 2, the east-west corridor, is unfriendly to trucking because it is narrow and bad weather can impede movement on it.
Created in 1971, Amtrak relies on federal funding. But in 1997, Congress passed a law requiring the rail service to be self-sufficient by the coming fiscal year. It reported a $1.1 billion operating loss in 2001, and only two of its 40 routes were profitable last year.
Amtrak received $521 million from Congress for operating expenses for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, and “they thought they could squeak by,” said Scott Leonard, assistant director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers in Washington. But the recession and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led to a $285 million revenue shortfall by January.
In response, Amtrak implemented service cuts, halting package deliveries. In Montana, stations laid off attendants in Shelby, Malta, East Glacier Park and Whitefish along the Empire Builder route.
In the process, a lifeline for businesses and people ruptured.
After the service cuts, florist Carl Harms of Malta had to drive three to five hours each day on a narrow two-lane road to pick up his flowers. He and others got some relief when flower deliveries resumed in March.
Funeral homes cut off
But funeral homes, which relied on Amtrak to bring them caskets and the remains of customers who died in other cities, are not so lucky. The only place Amtrak will deliver caskets, full or empty, is Havre, a day’s drive for some funeral directors.
Along with packages, the train brings tourists, including more than 3,000 visitors to Glacier National Park each year, said Stephanie Brist, director of sales at Glacier Park Inc.
Tiny Essex (population 30) depends on Amtrak to bring groups of winter skiers and summer family reunions to the front door of the rustic Izaak Walton Inn. Innkeeper Larry Vielleux said Amtrak accounts for 30 percent of his business.
People in Montana even depend on Amtrak to get to doctors, and even then the route is circuitous.
In Shelby, at the western end of the Plains, a 20-bed hospital and six-doctor clinic handle most emergencies for an 80-mile radius. Specialty medical procedures are referred to Seattle–a 17-hour train ride costing $256 round-trip.
The loss of the train would mean taking buses to Great Falls and then a flight to Seattle.
“If they don’t have the train or can’t rely on a neighbor to get them to a doctor, they just don’t go,” observed former state Rep. Toni Hagener of Havre.
Previous threats to close Amtrak routes have been thwarted by Congress, so many Montanans hold out hope that they will be rescued again.