(The following story by Kim Skornogoski appeared on the Great Falls Tribune website on February 8, 2010.)
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — With hands clutched tightly around their travel dollars, it should be no surprise that far fewer people rode Amtrak in Montana last year.
What is unusual is that train travel continues to grow in popularity nationwide despite the dipping economy.
According to a report issued this week, 16,532 fewer people boarded or deboarded a train in Montana last year than in 2008.
Ridership at the state’s 12 stops was as low as it’s been since 2005, according to Amtrak figures.
Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, train ridership nationally has increased steadily, spiking last year thanks, in part, to gas prices of more than $4 a gallon.
Derrick James, Amtrak’s senior officer of government affairs, said ridership in 2009 was the second highest on record. And the Empire Builder route — the only passenger service in Montana — is Amtrak’s most popular, carrying people from Chicago to Seattle and Portland.
“We expect once the economy starts to recover that we’re going to see growth in ridership again,” James said.
To help spur ridership, the company is investing in maintaining rail lines, and extending them farther into Illinois and Indiana, and to places such as Olympia and Vancouver in Washington.
The dip in Montana ridership has not swayed Amtrak to give up on the state.
Last fall, the company presented a study to Congress on the costs and benefits of reopening the North Coast Hiawatha passenger line, which once ran from St. Paul, Minn., through southern Montana to Seattle.
The line was shut down in 1979.
It’ll be up to Congress if it wants to allocate the $619.8 million needed for capital improvements on the tracks and the stations, and another $39 million annually to subsidize operation costs.
“If you give people more places to connect to, than more people are going to travel on it,” James said. “We’re, in essence, building up the network.”
Even if people aren’t deboarding to stay in Montana, the Hi-Line benefits as people get off the train to buy batteries and snacks at various stops. And businesses such as Havre’s Boxcars Casino provide sandwiches served on the Amtrak trains.
With three stops inside Glacier National Park, park vacationers make up much of the Amtrak passengers getting on and off in Montana.
The dip in ridership didn’t surprise Glacier spokeswoman Amy Vanderbilt. However she noted that because people wanted to vacation closer to home last year, park attendance was actually the third highest in its history despite the decrease in ridership.
Vanderbilt said that rather than stay in more pricey hotels, many park visitors camped. Campground usage was up 50 percent from 2008, and overall visitation was up 12.5 percent to more than 2 million people.
Nearly half of the state’s riders board in Whitefish, though almost 7,000 fewer people boarded Amtrak in the northwestern town last year.
With the park’s centennial this summer, Glacier Country Regional Tourism Commission Director Racene Friede expects it to draw more people — both on Amtrak and by car — to northwestern Montana.
“I’m hearing that there are much stronger reservations going into this year,” she said. “We’re seeing the trends we experienced last year turn around a bit. I wouldn’t say we’re going to see huge numbers, but considering the economy, a flat year might be a good thing.”