(The following story by Richard Werst appeared on the Clark Fork Chronicle website on October 22, 2009.)
SUPERIOR, Mont. — An Amtrak report that the Hiawatha passenger rail route would cost $1 billion and lose $30 million each year “wasn’t what I was hoping to hear,” Sen. Jon Tester said Wednesday.
Tester last year asked Amtrak to study the feasibility of restoring the “North Coast Hiawatha” passenger rail route, which last ran in 1979. The route crosses southern Montana and would pass through Missoula and Mineral County.
The Amtrak study, released Oct. 16, noted that the route, which could serve passengers traveling to Yellowstone Park, would be the third most-popular long-distance passenger rail route in the U.S.
But the costs just don’t work out, Sen. Tester said.
“If you’ve got a scale here, you keep throwing stuff on the side of it, and we just can’t get anything to balance out. It would be very difficult right now to get $1 billion out for that route,” he said.
Tester, who said he hasn’t yet had the opportunity to read through the report with the intensity he would like, suggested there might be ways to modify the plan to make it workable.
“We’ve got to sit down and think about other alternatives that are less costly,” he said. He suggested one approach: Run along the northern Empire Builder route, before branching south through Montana for a portion of the old Hiawatha route, then connecting with the Empire Builder route again.
“We’ve got to figure out ways we can save money, because we can’t be running a $20-$30 million deficit, plus a billion dollar up front cost. I just can’t get the money for that,” he said.
The economic benefits for the whole state make it worth the continued effort, he emphasized. Adding passenger rail service on a southern Montana route, in a way that did not jeopardize the Empire Builder route, would provide economic benefits for all of Montana.
“I don’t want to put it to bed because I think the route has some real potential,” he said. “We just need to keep our heads thinking about how we can get this done and hopefully we can come up with some sort of plan,” he said.
Tester spoke about the North Coast Hiawatha study in response to a question from the Chronicle during his monthly conference call with Montana community newspapers.
Tester also invited the Chronicle and others to offer their suggestions for improving community journalism in rural Montana.
When the Chronicle participated in the recent Wheeler Center conference on the future of Montana journalism, many speakers discussed new technologies. But many rural residents don’t have the budget or the inclination to use the new hand-held devices.
“A lot of folks don’t want that technology,” Sen. Tester agreed. “They want to go to the mailbox to get their paper or turn on the radio. It’s getting very difficult to get good news any more.” That is not a reflection on the community journalists, but a reflection on the national media, he said.
Even the high technology solutions aren’t completely reliable in Montana yet, he noted. When he is on his tractor, the cell phone sometimes works when he is moving in one direction. “But it doesn’t work if I’m going south, and I don’t live in a particularly remote area of the state. Why the signal doesn’t work is a mystery to me.”
Tester expressed appreciation for local community journalists and said he welcomed further discussion. “I can tell you that we would love to hear some ideas that you have,” he said.