(The Great Falls Tribune posted the following story by Mike Dennison on its website on August 6.)
HELENA, Mont. — For everything from businesses importing fresh flowers to local citizens traveling to hospitals, Amtrak’s Empire Builder passenger train is a vital transportation link for northern Montana’s Hi-Line, a state study released Tuesday said.
“This is a real important thing for Montana,” said state Transportation Director Dave Galt. “The Empire Builder is certainly part of our heritage.”
Galt and state Agriculture Director Ralph Peck unveiled the study at a Helena news conference, saying it makes a strong argument against cutting federal funding for the passenger rail service.
The study said the Empire Builder has a total economic impact in Montana of nearly $14 million.
President Bush has proposed to make states responsible for Amtrak passenger service.
Galt said if Congress approves the president’s proposal, the Empire Builder is likely history in Montana, which can’t afford to operate the train system.
“We just think it’s a federal responsibility,” he said.
Gov. Judy Martz, who chairs the Western Governors Association, plans to introduce a resolution at the WGA conference next month, in support of continued federal support for long-distance Amtrak trains.
The Amtrak train that traverses Montana’s Hi-Line daily from North Dakota to Idaho provides good-paying jobs, reduces highway maintenance and brings in at least $5 million tourist dollars a year, the study said.
Civic leaders from across the Hi-Line also weighed in on the study, saying the loss of the Empire Builder would be a devastating economic blow to already hard-pressed towns.
“In a struggling economy in this area, it would only make things more difficult,” said Henri Headdress, transportation director for the Fort Peck tribes. “We are losing our young people to better-paying jobs in other parts of the country, and this would be just another reason for them to leave.”
The study said the Empire Builder:
— Employs 59 people in Montana with a $2.4 million annual payroll.
— Spends $1.3 million to $1.7 million a year on fuel, station maintenance, food and motor-coach charters in Montana.
— Saves Montana at least $7.6 million a year in transportation benefits, such as less highway maintenance and fewer highway accidents.
The study also said the train is a “way of life” for many Hi-Line residents, who use it as a means of affordable, public transportation where there are few alternatives.
Farmers use its express shipping service, students travel to college, elderly residents take the train to medical centers, and people ride the train in bad weather when they don’t want to drive.
“My granddaughter is a patient at the Shriners’ (Hospital) in Spokane,” one woman wrote in an e-mail to the study authors. “This is their only means of transportation. Many people in northeast Montana rely on this transportation. We cannot lose Amtrak.”
The state paid $48,000 to R.L. Banks & Associates to conduct the study. Galt said the departments of Transportation, Commerce and Agriculture paid for it this spring, anticipating a need to argue against cuts in federal support for Amtrak.