It’s been nearly 50 years since a passenger rail line whined into the historic Livingston Depot Center built over a century ago—the original gateway to Yellowstone National Park, a bustling hub breathing life into Park County until 1979, when Amtrak indefinitely halted passenger service, an offering first made possible in 1883. The enormous structure and tertiary installment in Livingston’s historical transit saga had surged the community to life; and with its untimely demise followed a grim period of economic drought. 

On day two of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Association (BSPRA) Annual Conference, after 46 years, City Manager Grant Gager boasted proudly that as a truly great Montana railroad town, Livingston was the ideal setting to discuss the future of passenger railways in the Northwestern United States—specifically, the Depot Center, a place reminiscent of his roots in public transportation and municipal government: Grand Central Station in New York City, designed by Reed & Stem, architects of the two structures situated some 2,000 miles apart as the crow flies. 

“This is about as good as it gets when we talk about passenger rail,” he said.

The conference kicked off on Monday, September 8th and featured transportation authorities, government officials, and industry experts from throughout the United States and Canada—members of the BSPRA (an alliance between municipal governments, tribal nations and community representatives from several Montana counties) Amtrak and BSNF leadership, engineering firms, financial consultants, and more gathered to pursue a common goal. 

In partnership with the BSPRA, these entities are charged with reviving a promising economic lifeline for many Montanans: the North Coast Hiawatha Corridor restoration project, a proposed passenger rail line spanning from Chicago to either Seattle or Portland, connecting the Great Lakes with the Pacific Ocean by way of Milwaukee, St. Paul, Fargo, Billings, Missoula, and other communities, including Livingston.

The task is daunting—immense, intricate, and seemingly insurmountable, a complex maze of logistical considerations comprising enormous legal challenges, financial barriers and practical concerns emerge relevant. Yet prominent speakers like John Roberts Jr., chairman of and senior advisor to Transportation of America and former mayor of Meridian, Mississippi, and Pacific Northwest Economic Region (PNWER) Director Bruce Agnew inspired action by telling stories of success—the theme for this year’s conference—about railway revitalization projects in the southern and northwestern United States, where once languishing communities like Monroe, Louisiana and others now flourish with cause attributed to passenger railways.

“This conference is an opportunity to think about very real stories and how a vision for the future of passenger rails in Montana and beyond can be turned into reality. We can accomplish that by working together,” said BSPRA Chair Dave Strohmaier, who hosted the conference. 

Actualizing passenger rail travel across Montana is a collaborative process between the Federal Rail Authority, BSPRA, BSNF and Amtrak, and involves securing funding through a variety of grants and privatized financial services.

According to several speakers, funding for public rail transit is peaking, as the United States House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee seeks to, in bipartisan fashion, reauthorize 1.2 trillion dollars available through the Federal Transportation Program (a piece of legislation passed during the Biden Administration), with peripheral financial support made possible by the Trump Administration’s One Big Beautiful bill.

The process to restore passenger rail service has begun and is in the initial planning phase—a statement of work and corresponding budget tailored to improving infrastructure and developing service provisions along the northwest corridor must first be completed, according to project manager Abe Zumwalt and his team at David Evans & Associates (a firm tasked with multidisciplinary engineering and planning for transportation, land development, energy, and marine projects). 

A highly technical, all-encompassing route analysis employs data modeling to identify optimal service access points, the results of which will be included in the final report used in negotiations with the federal government.

Republican Senator Tim Sheehy, a longstanding advocate for passenger rail in Montana, attended the conference virtually from his office in Washington, DC, sharing his continued support for this initiative at the federal level, saying “it has been to the detriment of our country to move away from passenger rail” while emphasizing the potential economic benefits for local and rural communities across the state. Sheehy was later awarded the 2025 BSPRA Founders Award for his services and contributions to the movement and organization.

Other topics surfaced during the conference about onboard service provisions in the 21st century, service access points along the route, multi-modal connecting services to railway stations, equipment pooling, service frequency, harmonizing freight and passenger railways, and more.  

Benefits far exceed the obvious tourism-related economic implications—expanding access to healthcare for members of rural and native communities, enhanced travel safety during inclement weather, advancing social connectivity throughout Montana and across the northwestern United States, were just a few amongst others cited.

Though exploring various means for expediting this process was discussed at length, the consensus is that it may take up to a decade or more to complete. “The transcontinental railroad was completed in six years,” said Sean Jeans-Gail of the Rail Passengers Association, who suggested compressing preliminary engineering and environmental impact studies from six to three years and discussed how extended timelines create challenges when garnering cross-administrational alignment across an eight-state corridor.  

Conference attendees and leadership nonetheless persistently stressed the importance of planning initiatives and advocacy by community members and municipal government officials to effectuate and facilitate implementation of service stations and multimodal connecting services to eventually intercept the numerous benefits of passenger rail. 

“There is no vision that you possess you cannot make a reality. I encourage and implore you to be patient, never ceasing and Lincoln-hearted in pursuing your vision,” said Roberts Jr, who discussed the determination and persistence requisite for reviving Meridian into the unofficial cultural capital of Mississippi—a once diminishing but now vibrant arts community enriched through passenger railway.

Gager, a BSPRA board member with extensive experience managing capital construction projects for the two largest metropolitan commuter railway systems in the world (New York City’s MTA Commuter Rail Group and Southern California’s Regional Rail Authority— budgeting, financing, and contracting for projects on extensive railway systems transporting millions of people annually across multi-county expanses) is now expected to lead the charge for Livingston. 

The Livingston City Commission will almost certainly play a role in this process, given that the Depot is municipal owned. Three seats on the commission will be contested this November, pivotal to ensuring the capacity for passenger rail access is prioritized and pursued by our local legislature responsible for budgeting and policy—an investment in the community’s future. 

Ultimately, however, whether Livingston is approved for service provision will be contingent on a community level effort involving local businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals.

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