Helena could be passed up by passenger rail route

The North Coast Hiawatha route could bypass Helena without the county’s support

By JoVonne Wagner MONTANA FREE PRESS

A passenger railroad project connecting Seattle to Chicago could potentially bypass Helena without the support of Lewis and Clark County, according to county and railroad project officials.  

The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, along with the Federal Railroad Administration, is leading the project to restore the North Coast Hiawatha route and has garnered the support of route-affected counties across southern Montana. Lewis and Clark County is not one of them, despite giving $10,000 to the effort in both 2021 and 2022.

Although the rail authority lists Helena as a preferred stop for the project, an alternate route would bring the railway south to Butte before continuing west through Missoula and east through Billings. 

“Worst-case scenario … it happens, and they decide to go through Butte. That’s it. It’s a missed opportunity for Helena,” Lewis and Clark County Commission Chair Andy Hunthausen told Montana Free Press. “They’re in. They’re really advocating that ‘Hey, open this line through Butte. We want it. We’ll do whatever you want.’ That’s great, but my wonder is why aren’t we doing the same thing?” 

Hunthausen said he was in favor of the county joining the rail authority in 2021. But when the county considered a formal resolution to join the project, former commissioners Susan Good Geise and Jim McCormick opposed the idea, Hunthausen said. Instead, the county pledged $20,000 to the rail authority to support the project’s feasibility study. 

“[They] were a little bit worried that it could come, some of it could come back on the local taxpayer, and at the time, at the very outset, there was not a clear way of leaving the authority,” Hunthausen said. Those concerns were addressed, he added, after the authority added into its bylaws that counties can leave at any time and that the project would be federally funded through Amtrak. 

However, when commissioners Tom Rolf and Candace Payne were elected to the Lewis and Clark County Commission, they also opposed the project, with Payne sharing the former commissioner’s worries about the local tax impact. 

“There’s things that I think it is appropriate for the county to help with. We’ve got other things that are way more important to us,” Payne told MTFP recently. “If they want people to invest in railroads, fine. But that doesn’t mean I should take money out of the taxpayer’s pocket. The people who trust me, they know that we need to fix our roads. We need to be prepared to fight fires. We need to have law enforcement. All those things. It takes money, and that’s a priority.”

Dave Strohmaier is the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority’s board of directors chairman and a Missoula County commissioner. He told MTFP that county participation could play a role when the Federal Railroad Administration makes decisions on what routes to fund for restoration at the end of this year.

“If I’m the Federal Railroad Administration needing to allocate limited resources at some point, someone is going to have to make a decision,” Strohmaier said. “If a community or a county says for whatever reasons …  ‘You know what, we don’t want to join the rail authority. We don’t want to participate in supporting passenger rail.’ Okay, there are plenty of others who do.” 

Strohmaier said that 19 voting members are appointed by the 19 counties partnering with the rail authority. He said having county participation means having a seat at the table in the project’s decision-making, while not joining is like having a team member sitting on the bench.  

Gregory Thomas, a Helena resident and the vice chair of the government partners program, provided city officials with more information during a meeting last week. He told MTFP that the program allows cities and towns to support the rail project independently from their counties. He stressed how the passenger rail would impact communities like Helena. 

“We’re talking about good-paying jobs that will be created because of the transportation [and] tourism industries. You’re talking about, stronger, healthier communities, especially including rural and tribal areas,” Thomas said. “It becomes a working tool for businesses, farmers and ranchers, schools, universities, health care and other civic institutions.”

City commissioners have expressed interest in what a partnership would look like if Helena chose to support the project. Helena City Manager Tim Burton recommended continuing the discussion at a future administrative meeting to allow time to gather additional information on financial implications before the commission considers officially joining.

With environmental and engineering analysis and the actual building of much of the infrastructure still to come, officials expect the project to take roughly eight more years to reach fruition.