Helena could be passed up by passenger rail route

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

Excerpt:

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.”