Passenger rail advocates say Amtrak’s plan to reduce the Empire Builder to three days a week will cost Montana more than $38 million.

For more than 70 years, skiers have been taking the Empire Builder to Whitefish. In the early 1940s, before ski runs were even cut onto the face of Big Mountain, the Great Northern Railway was helping survey the area for a resort, and once Winter Sports, Inc. was formed in 1947, the railroad did more than its fair promotional share to attract passengers.

Even after the Empire Builder route was taken over by Amtrak in the 1970s, and as air has become tourists’ preferred means of travel to the Flathead Valley, Whitefish Mountain Resort and the local chamber of commerce still promote rail as a great way to get to the slopes. Kevin Gartland, executive director of the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce, likes to tell people that you can board the train in Portland or Seattle on Friday night and arrive in Whitefish before first chair on Saturday.

“Amtrak and the Empire Builder are a big part of this community,” Gartland said. “Whitefish is a railroad town.”

by Justin Franz

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Many thanks to Dave S. for sharing

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Tester Amtrak Oversight Hearing Featuring Executive Director of Bear Paw Development Corp. Paul Tuss -10/21 – 8AM MST Online

Amtrak has served Montana and our residents well over many decades.  Join with me in encouraging our congressional delegation to properly fund Amtrak and to resist the current cuts to this important part of our transportation infrastructure. Paul Tuss

Paul Tuss, executive director of Bear Paw Development Corp. has been elected to the board of The National Association of Development Organizations

“I am honored to have the trust of my peers in this 10-state region to further the interests of economic development and economic development practitioners at a national level,” Tuss said.