Act now to save Amtrak service in Northwest Montana

| June 6, 2025 7:00 AM

This month marks the 96th anniversary of the Empire Builder passenger train, inaugurated on June 10, 1929.

Named for railroad magnate James J. Hill, who built the Great Northern Railway across Northern Montana and beyond, the train is the second-longest continuously-operated passenger train in the United States.

But whether the train will still be around for its centennial in 2029 is iffy, at best. Operating under the Amtrak banner for the past 54 years, the train has been subject to the whims of politicians and that’s still the case today.

But today, there’s an even greater threat.

The Empire Builder was the first Amtrak long-distance train to receive new Superliner equipment in 1979, replacing steam-heated cars which were mostly built in the 1950s. Additional Superliner cars were added in the early 1990s, but no other cars have supplemented the fleet since and only a few cars were refurbished in the 2000s.

Currently, the Empire Builder and most other Amtrak long-distance trains are operating with equipment 30 to 45 years old.

Funding has been in place since November of 2021, but Amtrak has yet to finalize a design or designate a manufacturer for new cars. Historically speaking, new Amtrak equipment has been slow to be placed in service and delayed in delivery.

Replacement high-speed train sets for use in the Northeast Corridor are currently more than three years behind schedule. At this rate, it’s likely that anything new for the Empire Builder is a decade or more in the future.

It may already be too late.

In March, Amtrak took seventy of its Horizon fleet cars (built in the 1990s) out of service due to corrosion issues, severely reducing capacity on some of its regional routes. So far, no word on when – if ever – they will return to service. Given their age, it’s very possible – even likely – that a similar fate will end the service life of Superliners, and with it the Empire Builder itself. The equipment is already showing signs of wear.

Delays due to equipment failure are quite frequent and Amtrak no longer even tries to operate trains during the coldest days of winter across America’s Northern Tier. In January and February of 2025, the Empire Builder was canceled for two weeks.

So much for passenger trains being the all-weather mode of transportation.

Nonetheless, the Empire Builder remains essential to Northwest Montana, providing daily service to communities without alternate intercity public transport.

I urge local elected officials – especially mayors and tribal council members – to contact their state and federal officials to pressure Amtrak management and the Amtrak Board of Directors to accelerate the process of manufacturing new equipment, and to begin a program of refurbishment of the currently-used equipment to ensure existing trains can operate until replacement cars are available.

Refurbishment works: In Canada, cars built in 1955 remain in service seventy years later.

Also, pay no attention to the supposed “success” of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, a coalition attempting to reinstate Amtrak service in Southern Montana. For whatever reason, the BSPRA never acknowledges that should the existing Amtrak long-distance trains be discontinued, the likelihood of any new routes is zero.

Beyond that, it goes without saying that no equipment exists for any new route and current funding available is to replace equipment only on existing routes.

In a March 2025 study of proposed new Amtrak long-distance routes, the Federal Railroad Administration estimated a train between Chicago and Seattle via Southern Montana would cost $3.7 billion for new equipment, new stations and other infrastructure, including track upgrades - that’s half-again the current average yearly appropriation for the entire Amtrak system.

Fix Amtrak first, before fantasizing about something that could otherwise never be. The clock is ticking.

Sincerely,

Mark W. Meyer, Portland, Oregon

Note: Meyer is a native of Cut Bank and retired, following a 40-year career with railroad BN/BNSF.