BILLINGS - Montana U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy expressed his support for passenger train service returning to parts of Montana at the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority annual conference Tuesday.
The three-day conference at the historic Livingston Depot brings together the public sector, private businesses and nonprofits who want to advance the Big Sky North Coast Corridor — the largest proposed expansion of passenger rail in the West in more than 50 years.
Hear from Sheehy below:
“I think for the last 35 years have been a bit of a soul-searching moment for passenger rail in America, and I think now is the time for a renaissance for that. And I think Montana is the perfect place to see that happen,” Sheehy, a Republican, said in a virtual call into the conference from Washington, D.C.
Sheehy said the expanding passenger service would benefit Montana in many ways, including tourism.
“I think giving them a wider view of our state — allowing them to hop on the train in Glendive or Billings and take it all the way and see what our state has to offer would be great and of course, the injection of that into our economy would be tremendous, especially in some of our rural railroad communities,” he said.
Sheehy also praised the work that Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority has done in building a grassroots coalition to build support for passenger rail service.
“I will say it’s important that we don’t build a government-subsidized bridge to nowhere. I won’t support a government spending plan that doesn’t have roots in a free market viable plan,” Sheehy said.
Currently, 20 Montana counties have signed up to be part of the rail authority, but not Yellowstone County.
Commissioners told MTN they want to see what the plan would look like, but for now, their focus remains on the need to fund public safety issues and that they would not support using county money for passenger rail.
