Chamber hopes to spur interest in rail service
by PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic
The last time a passenger train rolled into Darby was 1935.
With today’s record gasoline prices, worries over greenhouse gas emissions, and increasing traffic along U.S. 93, Rick O’Brien thinks it’s time for it to return.
The executive director of the Bitterroot Valley Chamber of Commerce will ask the Darby City Council to be the first community in the valley to promote the reconstruction and activation of the “Bitter Root Branch” rail line at its regular meeting tonight.
By the time he’s done, O’Brien hopes that quite a few others in the valley will jump on board.
“We hope to incite some excitement in every town in the Bitterroot Valley starting in Darby all the way to down to Florence,” O’Brien said. “We hope that people will create such a clamor that eventually we’ll be able to make something happen here.”
O’Brien will ask the Darby City Council for a resolution of support for the idea of bringing passenger rail service to the valley.
If Darby signs on and others follow, he plans to take the handful of resolutions to the Ravalli County Commission and local politicians in hopes of starting a grassroots movement started to re-establish passenger rail service in the valley.
“It will have to be a collective effort,” he said. “I’m hoping that Darby’s meeting will be a coming out party … this idea certainly has the potential of being an economic boon for the county.”
O’Brien said he recently spoke with a Montana Department of Transportation official who indicated that somewhere close to 11,000 vehicles a day were counted on U.S. 93 just north of Hamilton’s Silver Bridge last summer.
Other traffic reports suggest that about 25 percent of Ravalli County residents commute to Missoula on weekdays. With the rising cost of gasoline, O’Brien believes that people are interested in looking for alternative means of transportation.
“Our valley is continuing to grow and so will the demand for something like this,” O’Brien predicted. “This issue crosses all political lines. All of us in this valley are facing the same economic duress. We have this ribbon of steel that runs from Darby all the way to Missoula and right now it’s all but rusting away.”
The rail line was purchased by Montana Rail Link in 1987. That company still runs an occasional commercial train down through the valley.
Upgrading the rail line would be expensive, said Howard Nash, Montana Rail Link’s executive director of marketing.
Right now, the tracks only handle freight trains moving at relatively slow speeds, Nash said. It would cost millions to bring the line up the standards needed for passenger trains operating closer to 50 mph, he said.
Montana Rail Link is not opposed to hearing people’s ideas on the matter, but there are a lot of questions that would have be answered, Nash said.
“If someone could find some public financing or federal grant monies, maybe they could make it work,” he said. “If they came and asked ‘would you work with us to make that happen,’ we would not be opposed to talking with people.”
Reader's Comments >>
Wizard Of Hamilton wrote on Sep 24, 2008 11:51 PM:
I like the idea, 'cause it would be able to create jobs and help give the economy a booster shot. :)
Although, I have to admit, I gave up
coffee back in the early 80's...
But some hot cocoa, and/or even
some healthy fruit smoothies would be
especially good.
In addition to passengers,
the idea of transporting materials to use as part of the alternative energy program, sounds very appealing.
And all the nay-sayers should build themselves a time-machine and return to the previous millenium.
And the mortgage firms and big banks that got themselves into a big mess only have themselves to blame for their shady dealings, just to add to the greed to their CEO's and all the
big-shots on Wall Street.
And I think the FBI is investigating the possibility of corruption in Fannie Mae and Freedie Mac, and other firms.
Listen up, people....
Our nation's taken some
big lumps and bumps before...
But in the end, we've always dusted ourselves off and got back
up and moved on, and if we choose our leaders wisely, we'll eventually be prosperous again.
Getting the nation back into prosperity
doesn't happen overnight...
It takes a lot of new ideas, innovation,
and hard work.
The only thing we need to do for starts, is dispense with the old ways of the 20th Century and embrace something new and up-to-date.
What might've worked back in the previous millenium, doesn't cut it in the modern 21st Century. "
bold deb wrote on Sep 23, 2008 9:25 AM:
Wizard of Darby wrote on Sep 23, 2008 9:14 AM:
What if this railroad also transported tons of municipal solid waste (Bitterroot residents generate over 250 tons of solid waste each day) and woody biomass from thinning projects to a waste-to-energy facility conveniently located near the rail line?
What if you could get a nice Latte and a panini on this train to Missoula? "
Wizard Of Hamilton wrote on Sep 22, 2008 11:53 PM:
passenger rail service here in the
Hamilton area as well.
For example:
If I wanted to take a trip
to Oregon or New York, I would have to rely on someone to drive me all the way to Whitefish, just to catch the
"Empire Builder", and that would cost a bundle in gas money alone.
Among other things, I don't have any
intentions of owning a motor vehicle
in my lifetime, and alternative transportation would be the
best way to go.
With a passenger rail service, or even a
thruway/shuttle-bus connections to and from Whitefish, it would be beneficial.
I'm also thinking that it would be nice if we had a transportation center that serves local cab service,
carpol/vanpool service, and Greyhound and Rimrock bus lines, as well as Amtrak rail and/or thruway bus connections to the "Empire Builder" in Whitefish, and other destinations in between, where such services are available.
Pasenger rail service in the
Bitterroot and in Missoula?
I say, "Go For It!!!"
And to say that it's too expensive,
is nothing more than a lame excuse,
concocted by the money-hungry
CEO's of Big Oil.
And the greedy gas-gougin' gorillas
of Big Oil can take their dirty
fossil fuel and stuff it to where the sun don't shine. "