A section of road along Highway 200 near Plains, Montana. (Jordan Hansen / Daily Montanan)
Transportation between cities in Montana can be difficult without a car and a new bill in the Senate would seek to study the issue.
Getting groceries, finding a doctor or simply getting from one place to another are all issues transportation advocates pointed to on Monday afternoon in the Senate Transportation and Highway committee.
A joint resolution sitting in the committee, Senate Joint Resolution 19, brought by Sen. Andrea Olsen, D-Missoula, is asking for an interim study into the issue of public transportation. It specifically asks to look at passenger rail, passenger air, public transit, and passenger bus services and looks to improve them.
It also is trying to take into account underserved populations and ways to improve access for them.
“What I really want to get out of this study is the opportunity for us all to look at public transportation as true infrastructure that does so much for Montana,” Olsen said in an interview with the Daily Montanan. “I want people to see the connections between rural prosperity and the infrastructure that we make happen, like we used to make happen.”
Montana used to have a significant passenger rail system. But small lines, such as one between Butte and Anaconda once moved miners and smelter workers around, to the longer Amtrak North Coast Limited/Hiawatha line that connected Chicago to Seattle, have gone by the wayside.
There is still limited passenger rail along the Hi-Line and the Empire Builder runs from Chicago to Seattle. It is the most popular stop in Montana and the most popular stop between Seattle and Minneapolis.
Recently, a long-standing push by the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority to bring passenger rail back has gained steam.
“I think looking for advancement, advancements of any kind, when it comes to public transportation, is a welcome way to look at the future, because I think building more roads with just more individual vehicles I don’t think necessarily serves us well looking ahead,” Senate minority leader Sen. Pat Flowers, D-Belgrade said during a press conference on Tuesday.
Proponents of the bill pointed to how their small communities have withered when the rail lines went away.
Former Montana Rep. Jasmine Krotkov specifically spoke about her experiences in Neihart. There used to be a train line from Great Falls to Neihart, which residents of the Electric City used to get to fishing spots. At one point Neihart had around 2,000 residents and is down to 35, Krotkov said.
The train supported businesses in the town and gave residents there a way to get to Great Falls.
“When I heard about this study bill, I thought about all the benefits that could come back to Neihart if we still had that train,” Krotkov said to the committee on Monday. “I would love to ride the train to town for groceries, especially in winter. The fishers could ride it in the summer, and the skiers could ride it in the winters, bringing their business to Neihart instead of just breezing through town in their cars.”
Greyhound and Jefferson Lines do run buses throughout Montana, but they are expensive. A trip from Butte to Bozeman would be $51 and leave at 12:30 a.m., with a passenger arriving at the Bozeman stop in a Walmart parking lot at 1:50 a.m.
For another example, a trip from Polson to Missoula on Greyhound would be $43.99.
Missoula does have a local bus system, as does Bozeman and Billings, but few other communities in the state do.
Mountain Line, Missoula’s public transportation service, had around 1.5 million rides in 2024, according to Matt Leow, who was representing the Missoula Urban Transportation District, and the Human Resource Development Council at Monday’s committee hearing.
“The entire state is going through this growth and housing affordability problem, on the front of all of our minds these days, and transportation and housing go hand in hand,” Leow said.
Whitehall Public Transportation, which is run through the nonprofit Liberty Place, Inc., provides a “good number of Whitehall residents and senior citizens who would otherwise be isolated without the services we provide,” a website for Whitehall Public Transportation states.
Montana has one of the oldest populations of any U.S. state and almost 20% of the state’s population was more than 65 according to a 2023 study by the Department of Health and Human Services. Public transportation, whether geared specifically for elder individuals or having a broader rider base, can benefit the graying population.
Medical appointments are one such need. With small-town pharmacies disappearing across the country, it can be difficult for older individuals, especially those who cannot drive, to get their basic needs met.
According to Rural Health Research Gateway, the number of pharmacies in rural areas declined by 5.9 percent from 2018 to 2023.
“Access to transportation is a fundamental need for many Montanans,” said Kathy Wick, who was representing Ability Montana and in support of the bill. “Especially those who are relying on it for medical care right now, people living in our rural communities across the state struggle to get to essential medical appointments simply because there are absolutely no transportation options between our towns and most communities.”
The bill is expected to get an executive action on Wednesday. Senate Transportation vice chairman Sen. Denley Loge, R-St. Regis, said he wasn’t sure if it would pass out of committee and said that as far as the study goes, the Legislature would “likely do it anyways.”
Olsen also pointed to some of the other benefits, including increased economic activity stemming from public transportation. Federal money can also help match funds and improve transit.
“We have to start looking at ourselves, and we also have to stop looking at this as a cost,” Olsen said. “Whenever we invest in infrastructure, we take a little bit of money and we explode it.”