Following is an editorial on returning the North Coast Hiawatha through Southern Montana offered by Missoula City Council member Dave Strohmaier.

http://missoulian.com/news/opinion/columnists/article_48377d82-af91-11de-9605-001cc4c002e0.html

Missoulian

Returning rail service to the Garden City

Guest column | Posted: Sunday, October 4, 2009 2:15 am

Passenger rail in Missoula has a long and storied history. In the context of the demise of the Milwaukee Road’s Olympian Hiawatha, the Daily Missoulian reported on May 23, 1961, that “Steam is gone from the U.S. Railroad scene now, and passenger trains are disappearing, failing to meet the monumental competition of modern highways, two cars in every garage, glamorous airline transportation … and swarming freight trucks on the highway.”

Southern Montana’s other passenger rail line – originally called the North Coast Limited but then renamed the North Coast Hiawatha – hung on for another couple decades. But in 1979, amidst a national trend of passenger rail retrenchment, Amtrak eliminated this route.

Although passenger rail advocates have worked behind the scenes for years trying to restore Amtrak service to southern Montana, we’re closer today than we’ve been in three decades to making this a reality. Indeed, during my years on the Missoula City Council, I can think of few issues that have generated as much enthusiastic support as the return of Amtrak to the Garden City.

Of course, the naysayers will grouse that Amtrak is not self-supporting, and should not be subsidized. However, the fatal flaw with this argument is that it presumes the airline industry and our national highway system have been self supporting and free of public subsidies over the last half century. This is patently false. Billions of federal dollars – dwarfing the amount invested in Amtrak – have been dumped into air and highway transportation.

While air and highway transportation will continue to play important roles in southern Montana’s connections to the region and the nation, it’s critical to take a hard look at rail. Passenger rail provides yet another transportation option for Missoulians. If there was ever a time when traveling by air was ever glamorous, that era has long disappeared. For many Missoulians, making the long trek to Whitefish to catch the Empire Builder is just not an option. And in the face of serious concerns of climate change and energy conservation, it makes a great deal of sense to embrace passenger rail, which is significantly more efficient per passenger mile than other modes of transportation.

Not only is passenger rail a much needed transportation option for the majority of Montanans who reside in the southern part of the state, but it also has great potential to benefit local business as visitors spend money in our communities.

Will there be challenges to getting Amtrak back to Missoula? Absolutely. But it’s an undertaking worth pursuing. Some may wonder what role local government should play in regional and national transportation issues. To my lights, it should play a significant role. As important as it is to attend to potholes, curbs, sidewalks, bike lanes and other local transportation issues, we can’t forgot that ultimately Missoula – and all the communities of southern Montana – are connected to the broader region and nation, both socially and economically. To that end, we must actively engage our state legislators, the governor, and our congressional delegation on the importance of expanded passenger rail service.

Over the past few years, I’ve sponsored a number of City Council resolutions in support of federal and state legislation related to passenger rail. Thanks to Sen. Jon Tester, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 became law last year, and included language directing Amtrak to study the feasibility of restoring the North Coast Hiawatha route. Within the next few weeks, that study will be out for review, and it will form a critical first step towards identifying what it will take to revive regular passenger rail service to Missoula.

Recently the Montana Department of Transportation released its own draft study of restored passenger rail service to southern Montana, which can be viewed at www.mdt.mt.gov/pubinvolve/railplan. If you’re interested in seeing Amtrak return to southern Montana, it’s critical that you make your voice be heard. Comments on the State Rail Plan must be received by Oct. 15.

As residents of Montana’s second largest city, it’s high time we embrace bold visions for our community’s future, and I’m convinced that part of that vision surely includes passenger rail. All aboard!

Dave Strohmaier represents Ward 1 on the Missoula City Council.

James Corless, director of T4America, recently visited Missoula and got a chance to sit down with Edward O’Brien of Montana Public Radio. The full length interview aired Friday evening, September 25, on Montana Evening News.

Follow this link to hear James discuss community design, safe streets, transit, Amtrak and high-speed rail as components of federal transportation reform:

http://www.mtpr.net/program_info/2009-09-25-132

James’ segment starts in 13:41 into the newscast.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle wrote a good editorial today about the need for more investment in bikeable, walkable, livable communities. It’s a follow-up on an article they did two weeks ago about the Transportation for America campaign, where I was quoted. I have included the two articles below.

Our Opinion: 1950s-era policy must be updated for 2009 life

Bikeable, walkable, livable

Thanks to some hard work from a lot of people, we finally got a locally designed and built shelter put up on Friday. The attached article from the Bozeman Daily Chronicle does a good job of explaining the background and the effort.

Shelter-Bozeman Daily Chronicle July 25 2009

Last week at the Yellowstone Business Partnership’s annual meeting, Basil Barna talked about the need to reform the way we invest in our transportation system. Among other things, he mentioned the effort to move towards a mileage-based fee instead of a gas tax. Basil did not support this change because of the penalty on fuel-efficient vehicles when charged by miles instead of gas usage. I respect Basil’s assessment, but I also recognize the need to pay for our  transportation system as we move towards more efficient gas-powered cars and cars powered by electricity, bio-fuels, and (maybe) hydrogen. Also, the gas tax does not allow for congestion pricing, either for charging drivers when they enter a congestion zone or charging higher use during congested peak hours.

Considering Basil’s perspectives, today I took the time to look at a presentation, and related report,  about the Oregon Department of Transportation’s mileage-based fee pilot study. I have concluded this structure can be effective in paying for our road system and addressing other policy issues. The study found success with congestion pricing: a 22% reduction in rush hour miles traveled among the people subject to congestion fees compared to those who were not, along with an overall reduction of miles traveled. It also discussed Basil’s point:

“The most common issue raised about a flat mileage fee rate structure concerns removal of the incentive for motorists owning gas guzzling vehicles to trade up to fuel efficient vehicles. This point derives from distress about the environmental impact of driving for reasons of climate change and air quality. Considering the mileage fee rate issue from the perspective of environmental sensitivity alone, this point has some validity. Two counter arguments tend to soften the point.”

“First, road charges imposed on vehicles—whether gas taxes or mileage fees—comprise only a minor portion of total fuel costs for operation. This counterpoint argues the change to a flat mileage fee rate would have a negligible impact—cost per mile driven—on vehicle choices. Recent research by Oregon State University provides evidence supporting this point.  This argument observes that people trade up for greater fuel efficiency primarily because of fuel cost not tax or fee cost.”

“The second counterpoint argues for consideration of additional perspectives in creating the mileage fee rate structure, particularly the need for a sustainable road funding source. From the standpoint of establishing good public policy, all compelling policy perspectives should be taken into account when a legislature adopts the rate structure. Even so, the mileage fee rate structure might not be the best place to accommodate every valid policy perspective. A legislature may choose to address the road funding concern in the rate structure while addressing the environmental concern, or other concerns, in other tax or fee structures that do not directly relate to road funding.”

“ODOT has considered several rate structure alternatives to the flat rate for encouraging fuel efficiency. Most of these alternatives start with a flat rate for at least the more fuel efficient vehicles in order to ensure road revenues do not erode because of fuel efficiency improvements (like they do now with the gas tax). The alternatives generally involve stacking a second rate on top of the flat rate to allow rate variability for various policy reasons. For example, a fuel inefficiency penalty might be applied to a high fuel consuming vehicles in addition to the flat mileage fee rate but still collected at the pump. Another example is to apply the mileage fee to high fuel efficiency vehicles while maintaining the gas tax for low fuel efficiency vehicles.”

The Ravalli Republic ran the following community interest story. Bitterroot Bus worked with a student from the local high school to develop a new logo. Good community involvement, and good press. Is the work of a high school student better than the new Pepsi logo? That’s not for me to decide.
http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2009/04/20/news/news57.txt

Two weeks ago the White House announced its high speed rail plan, which is pretty exciting stuff. In Bozeman we’ll be hundreds of miles away from one of these routes, but Amtrak is also studying the feasibility of reinstituting the route through Billings, Bozeman, and Missoula. To make the train a viable option in our part of the country, we will need a way to get around after someone gets off the train.

So we will need coordination and investment to make that happen. As Jeanne Erikson, United We Ride Ambassador for this region, describes:

Urban communities throughout the West are growing, and transit services are expanding right along with them. However, coordination of these services is progressing at a slow pace, particularly in lesser-served areas on the fringes. Workers in national parks and resort towns often use transit to commute to affordable housing fifty or more miles away.

Changes in some of our rural areas are daunting. Small towns are changing as young people leave for career opportunities elsewhere. Their parents and grandparents may follow them or move nearer to medical services and shopping in larger towns. Transit agencies are seeing ridership increases in the larger towns and greater needs for long distance travel to more rural areas. Region 8 is the land of wide open spaces between communities. We have special challenges as we provide greater access to transportation services through better coordination of existing services and a means to share and coordinate resources.

My sister pointed me to the TED talks and this one in particular. Now I have to figure out how to present statistics as effectively.

Last week I was in Omaha for the National Rural Public and Intercity Bus Conference. As with most conferences, I got to renew some old friendships, make some new friends, and collect some great ideas. I left full of energy to return home to a pile of work. How do you take advantage of conferences when you get back home? This article from RainToday.com gives some ideas.

I love the national parks, especially the Montana parks, Yellowstone and Glacier. Today NPR Weekend Sunday Edition completed it’s five-part series on the 1988 Yellowstone fires and their aftermath titled Yellowstone: Evolution of a National Treasure.

Beyond the fire information, it includes a small part describing the link between Old Faithful Inn and the historic transportation into the park. Rich tourists from the east coast would arrive by train to Gardiner, Montana at the north entrance, then pay $50 each for a  tour of the park by stagecoach. They would stay at hotels, including the Old Faithful Inn, spaced 30 to 40 miles apart from each other, the distance the stagecoaches could travel in one day. In 2004 I got to spend the night at the Old Faithful Inn, sipping a cocktail while watching the geyser from the balcony during sunset. I am glad the firefighters succeeded in saving this amazing place in 1988.

The piece identifies two big risks to Yellowstone in the near-term, and neither one is fire. First, we are losing winter wildlife range outside the park as more people are building their summer vacation homes. Second, park officials are having to balance access with protecting the resources.