County shows support for passenger rail coalition

WORLAND — After hearing a presentation for Dan Bilka, coordinator of the Greater Northwest Passenger Rail Coalition, the Washakie County Commissioners sent a letter of support for the project.

In the letter, the commissioners wanted to “express our strong support for a major investment in rail transportation infrastructure. We hereby provide full support and formally request the U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, and Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Deputy Administrator Amit Bose create a FRA Working group focused on the Greater Northwest Region of the United States.

“Much of rural America is underserved by long-distance intercity passenger rail options, including portions of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.”

In the letter the commissioners state that the “ultimate goal of the Working Group is to further the economic and social wellbeing of rural America while providing enhanced connectivity for the national long-distance passenger rail system, thereby making the overall system more robust and resilient.”

According to the overview of the project by Bilka at the Jan. 4 commissioners meeting, “When President Joe Biden announced the American Jobs Plan would direct $80 billion to passenger rail, Greater Northwest area residents regained hope that they might once again have access to the same intercity rail service that connects metropolitan areas in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, this hope was dashed on March 31 when Amtrak released its proposed service changes, once again neglecting areas like the Greater Northwest, and instead directing the majority of funding to the Northeast Corridor.”

Bilka said passenger rail in the Northwest would be an “ideal option to address the three Es — economy, environment and equity.”

They propose three additional Amtrak lines — The North Coast Hiawatha from Chicago to Seattle; the Overland from Denver to Portland and the Rio Grande, also from Denver to Portland. Bilka said costs would be relatively cheap compared to other projects. The North Coast Hiawatha would be 2,300 miles at a cost of $447,000 per mile; Overland, 1,437 miles at a cost of $337,000 per mile; Rio Grand, 1,465 miles at $255,000 per mile.

Bilka said the New York City Gateway Tunnel is estimated to cost $11 billion, a Denver International Airport project, $8.2 billion; I-70 Eisenhower/Johnson Tunnels and Glenwood Canyon, $2.2 billion.

Bilka said in summary, new and increased passenger rail would bring immense economic, social and environmental benefits to communities. The Greater Northwest Region is well-positioned to benefit from new passenger rail services on multiple routes.

Finally, he said, the Greater Northwest Working Group is gaining traction but there needs to be support and interest from local communities, which is why he approached the Washakie County Commissioners.

In discussing how best to support the group

early, Aaron Anderson said he would prefer to do a formal resolution at a later date and recommended the letter of support.

Terry Wolf questioned whether a project like the coalition wants would require subsidies from local governments for railway stops in their communities.

Subsidies were required for passenger bus route “and it’s no longer here,” he said.

Bilka noted that most riders do not ride end-point to end-point but rather end-point to some point in between. He said only 9% of riders on Amtrak’s Empire Builder route of 2,200 miles with 45 intermediary stops travel end-point to end-point.

Wolf said they are always cautious about projects if federal funding goes away.

Bilka said the one thing the working group would be tasked with is feasibility and funding sources.

He said then they would look at how do we start implementing services? What do the services look like? How do we work toward that?

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Online: https://allaboardnw.org/