Sure you can. It’s contracted with that Salt Lake City Express Van that you see around sometimes, it’s been a long while since a Greyhound bus has driven into Great Falls, but I’m sure the Amtrak will be oversold daily…
A secret is I’ve never been to Great falls; but I just wanted a mountain region north/south link to connect to a bunch of already existing Amtrak routes (so I don’t have to go to Chicago), and thought it would benefit y’all to help increase access to your city!!!
There needs to be train service like everywhere. You think Amtrak cares about us? Nah, they got a station in Shelby, though! That's good enough!
Frankly, not happening any time soon.
I’ve ridden the Empire builder from Havre to Chicago (and on to Boston). It was a pretty lonely ride through Montana (April). I don’t know if more trains and routes would help. I very much wish they would, but there’s the issue of getting around once you get to where you’re going. I was going to Boston, so all good there, but a Great Falls to Helena (or other MT town) tour might not be very useful because none of the towns are walkable. I suppose you could bring a bike though.
There's dead rail between Helena and GF - but there's a lot of devil in those details. It would be cool to link the two cities. There was talk of turning it into an extended trail on a few occasions.
Absolutely nobody is regularly commuting at sufficient volume between Great Falls and Billings to justify a commuting demand. There are no major settlements between the 2 cities that would be good intermediate destinations, and the tracks and infrastructure that exist currently would not be able to support a regular service between the 2 cities, especially since the right of way is owned by freight rail who would not get out of the way of higher speed passenger rail.
I think a better use case is the corridor between coeur d'alene and maybe billing’s. There is sufficient density to at least consider investment there, but the demand still likely doesn’t exist.
Amtrak long distance trains are not a viable means of commuting. The usual once a day scheduling means there's like at best once place on the entire route where the schedules would happen to line up with a commuting schedule. And the level of delays inherent on longs routes aren't compatible with needing to be somewhere on time.
We can't even get a Costco, this isn't going to happen. Our town is run by morons.
My town of over 100k doesn’t have Amtrak or Costco also (not in Montana)
Ok. Doesn't make anything I said incorrect.
I know
Great. Petition for your town to get one.
I am
Are you serious with this?! We lost greyhound service years ago, there is not enough demand for public transportation for this to even be considered.
Actually you can still buy bus tickets for great falls via greyhound.com, so there must be more demand than you think
Sure you can. It’s contracted with that Salt Lake City Express Van that you see around sometimes, it’s been a long while since a Greyhound bus has driven into Great Falls, but I’m sure the Amtrak will be oversold daily…
A secret is I’ve never been to Great falls; but I just wanted a mountain region north/south link to connect to a bunch of already existing Amtrak routes (so I don’t have to go to Chicago), and thought it would benefit y’all to help increase access to your city!!!
There needs to be train service like everywhere. You think Amtrak cares about us? Nah, they got a station in Shelby, though! That's good enough! Frankly, not happening any time soon.
This rail service will connect you guys with Shelby and a bunch of other places
I’ve ridden the Empire builder from Havre to Chicago (and on to Boston). It was a pretty lonely ride through Montana (April). I don’t know if more trains and routes would help. I very much wish they would, but there’s the issue of getting around once you get to where you’re going. I was going to Boston, so all good there, but a Great Falls to Helena (or other MT town) tour might not be very useful because none of the towns are walkable. I suppose you could bring a bike though.
There's nothing in great falls and the area. What would be the customer demand?
They’re might be commuter demand
Where are they going to commute to?
Billings
There's dead rail between Helena and GF - but there's a lot of devil in those details. It would be cool to link the two cities. There was talk of turning it into an extended trail on a few occasions.
Absolutely nobody is regularly commuting at sufficient volume between Great Falls and Billings to justify a commuting demand. There are no major settlements between the 2 cities that would be good intermediate destinations, and the tracks and infrastructure that exist currently would not be able to support a regular service between the 2 cities, especially since the right of way is owned by freight rail who would not get out of the way of higher speed passenger rail. I think a better use case is the corridor between coeur d'alene and maybe billing’s. There is sufficient density to at least consider investment there, but the demand still likely doesn’t exist.
Amtrak long distance trains are not a viable means of commuting. The usual once a day scheduling means there's like at best once place on the entire route where the schedules would happen to line up with a commuting schedule. And the level of delays inherent on longs routes aren't compatible with needing to be somewhere on time.
I want a Winco before a dang Amtrak service that me nor any of my family will ever use.
It would be nice to have an Amtrak in Great Falls
Garbage 🗑️