Big Sky Passenger Rail: A Transcontinental Movement for Rural Connectivity

November 06, 2026
Virtual
Join on Zoom
2-3 p.m. MST/3-4 p.m. CST
Amtrak's Empire Building train crossing a wooden trestle over a rolling valley with the Rocky Mountains in the background

Speakers: Dave Strohmaier, board chair; Dan Bucks, chair, Development and Strategic Engagement Committee; Kim Whittemore, community outreach and engagement director

Trains can be misunderstood as a rural vs. urban issue, but rural communities may offer some of the strongest cases for passenger rail.

Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA), headquartered in Billings, Montana, began with 12 counties and has grown to 20, all working to restore passenger rail along the Big Sky North Coast Corridor. Stretching 2,300 miles between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, it is the longest route in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program. With federal support for passenger rail projects uncertain, BSPRA is addressing unique challenges as a multi-state effort.

Join our virtual panel discussion with BSPRA to learn from this mammoth coalition bringing together small towns, counties, Tribal Nations, labor, Amtrak, and host freight railroads.

It’s a Beautiful Country

Let’s see it. Let’s clean it. Let’s build it. Let’s make high speed rail a reality.

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