Passenger Trains > Thruway bus route puts several cities back on the Amtra

CHICAGO -- An expanded partnership between Amtrak and Jefferson Lines now takes passengers to and from the Amtrak Empire Builder trains in Williston, N.D., by bus to eight communities in Montana.

Montana passengers at Sydney, Glendive, Miles City, Billings, Livingston, Bozeman, Butte and Missoula will meet trains at Williston and access the Amtrak network. Amtrak customer service representatives in Williston have been serving as Jefferson Lines ticket agents in the station building shared by Amtrak and Jefferson and tickets can also be purchased on Amtrak.com, along with other sales channels.


Several of these Montana communities were served by Amtrak until 1979, when the Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha was discontinued.

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Theodore Picraux
St. Peters, MO
Shuttletrain's Wanderings

Good, but quite a long, overnight schlep from Williston to Bozeman. Walk up fare is also $168.
Too bad cannot justify route down from Havre or Shelby through Great Falls to Bozeman.

"Go Amtrak. And leave the driving to us."

Amtrak is so interested in the new Montana service that they misspelled the name of one of the stops. Sydney is in Australia (and Nova Scotia). Sidney is in Montana, and is the home of my daughter and son-in-law.

Montana passengers at Sydney, Glendive, Miles City, Billings, Livingston, Bozeman, Butte and Missoula will meet trains at Williston and access the Amtrak network.

[u]Amtrak press release.[/u]

Does Amtrak have enough capacity on the Empire Builder to accommodate all of the additional passengers that the bus routes will generate?

P Wrote:
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> Does Amtrak have enough capacity on the Empire
> Builder to accommodate all of the additional
> passengers that the bus routes will generate?

That's what the seats in the lounge car are for.

EB ridership is down 19% in a year. Undoubtedly looking for a shot in the arm.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> EB ridership is down 19% in a year.

Not surprising. The word must have gotten out that your three-day trip to Seattle might take four or five days, provided the train hasn't been annulled due to equipment rotations being out of sync.

CA_Sou_MA_Agent Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> joemvcnj Wrote:
> --------------------------------------
> > EB ridership is down 19% in a year.
>
> Not surprising. The word must have gotten out
> that your three-day trip to Seattle might take
> four or five days, provided the train hasn't been
> annulled due to equipment rotations being out of
> sync.


This connecting service likely will have difficulties if on-time performance continues to be at issue.

The concept would have been useful a few years back when 7/8 had good OTP.

Now, one can imagine an occasional passenger missing their connection, at least in one direction.

Jefferson has a broad reach in the plains states, with routes into many college towns, etc

<This connecting service likely will have difficulties if on-time performance continues to be at issue.

The bus arrive Williston at 2:45pm and departs at 8:05pm

#7 is due at 11:07am
#8 is due at 7:09pm

Obviously, you do not risk a connection from #8 the same day, nor do I think would they let you book it, but it works when traveling from the east to ND on #7 (up to 9 hours late), and returning to the east on #8, though you will stay up late waiting for #8.

A flea bag motel there must cost around $250 a night.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/20/14 16:07 by joemvcnj.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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>
> A flea bag motel there must cost around $250 a
> night.

A traveler who makes use of Internet resources will find rooms costing half that amount. For Friday, September 26, one can stay at the Dakota Landing (rated 3 stars on Travelocity) for $129.