Alberta-to-Montana passenger train would benefit economy, tourism: report

LETHBRDGE — The rail line from Lethbridge to Coutts is used solely for freight trains, but a new feasibility study done by Integrated Travel Research and Development looks at the potential of adding a passenger train.

"We looked at the social, environmental and economic benefits and we found that it would be very beneficial for Alberta and Montana to have this rail link, especially for rural residents," said Tyler Macklem, who led the Alberta-Montana Passenger Rail Feasibility Report project along with researcher Samantha Thyret.

The 888-kilometre route would run from Calgary to Livingston, Mont., with stations in places like Vulcan, Lethbridge, Stirling, Coutts, Great Falls and Helena.

"For Montana, Canada is actually the largest trading partner," said Trevor Lewington, CEO of Economic Development Lethbridge.

"Most of their export products come to our region and so this is the idea from a tourism perspective and just the movement of people, this has a lot of potential to explore."

According to the report, the Amtrak Empire Builder transports between 300,000-500,000 people from Seattle to Chicago through Montana each year.

"We know that the U.S. market is a huge opportunity for us," said Erin Crane, CEO of Tourism Lethbridge.

"The highway leading up to Alaska has always been a good travel route for us.

"During a tourism town hall last week, one of the things that actually came out of that when we were talking about the potential for tourism over the next 10 years in our region was a real focus on rail."

When looking at the tourism impacts, the report highlights national parks such as Waterton Lakes and Banff as main attractions to visiting southern Alberta, while Glacier and Yellowstone national parks act as go-to spots for tourists Stateside.

For smaller communities along the track, David Strohmaier with Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority in Montana says the route would positively benefit each economy.

"This is an option to connect folks to other communities, larger urban areas if you're living in a rural area to access services that you currently may not have that ability to do right now," Strohmaier said.

"We've long advocated either connectivity from Denver up to Montana or even Texas all the way north and it makes complete sense to connect our two countries and have cross-border travel."

The proposed route would share tracks owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) and BNSF, with improvement opportunities to be made to existing railroad infrastructure.

With the transportation sector making up roughly 22 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the report found that by reducing the number of cars on the highway, the passenger train would be able to reduce travel emissions by 75 per cent.

"Alberta rapidly grows its population and there needs to be fast and efficient transportation networks that currently highways and more car expansion just doesn't fulfill," Macklem said.

Roughly 5,600 motorists drove on Highway 4 south of Lethbridge in 2022 and 19,202 drivers travelled between Manhattan and Belgrade, Mont., during the same time period.

With nearly 47,000 people crossing the border at Coutts in July 2023, Lewington says now is the perfect time t plan for the future.

"There are many, many Albertans that own vacation properties," Lewington said.

"We have many people in Lethbridge that own businesses in Montana. ... It gives us an opportunity to explore, 'Does this make sense? What could this look like?'

"And if nothing else, hopefully, it gets people talking about the idea."

While the feasibility study is only the start for the project, those involved are hoping to get more funding to explore it further and engage with communities along the route.