(Havre) – With the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (BSPRA) being chosen for the Federal Corridor ID and Development program, New Media Broadcasters sat down with David Strohmair the Chairman of the BSPRA to talk about what being chosen for the program does.
“What this does is initially bring $500,000 into our coffers to begin the planning process that will eventually lead to subsequent stages result in what we call a service development plan for this route and that service development will be looking at what’s the frequency of service, what’s the structure upgrades necessary to make passenger rail service a reality in the future. And, in yet another subsequent phase there will be funding available, and the subsequent phases will bring multiple millions of dollars available for this planning, but last phase will include engineering environmental analysis and really everything to get us to the point of construction and implementation of this new service.”
We also asked when the project could be finished.
“Well, there are a lot of different steps along the way and lots of unknowns at this point. In my most optimistic mood I would say 5 to seven years but let’s keep in mind we put a man on the moon in ten years in the 1960’s. So, surely if we had a will to get this done in a more expedited fashion were talking a passenger rial route on planet earth, not sending someone to the moon, we can get this done in a quicker fashion.”
