BNSF spend $13.5 million on Montana Hi-Line

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Associated Press

MALTA - Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway is undertaking its largest railroad upgrade along the Montana Hi-Line in more than 25 years, part of a $54 million improvement project in the state.

Some 250 railroaders currently are at work on a $13.5 million project from the Chinook area to Bowdoin, just east of Malta, replacing about 82,000 wooden railroad ties and upgrading miles of rail along the 83-mile stretch.

"With the 80-plus trains that we run through Montana daily, and that includes local service as well as through trains, it's critical to have an upgraded track program," said Gus Melonas, a BNSF spokesman in Seattle. "There's always an anxious customer at the end of the line waiting for the cars' safe and efficient arrival."

The track improvements are expected to allow trains to operate at maximum speed across the Hi-Line - 70 miles per hour for freight trains and 79 mph for Amtrak, Melonas said. Amtrak uses the Hi-Line route for its Empire Builder passenger train, which runs from Chicago to Seattle.

Trains currently lose roughly 20 minutes in Montana from traveling through "slow order" zones where track conditions require slower speeds, Melonas said.