I live in Montana and am travelling to DC next week. i want to take the train. problem is, i live in the southern part of the state where there is no train service (amtrak's north coast hiawatha that used to come through here was discontinued in 1979).

so you know what i am doing? i am taking a bus north to catcb the empire builder. not only that, but i am going to spokane first so that i can ride the builder through glacier national park, the most scenic part of the trip.

it will take a 10 hour bus ride, then a 6 hour wait in spokane for me to catch this train. do you guys think i am nuts or what? give me your honest opinion!

(if amtrak would bring back the hiawatha, i wouldnt have to go through this mess)

Total 24030 miles on 29 trains.

Me mad? Probably.

I met a guy on that train from D.C., doing the same as you in the opposite direction: to Spokane and bus to Missoula. Since I was de-training in Whitefish with a rental car, he got off with me. We hung out in a Whitefish bar, then drove down in the morning. Then we all hung out in his friend's cabin on top of a mountain and had some beers.

I take the train (Southwest Chief) from Fullerton to either Gallup or Albuquerque and then it's a three to four hour drive (retal car) to Durango, Colorado and another half hour to an hour drive to Vallecito where my family's cabin is. After about a week or so, it's back to either ABQ or Gallup to meet the Chief.

i like travelling on amtrak but i also am trying to get somewhere. from my hometown of livingston to go to DC i should head east. Instead, i will take the bus (greyhound) west to spokane first, which costs me a whole day because if i simply took the bus east to dc, i would arrive in DC on wednesday, but i now i will arrive there on thursday. but its worth it!

no suburbs in montana, but there is an airport in bozeman, but i hate flying. i have a lot of luggage too.

yes, the builder means a lot to montana. last time i road it, they had petitions for people to sign in the havre station to keep the builder from being discontinued.

according to the earlier timetables from the 70's, the builder use to leave spokane around 4 am (which would allow more daylight to see the nice area west of glacier as the one dude pointed out).

anybody have any ideas on what i can to to kill the 8 hours i have to spend in spokane waiting for the train?

Depending on how much time you have, and on the bus schedules, you might be able to ride down to Wishram or somewhere and catch the train from there instead of Spokane. Make sure there is plenty of time for the connection though (like at least an hour).

It was a beautiful train ride, timed better to see scenery in daylight. Our bike route brought us back to the train at Bozeman, but it was 'annulled' (as the sign in the depot said) due to a washout from spring floods. We were bused to Miles City at high speed to keep on the Hiawatha schedule.

As it turns out, the Hiawatha was 7 hours late because it was rerouted over the old (Milwaukee) Olympian Hiawatha route through Roundup. Someone said the track was in such bad shape, the conductor was walking ahead of the train at spots. I wish I could have been on that ride!

For you young'ns interested in passenger RR history, prior to Amtrak there were 2 other competing railroads besides the Great Northern's Empire Builder running CHI-MSP-Seattle. Northern Pacific had the North Coast Limited and Milwaukee had the Olympian Hiawatha (electrified through the Rockies). In the 70's Amtrak combined those names for the train that used mostly the NP route. NP and GN became one under Burlington Northern, now BNSF. Milwaukee was split up after bankruptcy, but their line is still used Chicago-St.Paul.

I still remember the old NP TV/radio ad song:

"The last passenger train, the Olympian Hiawatha, passed through the Bitterroots in 1961, and the electric locomotives where gradually replaced by diesel engines by 1973. The final bankruptcy was filed in 1977, and the last train west of Butte passed through in 1980. After that the line was abandoned."

I also checked the schedule and i discovered if i leave on an earlier bus out of livingston i can meet the same train out of seattle in everett. only have to wait two hours instead of 8 in spokane (but i do have to leave on an earlier bus).

also, i discovered when i canceled my reservation that i will get the total amt charged to my credit card back. previously, though, when i had called amtrak to change the date of my reservation( when i thought i would only be delayed 3 days) they told me i would have to pay a 30 dollar exchange fee, payable at the station.