Transportation in Montana | |||
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Overview | |||
Transit type | Rapid transit, commuter rail, buses, private automobile, taxicab, bicycle, pedestrian, highways | ||
Website | http://www.mdt.mt.gov/ | ||
Operation | |||
Operator(s) | Montana Department of Transportation | ||
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Transportation in Montana comprises many different forms of travel. Montana shares a long border with Canada, hence international crossings are prevalent in the northern section of the state; there are 13 road crossings and one rail crossing.
As the fourth-largest state in the United States, [1] journeying from one side to the other takes a long time. The state has an extensive network of roads, including state highways, Interstate highways and U.S. routes. Rail connections are also well-established and were an important method of transportation in Montana since the 1880s. Within individual cities, public transportation includes high-frequency bus services.
For travel further afield, 16 airports are operational within Montana. Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Gallatin County is the busiest airport and there are another seven major airports and eight minor ones providing commercial services.
Montana has approximately 70,000 miles (110,000 km) of highways which start in, pass through or are entirely inside the state. [2]
Prior to the creation of the state highway system and national numbered routes, a series of named auto trails traversed Montana and provided connections to other states. These included the Yellowstone Trail, Buffalo Trail, Vigilante Trail, and Green Trail. [3]
1,198.8 miles (1,929.3 km) of the Interstate Highway System, which serve as a thoroughfare for long-distance road journeys, is contained within Montana, and all of these are maintained by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT). Speed limits are generally 80 mph (130 km/h) in rural areas and 65 mph (105 km/h) in urban areas.
Montana's Interstate highways are as follows: [4]
Eleven national U.S. routes are within the state, as seen in the list below:
Two former national routes also ran through Montana before they were replaced by Interstates: US 10 and US 91.
Montana passenger rail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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In addition to these primary routes, Montana has a large number of state highways and smaller secondary routes. [5] Speed limits on these roads are generally posted up to 70 mph (110 km/h) along rural areas.
Vehicles themselves in Montana are required to display a Montana license plate on the back and front [6] by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Eight different primary plate designs have been issued since drivers were required to register their cars in 1913. [7]
The public transportation system in Montana is sparse as a whole, but several individual cities have local bus networks.
Across Montana, the bus network does not have a large amount of intercity routes but Jefferson Lines goes to cities including Billings and Bozeman. Other carriers include Express Arrow.
Some individual cities have their own bus network provided by a transit corporation.
Missoula is served by ASUM Transportation [8] [9] and Mountain Line; [10] The Mountain Line public transit system runs twelve services around the city and the University of Montana. It is indirectly controlled by the local government which have appointed members onto the board of the transportation district.
Billings is served by MET Transit [11] and Great Falls [12] by Great Falls Transit. [13] [14]
All four agencies run routes with fairly frequent schedules allowing commuters quick movement around different areas of the cities.
Historically, the state was traversed east-to-west by the main lines of three transcontinental routes: the Milwaukee Road, the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific. [15]
All passenger rail in Montana is provided by Amtrak. The Empire Builder serves twelve stations along the northern tier of the state between North Dakota and Idaho. [16] This daily long-distance train provides direct rail service westbound to Spokane, Seattle, and Portland, and eastbound to Fargo, St. Paul, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Southern Montana last saw passenger rail in 1979 when the North Coast Hiawatha was discontinued.
In terms of freight transportation, the BNSF Railway is the largest freight railroad with 1,983 miles (3,191 km) of track in Montana. The Class II Montana Rail Link operates 817 miles (1,315 km) of track leased from BNSF within the state. A number of other small railroad companies also exist. [17]
Many now-defunct historical railroads existed in the industrial period of the 19th and early 20th century: [15]
Commercial air travel is common in Montana and there are up to 71 public and private airports in the state. The largest is Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport, located eight miles northwest of Bozeman, an hour and forty minutes away by road from Helena. [18] The next largest is Billings Logan International Airport, near Billings, which has three runways and had over 388,000 enplanements in 2010.
The busiest domestic destinations from Montana are Denver, Colorado, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Salt Lake City, Utah, and the main airlines are Delta Air Lines and United Express. [19]
Montana is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan to the north. It is the fourth-largest state by area, the eighth-least populous state, and the third-least densely populated state. Its state capital is Helena, while the largest city is Billings. The western half of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges, while the eastern half is characterized by western prairie terrain and badlands, with smaller mountain ranges found throughout the state. The state has a reputation for a libertarian bent in popular opinion and policy.
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at 3,021 miles (4,862 km). It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and the Northeast, ending in Boston, Massachusetts. The highway serves 13 states and has 16 auxiliary routes, primarily in major cities such as Chicago, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Rochester.
Bozeman is a city and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States. Located in southwest Montana, the 2020 census put Bozeman's population at 53,293 making it the fourth-largest city in Montana. It is the principal city of the Bozeman, Montana, Micropolitan Statistical Area, consisting of all of Gallatin County with a population of 118,960. It is the largest micropolitan statistical area in Montana, the fastest growing micropolitan statistical area in the United States in 2018, 2019 and 2020, as well as the second-largest of all Montana's statistical areas.
Billings is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Montana, with a population of 117,116 as of the 2020 census. Located in the south-central portion of the state, it is the seat of Yellowstone County and the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area, which had a population of 184,167 in the 2020 census. With one of the largest trade areas in the United States, Billings is the trade and distribution center for much of Montana east of the Continental Divide. Billings is also the largest retail destination for much of the same area. The Billings Chamber of Commerce claims the area of commerce covers more than 125,000 square miles. In 2009, it was estimated to serve over 500,000 people.
U.S. Route 212 (US 212) is a spur of US 12. It runs for 949 miles (1,527 km) from Yellowstone National Park to Minnesota Highway 62 at Edina, Minnesota. It does not intersect US 12 now, but it once had an eastern terminus at US 12 in St. Paul, Minnesota. US 212 passes through the states of Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. It goes through the cities of Watertown, South Dakota and Billings, Montana.
U.S. Route 191 is a spur of U.S. Route 91 that has two branches. The southern branch runs for 1,102 miles (1,773 km) from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part of Yellowstone National Park. The northern branch runs for 442 miles (711 km) from the northern part of Yellowstone National Park to Loring, Montana, at the Canada–US border. Unnumbered roads within Yellowstone National Park connect the two branches. The highway passes through the states of Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana.
Montana Rail Link is a privately held Class II railroad in the United States. It operates on trackage originally built by the Northern Pacific Railway and leased from its successor BNSF Railway. MRL is a unit of The Washington Companies and is headquartered in Missoula, Montana.
Transportation in the Commonwealth of Virginia is by land, sea and air. Virginia's extensive network of highways and railroads were developed and built over a period almost 400 years, beginning almost immediately after the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and often incorporating old established trails of the Native Americans.
People in the San Francisco Bay Area rely on a complex multimodal transportation infrastructure consisting of roads, bridges, highways, rail, tunnels, airports, seaports, and bike and pedestrian paths. The development, maintenance, and operation of these different modes of transportation are overseen by various agencies, including the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), the Association of Bay Area Governments, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. These and other organizations collectively manage several interstate highways and state routes, eight passenger rail networks, eight trans-bay bridges, transbay ferry service, local and transbay bus service, three international airports, and an extensive network of roads, tunnels, and bike paths.
Transportation in New York is made up of some of the most extensive and one of the oldest transportation infrastructures in the country. Engineering difficulties because of the terrain of the State of New York and the unique issues of New York City brought on by urban crowding have had to be overcome since the state was young. Population expansion of the state generally followed the path of the early waterways, first the Hudson River and then the Erie Canal. Today, railroad lines and the New York State Thruway follow the same general route.
Interstate 80 (I-80) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey. In Wyoming, the Interstate Highway runs 402.76 miles (648.18 km) from the Utah state line near Evanston east to the Nebraska state line in Pine Bluffs. I-80 connects Cheyenne, Wyoming's capital and largest city, with several smaller cities along the southern tier of Wyoming, including Evanston, Green River, Rock Springs, Rawlins, and Laramie. The highway also connects those cities with Salt Lake City to the west and Omaha to the east. In Cheyenne, I-80 intersects I-25 and has Wyoming's only auxiliary Interstate, I-180. The Interstate runs concurrently with US Highway 30 (US 30) for most of their courses in Wyoming. I-80 also has shorter concurrencies with US 189 near Evanston, US 191 near Rock Springs, and US 287 and Wyoming Highway 789 (WYO 789) near Rawlins. The Interstate has business loops through all six cities along its course as well as a loop serving Fort Bridger and Lyman east of Evanston.
Interstate 25 (I-25) is a part of the Interstate Highway System that runs from Las Cruces, New Mexico, to Buffalo, Wyoming. In Wyoming, the Interstate Highway runs 300.530 miles (483.656 km) from the Colorado state line near Cheyenne north to its national terminus at I-90 near Buffalo. I-25 connects Wyoming's largest city and capital, Cheyenne, with its second largest city, Casper, and the smaller communities of Wheatland, Douglas, and Buffalo. The highway also connects those cities with Denver and Billings via I-90. I-25 runs concurrently with U.S. Route 87 (US 87) for almost its entire course in Wyoming. The highway also has extensive concurrencies with US 20 and US 26 along its east–west segment through the North Platte River valley. The Interstate has business loops through Cheyenne, Chugwater, Wheatland, Douglas, Glenrock, Casper, and Buffalo.
The Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) is a governmental agency in the U.S. state of Montana, responsible for numerous programs related to the construction, maintenance, and monitoring of Montana's transportation infrastructure and operations. While most of MDT's programs relate to the state's highway network, Montana's railroads and airports are also under the agency's purview.
Interstate 90 (I-90) is a transcontinental Interstate Highway that runs east–west across the northern United States. Within the state of Idaho, the freeway travels for 74 miles (119 km) from the Washington border near Spokane to Coeur d'Alene and the panhandle region at the north end of the state. After traveling through the Silver Valley along the Coeur d'Alene River in the Bitterroot Range, I-90 crosses into Montana at Lookout Pass.
Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental Interstate Highway across the northern United States, linking Seattle to Boston. The portion in the state of Montana is 552.46 miles (889.10 km) in length, passing through fourteen counties in central and southern Montana. Due to the large size of Montana, it is the longest segment of I-90 within a single state.
U.S. Highway 191 (US 191) is a north-south United States Numbered Highway in the state of Montana. It extends approximately 442.2 miles (711.7 km) from Yellowstone National Park north to the Canadian border.
Hardy Bridge is a Warren through truss, three-span, two-lane bridge in the western United States. It crosses the Missouri River and is located at milepost 6 on Old U.S. Route 91, about fourteen miles (23 km) southwest of Cascade, Montana, which is southwest of Great Falls.
U.S. Route 20 is a transcontinental east–west U.S. Highway that travels between Newport, Oregon, and Boston, Massachusetts. It passes through southern Montana for approximately 10 miles (16 km), connecting Targhee Pass at the Idaho state line to the town of West Yellowstone and the western entrance of Yellowstone National Park near the Wyoming border.