That conformed to what an Amtrak official called “the groundswell that seems to be developing for passenger rail,” a mode of transportation that has taken a backseat to private auto and air in recent decades in the United States.

But Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who organized the town hall meeting Tuesday, said the results of an ongoing feasibility study of more passenger trains in Montana will be the first step in what might be a long effort to bring rail travel back to Bozeman and Livingston.

“If the study coming back looks like we can get this to work, the challenge will be to get 98 other senators on board with us,” Tester told the crowd of about 100 packed into hearing room. “This is the first step.”

The study n the results of which are due in October n will look into how much the route would cost to operate, what the condition of the infrastructure is now and how many riders Amtrak can expect to pick up, said Ray Lang, Amtrak’s senior director for state relations in the Midwest.

Last year, Tester wrote a bill to require Amtrak to look into reopening the North Coast Hiawatha route. Shut down in 1979, the route ran through Glendive, Miles City, Billings, Livingston, Bozeman, Butte and Missoula. Amtrak is studying basically the same route, with the train going through Helena instead of Butte.

Meanwhile, the state of Montana is conducting its own studies about how more passenger rail service could be offered to Montanans. Now, Amtrak’s Empire Builder, which runs across the Hi-Line, is the only passenger train running in the state.

Jim Lynch, chief of the Montana Department of Transportation, said at the meeting that transportation managers became too focused on roadways at the expense of railroads.

“I don’t think we did anything wrong. Our focus just got off a little,” he said.

Still, he said he and other state officials in charge of transportation are coming to realize that building bigger and bigger roads isn’t a permanent fix, but giving people a way to get around without using the highway could be.

“If we can make an investment in rail transportation that will lessen the impact on highways, that is an investment worth making,” he said.

And the government is making investments.

This year’s proposed federal budget allocates $1.5 billion to the government-owned corporation. And the stimulus packaged allocated another $1.3 billion to fix up the country’s rail infrastructure.

Lynch said the state’s studies n which look into various east-west routes - should be available in draft form by mid-June.

Efforts to bring the southern route back since its closure in 1979 have been continuous, including efforts from Montana’s delegations to Washington. On the state level, former state Sen. Dorothy Bradley said she and others searched for ways to make privately owned and operated rail routes viable, but said she ran into “attitudinal” obstacles.

“Unless there is intense leadership, this isn’t going to happen,” she said. “Maybe this time there is that leadership.”