The North Coast Hiawatha was a long-distance passenger train operated by Amtrak between Chicago, Illinois, and Seattle, Washington.
The train was a successor to the Northern Pacific Railway's North Coast Limited and Mainstreeter. Its name is a combination of North Coast Limited and Hiawatha, a Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (Milwaukee Road) train whose route it followed east of Minneapolis–St. Paul.
Created at the behest of Congress in 1971, the North Coast Hiawatha had an uncertain existence before being discontinued in 1979 amid a wave of Amtrak cuts. This left the Empire Builder as the lone train through Montana and North Dakota and severed some of these states' most populous cities from the rail network, including Missoula, Butte, Bozeman, Billings, and Bismarck.
Rail advocates have called for the return of the North Coast Hiawatha ever since its discontinuation. Efforts have accelerated in the 2020s with the formation of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority and the inclusion of the route in two Federal Railroad Administration route development programs.
History[]
The flagship train on the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) main line was the North Coast Limited, which began in 1900. Its running mate since 1952 was the Mainstreeter, which operated on a slower schedule with fewer amenities. The NP main line mirrored that of its rival, the Great Northern Railway (GN), with the latter using a more northerly route through Montana and North Dakota.
The NP, GN, and Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) shared closer relations starting in the 1920s and merged in 1970, forming the Burlington Northern Railroad. Passenger service continued over both the ex-NP and ex-GN after the merger. When passenger service transferred to Amtrak in 1971, they chose the Empire Builder—the former flagship train of the GN—for their Chicago–Pacific Northwest route. Amtrak based this decision on several factors, including the overall higher speed of the ex-GN route and better alternate transportation options along the ex-NP.