Transportation in Montana

1,198.8 miles (1929.2 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 (129 km/h) in rural areas and 65 mph (105 km/h) in urban areas.

Montana's Interstate highways are as follows:[3]

• I-15 – Monida, Sweetgrass
  • I-115 – Butte, Downtown Butte
  • I-315 – Great Falls, Downtown Great Falls
• I-90 – Mullan, Ranchester
• I-94 – Billings, Beach

Click to enlarge detailed map

Eleven national U.S. routes are within the state, as seen in the list below:

• US 2 – Troy, Bainville
• US 12 – Lolo Hot Springs, Marmarth
• US 20 – Henrys Lake, Yellowstone National Park
• US 87 – Ranchester, Havre
• US 89 – Yellowstone National Park, Carway
• US 93 – Lost Trail Pass, Roosville
• 
  US 93 Alt. – Kalispell Bypass
• US 191 – Yellowstone National Park, Loring
• US 212 – Red Lodge, Cooke City
• US 287 – Yellowstone National Park, Choteau
• US 310 – Frannie, Laurel

Two former national routes also ran through Montana before they were replaced by Interstates: US 10 and US 91.

Car license plate design issued in Montana between 2006 and 2009

Mountain Line buses queue to pick up passengers in Missoula.

In addition to these primary routes, Montana has a large number of state highways and smaller secondary routes.[4] Speed limits on these roads are generally posted up to 70 mph (113 km/h) along rural areas.

Vehicles themselves in Montana are required to display a Montana licence plate on the back and front[5] by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Eight different primary plate designs have been issued since drivers were required to register their cars in 1913.[6]

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 Greyhound Lines goes to 20 cities including Helena, Sidney and Bozeman, connecting passengers with journey frequencies of between once to five times per day.[7]

An Amtrak passenger locomotive in Essex

Montana Rail Link freight haulage in 2005

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 by the main lines of east to west transcontinental routes: the Milwaukee Road, the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific.[15]

All passenger rail in Montana is provided by Amtrak. Twelve stations exist within the state.[16] All along the line Empire Builder, they serve communities along the most northern section of Montana which carries on out either side into Idaho and North Dakota.

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]