GREAT FALLS, Mont. — After halting shipping services for the past two weeks, Amtrak has restored deliveries to some Hi-Line businesses, the Great Falls Tribune reports.
The financially beleaguered passenger rail operation cut baggage check and shipping earlier this month in several Hi-Line towns, including Glasgow, East Glacier and Wolf Point.
But at least three flower shops are once again receiving weekly and semiweekly shipments of fresh flowers, thanks to persistence and help from their congressmen.
“We’re really tickled about it,” said Jan Harms, co-owner of Jan’s Floral and Greenhouse in Malta.
Jan and her husband, Karl, have been hounding Amtrak officials and politicians — they even e-mailed the White House — since their service stopped.
“We went everywhere,” Jan Harms said.
Without Amtrak’s shipping service, the couple had to drive to Havre once or twice a week to pick up flowers. “That takes five hours out of the day … and it’s an added expense for our product,” Jan Harms said.
Friesen’s Floral and Greenhouse in Wolf Point also got its shipments back.
“I don’t know why or how, but I don’t want them to change their mind,” said manager Cathryn Wylie. “We’re very, very appreciative of it.”
Mark Erickson, a manager at Clayton Memorial Chapel in Wolf Point, said his business still is waiting for word.
His funeral home relied on Amtrak to transport bodies. Now he or one of his co-workers has to drive to Havre or Billings to pick up bodies. The added costs land on customers.
“We’re very happy for (the flower shops),” Erickson said. “It’s better for them than no one.”
Bill Lombardi, a spokesman for Sen. Max Baucus, said his office has been working diligently on the issue for weeks, calling and meeting with Amtrak officials.
“This was communicated from our Great Falls office to our D.C. office to Max directly,” he said. “Max was insistent that Amtrak understand how important shipping is to the Hi-Line.”