Passenger rail service to Glendive ended in 1979 when budget cuts forced Amtrak to discontinue the North Coast Hiawatha.

As of 2022[update], the depot remains in use as a regional office for the BNSF Railway, while rail advocates continue to call for the restoration of train service.

Extending west from Bismarck, North Dakota, the main line of the Northern Pacific Railway (NP) reached the Yellowstone River in 1881.

The occasion was celebrated with an elaborate fruitcake in the shape of the new depot decorated by Fred Kaul, master baker of the Northern Pacific's dining car services.

In 1900 the Northern Pacific launched the North Coast Limited, an express train between Chicago and both Seattle and Portland that stopped at Glendive Depot.

Glendive was left with no train service until pressure led by Senator Mike Mansfield resulted in Amtrak launching the North Coast Hiawatha in June.

In October 1979 Amtrak discontinued the North Coast Hiawatha due to budget cuts, severing Glendive and all of southern Montana from the national rail network.

[4] In 2021 the authority played a role in securing language in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requiring USDOT to study restoration of the North Coast Hiawatha.