PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s transportation secretary has injected a note of reality into discussion of possible Amtrak service in the state.
That discussion gained life in February with the inclusion of two routes serving South Dakota among the 15 in a Federal Railroad Administration report on its ongoing Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study [see “FRA releases long-distance study interim report …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 19, 2024]. A Denver-Minneapolis/St. Paul route would cover most of the middle of the state, passing through Rapid City, Pierre, and Sioux Falls. Sioux Falls would also see service via a Phoenix-Twin Cities route via Kansas City and Omaha.
But the South Dakota Searchlight reports that transportation secretary Joel Jundt last week told an April 17 meeting of the state’s Railroad Authority Board that the project would be “over a billion dollars and more than that,” and that the state’s population — about 919,000 in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, ranking it 46th — is likely to keep it from “risking to the top from a high priority standpoint.”
Conceptionally, passenger service “would be a great thing,” Jundt said. “But I think once they truly get into understanding the dynamics and the cost to do this, it might not look as favorable as just the concept.”
Jundt joined the meeting to address the FRA report as an informational item for the board, which oversees South Dakota’s state-owned rail lines. No action was planned or taken
The FRA process will ultimately result in a final report with recommendations to Congress. No funding for development of those routes is currently attached to the process.
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