PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota’s Senate has voted down a bill calling for support for introduction of Amtrak service in the state.
House Concurrent Resolution 6008 calls for state’s congressional delegation and the Trump administration to work for development of a route through the state connecting Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul [see “South Dakota resolution …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 17, 2025] That is one of 15 routes presented in the Federal Railroad Administration’s Long-Distance Study [see “Houston-New York service gets highest ranking …,” News Wire, Jan. 21, 2025].
The legislation introduced by Rep. Tim Goodwin (R-30th District) passed the House by a 49-21 vote on Feb. 19, and had cleared the Senate Transportation Committee by a 6-0 vote. But on Monday, March 3, the Senate voted it down by an 18-17 margin.
TV stations KSFY/KDLT report that Sen. Carl Perry (R-Aberdeen) argued, “Forty-eight other states have Amtrak. This links us to the rest of the continental U.S.” (Wyoming is the only other state in the 48 contiguous states without Amtrak service; Alaska and Hawaii are also not served.) But Sen. John Carley (R-Piedmont), after saying 90% federal funding has sometimes been available for Amtrak projects, argued, “They’ve measured that it costs almost $100 million per mile of line. That’s a big number. Even if you take 90% for federal coverage, that’s $10 million per mile to put a passenger rail service in.”
The resolution did not address funding for the project, which the FRA report estimated could have required up to $5.83 billion in infrastructure work.
5 billion is a lot plus equipment. I think train travel that could go everywhere would be great but it would need to adhere to a schedule and not be 4 hours 8 hours late or let’s just cancel a train. Railroads dumped passenger trains because they lost money. We are living that again.
I was shocked the vote was that close. If you live in SD it’s a long way to get anywhere & options are few so I can see their proposal getting more votes. I suppose they had to vote it down being passenger rail is considered “green” & that wouldn’t be to Donny Putin’s liking. I think all these proposed route expansions including the Big Sky initiative & even the second Pennsylvanian are pretty much dead, not only due to the current mindset in DC but as others mentioned the lack of equipment which will not improve as the money for the new LD equipment is frozen & will probably be clawed back for the billionaire tax cuts. If they did order new LD equipment they need to forget the elevator & fixed consist concept & stick with an updated version of the Superliners. Rail is by far more accommodating to the handicapped than bus or air if you redesign the entire train to be handicap accessible you will have to make the aisles wider & the seats narrower that’s not going to work or be comfortable for overnight coach passengers. But more than likely the current LD equipment will just be patched up & cannibalized until they don’t have enough cars to cover the LD routes & then one by one be terminated.
“This is the worst, and I do mean the worst, proposed Amtrak route ever.”
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You give people too much credit. Here’s the “Vision Map” from All Aboard Northwest: https://allaboardnw.org/about/vision/
Its route across South Dakota includes not only hundreds miles of track in total disrepair or abandoned, but the route showing west of Rapid City into Wyoming is actually one where there has never been a railroad, so a completely new right-of-way would need to be obtained.
And then there’s Dan Bucks from the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority in Montana who, in their March 13, 2024 meeting explains his proposal for a “16th” long-distance route (the FRA study had 15) from Tucson or Phoenix to Seattle via Flagstaff, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Butte, Helena, Great Falls, Glacier Park and Spokane. Such a train would only need to reverse direction SIX times and require rebuilding of 95 miles of track out of service for over 20 years. The transcript is available here:
https://bigskyrailauthority.sharepoint.com/sites/BSRPAExternal/Shared%20Documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx?ga=1&id=%2Fsites%2FBSRPAExternal%2FShared%20Documents%2FBSPRA%20Meeting%20Agendas%20and%20Minutes%2F2024%2F03%2E13%2E24%20BSPRA%20Board%20Meeting%20Transcript%2Evtt&viewid=0d226d10%2D893b%2D4e06%2D9b55%2D06ed00f80261&parent=%2Fsites%2FBSRPAExternal%2FShared%20Documents%2FBSPRA%20Meeting%20Agendas%20and%20Minutes%2F2024
If someone wants to travel from the Twin Cities to Denver, it seems to make make more sense to have an Amtrak route between St. Paul and Omaha to connect with the California Zephyr. Or maybe St. Paul- Kansas City on the UP “Spine Line” connecting at Des Moines with restored service on a rebuilt ex-RI mainline which was once double-tracked and very fast.
I’m all for restored passenger train service to South Dakota, but the route shown seems to be mostly designed for intrastate service.
Mr. Ekren has a very interesting idea on extending the River Runner service. And yes, Charles Landey is right in saying that we need more frequencies on existing routes.
I have observed the Empire Builder regularly running with a 10-car consist and this is the off-season for Glacier Park as well as any other discretionary travel to North Dakota and Montana. The Builder cannot begin to provide adequate local service to the smaller communities along it’s route. Time to restore the Western Star to help meet those needs and take some pressure off the Builder.
And yes, I stand 100% behind the Big Sky rail group in calling for restoration of the North Coast Limited.
But right now adding any trains is near impossible until the passenger car fleet is enlarged. We need a new batch of Superliners with current deficiencies corrected (too high center-of-gravity, sleeper doors and dividers that rattle and some other smaller items).
Also needed is a large order for “Surfliner” type bi-levels with slightly denser seating than Superliners for short-to-medium distance coach trips. These cars can be mixed with Superliners. Thus a long-distance train like the Builder could carry a “Surfliner” coach for riders between intermediate points at a lower price point than a more comfortable Superliner seat.
On a restored secondary train like the Western Star, the Surfliner type coach might well attract more riders since more seats per car could allow a lower price.
As the new cars enter service, the original Superliners can be rehabilitated for some use in new services. The original order (1979) may be one last rehab away from scrapping. The newer group should have some years longer than the original first group.
https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/intercity/does-south-dakota-really-need-amtrak/
The only possible justification for this route would be that it would generate a lot of short haul traffic. Certainly no one going from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Denver would want to travel such a roundabout route.
Well, I’m sure it’s not “no one.” Going by train from the Twin Cities to Denver via South Dakota would at least be preferable to the only current option through Chicago. And I for one, living as I am in central Nebraska with an adult son and his family to visit in Minneapolis, would probably prefer visiting him via Pierre in SoDak over the only justifiable current route, Zephyr to Chicago and then a Borealis to the Twin Cities….But I do wonder how the $100 million per mile figure was calculated; did they plan the route over abandoned freight lines or what?
I don’t think any of it’s actually abandoned, but a lot of it in South Dakota is in pretty rough shape. It’s mostly a regional railroad, the Rapid City Pierre & Eastern. Probably 10-25 mph freight speeds, far from what you’d want for passenger rail (79 mph). Then add any bridge and culvert work, station platforms, additional passing tracks, etc. and it adds up in a hurry.
CHICK — I’m actually not opposed to your point of view. It would be nice to have trains everywhere, including rural areas not currently served. It’s not the world we’re living in and the economics aren’t there. There are no trains to Madison or Columbus. Both of them state capitals, both of them hosting the state’s major public university, both of them proserous and growing. There’s no train from Cleveland to Cincinnati. There is no train in Phoenix, which I believe is one of the largest cities in America, probably more populous than the entire state of South Dakota. Tuscon, somewhat nearby, has a tri-weekly train which runs like cold molasses.
We could go on forever with that discussion. The last thing we need is to spend billions to rebuild secondary (or worse) mains to patch together a route with low ridership, yet anotheronce-daily LD with no way to run it if equipment is short or a qualified crew gets sick or if it breaks down en route..
Interesting. I guess SD does not want or need rail service. Everything has its price. Too bad. I doubt Elon Musk would approve of such an endeavor anyway. And if such would have been approved, start up date might be 2050, when all of us have passed.
Sometimes a bad idea is just a bad idea, no matter if you are a passenger RR fan.
Can’t argue with Charles on this having to be one of the worst of the worst proposals as well as better services & doubled frequencies on established routes. ..
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If anything or maybe better idea, let MO, KS, NB and SD look at extending the Missouri River Runner from KC to Souix Falls, add trains & frequencies. It would be true to its namesake, give an alternate travel option along the I-29 corridor, service more population in between (say Omaha & St Joe vs Pierre & Rapid City) believe then what is proposed above and offer a couple different connections on existing Amtrack long distance trains at probably the fraction of improvement costs demanded by host railroads., In the meantime, keep pushing Heartland Flyer extension all the way to Kansas City.
Timothy — thanks for these words. In your post, in the last sentence, delete “Kansas City” and insert “Chicago”.
Someone’s math is off. Forty-six states have Amtrak, not 48.
This is the worst, and I do mean the worst, proposed Amtrak route ever. It has zero chance. Toss a dart at a map of America’s rail system. Wherever the dart lands would be a better bet.
We need to concentrate on better service and doubled frequencies on the existing routes.