ND Legislature allocates $150,000 for passenger rail service project
May 17—JAMESTOWN — The North Dakota Legislature allocated $150,000 for the creation of a service development plan to restore passenger rail service from Chicago to Seattle.
Dave Strohmaier, chair of the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, said the $150,000 will be part of a new $11 million grant agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration. As part of the agreement, $1.1 million is needed to match the federal dollars.
Strohmaier said on Wednesday, May 14, that North Dakota is the only state that has allocated funding for the $11 million grant agreement. He said a few states' legislatures are still in session and working on their budgets.
"The Rail Authority is kicking off a capital campaign to close the gap on the balance of the dollars we need to move forward," he said.
Strohmaier said about another $1 million is needed for the match of the federal dollars. He said the route for passenger rail service would go through eight states.
The Federal Railroad Administration awarded a $500,000 grant from its Corridor Identification and Development Program to the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority to restore passenger rail service on the former North Coast Hiawatha Chicago to Seattle route, which is known as the Big Sky North Coast Corridor. Passenger rail projects in Amtrak's North Coast Hiawatha are overseen by the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority.
The Big Sky North Coast Corridor would go through eight states from Chicago to Seattle, including southern Montana and North Dakota. The route would go through Fargo, Jamestown, Bismarck, Dickinson and Medora.
The concept of high-performance rail includes both freight and passenger operations, The Jamestown Sun reported in March. The Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority is developing a route that would include two trains in each direction daily, ensuring that every community with a stop has at least one daylight train.
Sen. Terry Wanzek, R-Jamestown, said allocating the $150,000 to the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority gives the state the ability to participate in the planning of the passenger rail route.
"If we didn't participate, a plan could be developed and we might not have a say in whether they stop in Jamestown, Medora, Bismarck and Fargo or anywhere else," he said.
Rep. Craig Headland, R-Montpelier, said the passenger rail route going through North Dakota will help with tourism. He said tourism is the third-leading industry in the state.
"I think it would enhance what we are trying to create here in North Dakota," he said.
Headland said the passenger rail route could help get out-of-state visitors to stop in Jamestown, Bismarck or Medora.
"I think it would be used," he said. "I just think it would be a big boost."
Jamestown City Councilman David Steele said he hasn't heard any negative comments about the passenger rail route going through Jamestown.
"Everybody has been positive wishing it was done tomorrow or yesterday," he said.
Steele said the passenger trains would be great for tourism for all communities along the route.
"We just need to make the connections with the public and what the advantages would be to having passenger rail," he said.
Strohmaier said the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority is in the process of completing the first step of the Corridor Identification and Development Program.
"We're coming up with a scope schedule and budget for creation of a service development plan for the route," he said.
The service development plan results in a corridor project inventory that identifies the capital projects necessary to achieve the proposed service, according to the Federal Railroad Administration's document on providing a scope of work framework for creating a service development plan.
Strohmaier said the goal is to have the passenger rail service starting in the early to mid-2030s. He said it will take about two to three years to finish the service development plan.
"That gets us up to the point of step three, which is the final step in this program, and that's when we begin preliminary engineering and environmental analysis," he said. "That's going to be another probably couple-year-long exercise to do all of that engineering and so that that gets you five or six years into this."
Strohmaier said the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority also will need to think about the fabrication of the trains.
"We're going to have to start relatively soon thinking about how to get an order lined up so that when we finish all of the planning, all the infrastructure investment, we'll actually have the trains ready," he said.
After the planning work is done, he said the groundwork can begin.
"That could be double tracking," Strohmaier said. "It could be the reestablishment of stations themselves, which can run the gamut from pretty simple to much more elaborate based on what a community wants."
The Federal Railroad Administration will make the final decision on the locations when approving the service development plan for the route.
For more information about the Corridor Identification and Development Program and the Big Sky Rail Authority, visit
www.bigskyrail.org
.
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