Report: State DOT leader doubts passenger rail will arrive in South Dakota

South Dakota Department of Transportation Secretary Joel Jundt has dismissed the possibility that Amtrak service would become a reality in the state, according to a local news report.

South Dakota is the only state in the contiguous United States to never have had Amtrak service. An ongoing Federal Railroad Administration study of future long-distance passenger-rail service recently showed maps that included possible routes through Sioux Falls, Pierre and Rapid City, the South Dakota Searchlight reported last week.

At a meeting of the state’s Railroad Authority Board held last week, Jundt commented that a passenger-rail project would be expensive and that he didn’t see the state’s low population “rising to the to the top from a high-priority standpoint” in the months and years ahead, the news site reported.

"From a concept standpoint, I think it would be a great thing to have passenger rail in South Dakota for tourism and everything else,” Jundt said, according to the news report. "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."

Kellie Beck, director of finance and management for the state DOT, noted that the state’s status as one of three without passenger rail means that it receives special transportation circumstance grants from the federal government, which the state has used for freight rail and other projects.