Decision on passenger rail study grant application delayed, could come by year’s end
Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner
The view from Amtrak's eastbound California Zephyr as it crosses Utah's Soldier Summit on the morning of May 27, 2023.Regional transportation officials will have a little longer to wait to find out if they will be recipients of a grant to study potential expansion of passenger rail service between Boise and Las Vegas via Salt Lake City.
Jordan Backman, urban planning manager with the Utah Department of Transportation, told the Standard-Examiner on Tuesday that a decision on the state’s application for a Federal Railroad Administration Corridor Identification and Development Program study grant — previously expected to be announced this month — may not be determined until November or December.
“The date has been moved back, and I’m assuming that’s because the U.S. (Department of Transportation) has so many discretionary grant programs right now with the current transportation bill,” he said. “They’re having a hard time keeping up, I think.”
Backman said the study itself won’t start until after the grant is awarded, but there’s a little additional information on what the study will entail.
“The first phase, they’re awarding $500,000 to put together a scope schedule budget for what’s called a service development plan,” he said. “The next phase is the actual service development plan, which looks at things like train frequencies, routes and even rolling stock. … All of the things that would go into the development of an actual passenger rail service, and that’s what that plan covers. The final phase is actually project development — you’re going through environmental (impacts) and doing project development.”
In the grand scheme of things, Backman said, it’s not a big deal waiting a couple more months on the decision.
“If we get the grant and go through the service development plan and eventually if we move to implementation, it’s going to take years,” he said. “A month or two, it’s not a huge impact. We don’t even know if we’re going to get it, honestly.”
Passenger rail travel between Boise and Salt Lake City as well as Las Vegas and Salt Lake City ended in 1997 when Amtrak cut its Pioneer and Desert Wind services, respectively. The Pioneer had a stop in Ogden. Amtrak’s California Zephyr, which stops in Salt Lake City as part of its route between Chicago and the San Francisco Bay area, is the last remaining intercity passenger train in the state.