BOISE, Idaho — Idaho rail advocates were disappointed when a route linking Boise and Salt Lake City wasn’t included in the Federal Railroad Adminstration’s Corridor Identification and Development Program announced in December.
But it turns out that effort to revive part of the route of Amtrak’s discontinued Pioneer was never even considered for the eventual list of 69 routes, because of an application error.
A Boise-area business news site, BoiseDev, reports that the Idaho Transportation Department, which submitted the application, inadvertently submitted it for the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program, which funds improvements to existing routes or establishment of new service. Those grants were announced the same day as the Corridor ID selections, but addressed programs ready to begin construction [see “FRA announces $8.2 billion …,” Trains News Wire, Dec. 8, 2023].
The state agency had submitted the application last March on behalf of partners including five cities on the route and the Utah Department of Transportation. But the agency wasn’t informed of the error until December, well after the March 20, 2023, application deadline.
“It was an honest mistake,” Transportation Department Communcations Manager John Thomlinson told BoiseDev. “We all make mistakes.”
Applicants that were selected received a $500,000 grant for a study to further develop plans for service, the first step in a process that could take eight to 10 years with increasing financial requirements for the applicant agency.
The agency says it still hopes to pursue the project at the next opportunity. An FRA spokesman told BoiseDev in December that the federal agency hopes to reopen applications in 2025.
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