Historic Rail Route To Bismarck Gains New Momentum, Here Is The Update

Monday, July 21, 2025

This week nan Bismarck-Mandan Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) formally kicked disconnected an extended feasibility study connected extending nan erstwhile and early Amtrak North Coast Hiawatha service — past operated successful 1979 — to nan authorities capital. Embedded successful nationalist strategy and section agendas, nan inaugural offers nan imaginable to reframe location mobility, stimulate economical improvement and fortify our communities.

Transportation & Infrastructure

Central to nan scheme is nan re-establishment of rider obstruction work connected nan North Coast Hiawatha line, from Chicago to Seattle. The study will besides look astatine really to astir cost-effectively amended nan existing track, done logical improvement of awesome systems and affirmative train power (PTC) exertion arsenic good arsenic champion practices successful integration pinch freight operations—all basal pieces to safety, capacity and reliability.

Further, these efforts autumn wrong statement nan Corridor Identification and Development (Corridor ID) Program of nan Federal Railroad Administration nether nan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. That programme has already earmarked arsenic overmuch arsenic $500,000 successful readying costs to revive this corridor, starting by tying it into a wider national scheme to boost intercity obstruction successful nan United States.

Local Economic Development

MPO Executive Director Kim Riepl speaks to nan imaginable economical effect of renewed rail: caller tourism dollars, dispersed of building dollars, and business support. Long-distance obstruction revivals – specified arsenic these successful New York and Pennsylvania – tin tie beardown ridership and sec­ondary impacts successful agrarian areas, including jobs created from position rebuilds, operations, and related services, according to FRA studies.

Capital expenditures — specified arsenic astir $620 cardinal connected infrastructure improvements, $330 cardinal for caller instrumentality purchases, and $17.6 cardinal connected position rehab — pave nan measurement for national grants, an description successful workforce and mini business contracts on nan line.

Community & Social Impact

There is wide support from Bismarck and nan surrounding Mandan area residents. The MPO has had discussions successful its forums and successful nationalist meetings astir nan conception of including transit arsenic an option. Beyond tourism, intercity train entree tin beforehand societal equity — uppermost for those without automobiles aliases whose lives return them retired of scope of communal location aliases nationalist aerial services — by providing reliable intercommunity and nationalist connections.

A renewed obstruction corridor would besides make it easier to get from cars and buses to ride‑shares successful nan MPO area, mounting nan shape for amended section transit systems to link pinch location rail.

Strategic & National Policy

This tense of activity is playing retired against a backdrop of a larger nationalist effort to resurrect long-distance rider rail. Long region work study timeline: The FRA is progressive successful a agelong region work study involving states, tribal, railways and MPOs aft nan $8 cardinal that nan 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was credited to obstruction development.

Corridor ID 6, North Coast Hiawatha The nickname of North Coast Hiawatha corridor ID makes this wellness halfway a pipeline task for early rounds of funding. That summation mirrors strategical argumentation objectives to guarantee adjacent finance successful municipality corridors (Boston–DC, Chicago–Milwaukee) and underserved agrarian routes for illustration Bismarck guarantee agrarian mobility levels pinch scoot pinch broader connectivity efforts.

Urban Planning & Accessibility

The focal constituent of study remains nan siting and designing of stations. Planners are seeking to onslaught a equilibrium among easy access, minimal disruption to nan community, and nan chance to create together—commercial, residential aliases mixed-use astir caller obstruction hubs. The typology takes successful stops successful agrarian areas, for illustration Mandan, and larger location hubs, arsenic good arsenic a cardinal position successful Bismarck.

These caller nodes request to meet ADA requirements, link pinch section transit, and person an oculus for early populations shifts, futureproofing nan strategy for decades.

Technical & Engineering Considerations

Reactivation requires meticulous method work. Historic alignments for illustration Butte-to-Helena way changes request to beryllium designed for up-to-date information and speed. Track improvements, signaling upgrades and people crossing fixes are nan basics. And, creating capable Superliner-compatible sidings and work accommodation is important successful bid to assimilate good pinch Amtrak’s fleet.

Cost estimates for instrumentality and infrastructure are greater than 1 B, pinch engineering, staffing and compliance (such arsenic PTC) being key.

Moving Forward

The MPO’s study anticipated to beryllium finalized complete nan adjacent 6-12 months, It will see costs models, ridership projections, position footprints and methods for funding. Stakeholders will past activity national packages specified arsenic utilizing Corridor ID placement and monies from FRA/DOT discretionary pots.

If each lines meet, nan task could execute financial adjacent arsenic soon arsenic precocious 2026 and beryllium fresh for building soon after, pinch work arsenic early arsenic 2030. In nan meantime, this effort is already fostering section practice and turning attraction to nan groundbreaking powerfulness of proscription investment.

Conclusion

The scheme to reconstruct Amtrak work to Bismarck is astir much than sentiment — it is nan juncture of infrastructure, opportunity and organization empowerment. And pinch national argumentation momentum astatine its back, readying superior successful nan slope and stirring section interest, nan rebirth of nan North Coast Hiawatha is moving from tube dream to actual plan. What happens successful nan adjacent 12 months will determine whether Bismarck erstwhile again takes its spot connected nan nationalist obstruction representation and whether nan citizens of nan metropolis measurement into a early of movement, maturation and communal entree to municipality assets.