The Boise Depot was built in 1925 for use as a Union Pacific railroad depot. Amtrak’s last passenger train rolled out of Boise in 1997. (Otto Kitsinger for the Idaho Capital Sun)
Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, who has been a vocal proponent of improving Utah’s transit system, told reporters Friday he was “disappointed” to hear about a mistake in Idaho that has derailed efforts to connect Boise and Salt Lake City by passenger train.
Even though it was previously reported that the federal government denied an application from the Idaho Department of Transportation for a $500,000 grant to study how to join Boise and Salt Lake City by passenger rail, an Idaho-based news outlet dug into the issue and found the state hadn’t actually applied for the right grant.
Idaho officials had accidentally submitted the application to a different federal program, BoiseDev first reported Thursday. The application should have been sent through the Federal Rail Administration’s Corridor Identification and Development program (also known as Corridor ID), but the Idaho Transportation Department applied for another program, called the Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program.