‘A little mistake’: Idaho didn’t apply to study Boise-Salt Lake City rail service

It was painful for a coalition of leaders who have pushed to bring a passenger rail line back to Boise to hear, in December, that the federal government rejected Idaho for a grant to study the return of an Amtrak line. The coalition advocating for the Boise-Salt Lake City service had felt the region was well-positioned to receive the $500,000 grant.

What they heard was not what actually happened.

Instead, the Boise area missed out on the grant for a much simpler reason: The Idaho Transportation Department failed to apply for it.

In March 2023, the Federal Railroad Administration had two grants open online, and an ITD employee accidentally submitted the state’s application to the wrong grant portal, John Tomlinson, a spokesperson for ITD said. ITD’s failure to apply was first reported by BoiseDev.

“So they didn’t even look at it, they just disqualified it based on it not being in the right bucket,” Tomlinson said. “A little mistake there on the part of not submitting it correctly.”

While the grant would have given the region $500,000 to explore what the costs and infrastructure needs would be to bring back passenger rail between Caldwell and Salt Lake City, obtaining the grant would have made the area potentially eligible for much more money. Federal authorities expect to cover the majority of costs associated with the more detailed planning needed for agencies who received the grant, according to a copy of the grant.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg announced the winning grantees on Dec. 8, kick-starting early steps of President Joe Biden’s $66 billion investment in passenger trains, which Congress approved. Boise was not mentioned in the department’s news release.