Canadian Pacific Railway says it will “defer indefinitely” plans to extend its South Dakota-based Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad network into
the Powder River Basin to ship Wyoming coal to eastern power plants. The C-P says that it’s mothballing the 260-mile extension because of a weak demand for coal. The D-M-and-E won federal approval in 2002 for the extension and to run coal trains along it’s existing line. There was talk at one time of more than 30 coal trains a day travelling at high speed through Brookings. There were even discussions of running a railroad bypass around the town. There was opposition to the plan in Brookings; western South Dakota; Rochester, Minnesota, and Wyoming.
Brookings Mayor Tim Reed…
The city added gates at the railroad crossing on Main Avenue and has been
looking to upgrade the city’s other crossings…
Scott Munsterman was on the Brookings City Council and Mayor during
many of the negotiations with the D-M-and-E. He says a lot of work was
doneon this issue…
He says this was a very difficult issue for the city…
Railroads have been dealing with weaker coal demand and here’s also
speculation that any new regulations to limit greenhouse gases would make
coal even less attractive.