Star-Tribune Editorial Board

With the high cost of both fuel and highway construction these days, exploring high-speed train service in Wyoming is beginning to make a lot of sense.

Fortunately, the state isn't just waiting to see what happens. It has already made an investment to see if a high-speed railroad can be efficiently operated in Wyoming.

The Wyoming Department of Transportation, which usually concerns itself with cars, trucks and planes, received $200,000 from the Legislature to conduct a high-speed train feasibility study. The proposed line would run south from Casper to Cheyenne, down Colorado's Front Range, and end in Albuquerque, N.M.

Wyoming hasn't had passenger rail service since 1997, when the "Pioneer" - an Amtrak train that ran parallel to Interstate 80 - was discontinued.

Carrying passengers at a speed of 90 to 124 miles per hour, the new train would become one of the fastest forms of travel in the state, while being much more environmentally friendly than autos and airplanes.

Economic development groups in Casper and Cheyenne pledged money to the study, but Dan Kline, WYDOT's systems planning and railroad supervisor, said the funds haven't been needed yet. Members of both groups serve on a steering committee for the project.

The agency's consultant, TranSystems of Minneapolis, completed its report last month. The Wyoming study is a fixed facility report that details every aspect of the proposed route and the physical plan, including tracks, grade, curvature and alignment.

Wyoming is actually ahead of Colorado, which started its own feasibility study in April that won't be finished for about a year and a half. "The Wyoming and Colorado studies need to talk to each other," Kline explained. "The methodology used has to dovetail."

The remaining state, New Mexico, is further along in its plans than Wyoming and Colorado. New Mexico has purchased the right of way of existing tracks that ran between Belen, about 40 miles south of Albuquerque, up to Trinidad, Colo., along the state border.

In a way, Wyoming would be going "back to the future" if a high-speed rail plan become a reality. Cheyenne was created by the Union Pacific, while Casper owes much of its early growth to the Chicago and North Western line. Wyoming's tourism industry was jump-started by railroads carrying tourists into Yellowstone National Park.

Kline said the current energy crisis has attracted a lot of attention to the high-speed rail plan, which seemed little more than a pipe-dream a few years ago. The nation's interest in all forms of alternative transportation is keen.

Wyoming will now have to wait until Colorado transportation planners catch up to our state's progress. But it's encouraging to see that some people are recognizing that those once-empty drawing boards may have room for high-speed rail, after all.