SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — Congress has directed the Federal Railroad Administration to look into restoring Amtrak long-distance services while also looking for potential routes. One of these routes could come through Sioux City.

By the request of eight U.S. Senators, a group called All Aboard Northwest was created to ensure South Dakota, Iowa, and other states in the region have an equal voice in the future of passenger rail.

KCAU 9 spoke with the president and co-found of All Aboard Northwest who told KCAU that it’s time to start thinking about the smaller cities instead of just major ones.

“So on paper that they looked, oh if they cut this route they can save so much money by putting it this way and seeing that you lost this connecting ridership from people. You’d be utilizing these services, connecting to other services, and so forth. And it’s sort of been that has been the discussion up until recent times about like, let’s try to cut our way to prosperity, but every time they’ve done that, we out in rural America are the ones often left out and out in the cold and we’re saying it’s time that we go the other way with it,” Dan Bilka said.

A long-distance service study report will be given to Congress by Spring 2024.