Minot has the best array of rental car companies. With luck they will come down to the Amtrak station and pick you up. The arrival of the Empire Builder into Minot is also in the middle of the day and there is a better chance that you will not get stranded someplace in the middle of the night when the rental car companies are closed.
it looks like from where you live(and based on my limited knowledge of where Greyhound and other bus carriers run routes along), you unfortunately don't have any easy ways to catch an Amtrak train. unfortunately, i can only think of 2 not-so-easy ways to get there: taking a bus east from Rapid Falls to Sioux Falls, SD, then take a connecting bus either north or south to Fargo, ND(for the Empire Builder), or to Omaha, NE(California Zephyr). and if you drive by car to an Amtrak station, Williston is the closest Empire Builder stop, and Fort Morgan, CO is the closest California Zephyr stop(both sadly being hundreds of miles away from Rapid Cty). only bad thing is that if you try to catch the train in Fargo, the trains stop in the VERY MIDDLE of the night. going to Omaha(if you decide to connect to Amtrak via a bus) would be better, as the westbound train comes during the evening, and the eastbound one arrives in the early morning hours(the latter one typically runs 2-3 hours late most of the time, due to UP's stupid dispatchers that give freights priority). :angry: i think probably going to Williston(staffed station), or to Omaha(staffed station) are probably your best bets, as both stations have actual station agents handling ticketing, and the trains don't arrive in the VERY MIDDLE of the night(unlike if you were to board in Fort Morgan(unstaffed station) or in Fargo(staffed station)).Okay I feel a bit stupid for even asking this but where are you coming from? My In-Laws live in Rapid and we wish we could take the train there. I have analyized it from a variety of strategies but it is not an easy venture. Mom came to visit us via Amtrak a few years ago but had to get to Denver to catch the train. We have taken most of the routes around the area so I could suggest strategies but I don't know where you are departing from, I guess I missed something.
Always lurking...
That is a shame. I believe that a Chicago-Des Moines, Iowa City, Sioux City, Sioux Falls, Pierre, Vermillion and Rapid City to Denver route has potential.
The DME has been proposing for years an extension and improvement of their rickety freight line from where it current ends in South Dakota, over through the Black Hills and into the Powder River coal basin. The main stumbling block seems to be the Mayo Clinic and the City of Rochester, Minnesota, which have filed suit to hold it up (wonder if the UP and BNSF have their hand in that). The people and business leaders of Western South Dakota seem to have supported this, so long as it did not cut right through the middle of any tourist attractions.
Do you have a reliable link to this information --- or is it water cooler gossip?
The BN never wanted this line, they only kept up the appearances long enough to get the merger deal through on the old Santa Fe freight line. They have been trying to get rid of it ever since.
