If they build it, would riders come along on the “TC to KC” line for a long weekend, with thoughts of Kansas City barbeque in mind?

Fans of the Borealis Amtrak train route from St. Paul to Chicago have asked for state planners to keep up momentum and study additional passenger rail lines.

On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council passed a resolution calling for a state study of new passenger rail service between St. Paul and Fargo/Moorhead, as well as a potential “TC to KC” route connecting St. Paul to Kansas City, Mo.

Both corridors are already listed as passenger rail priorities in the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s state rail plan. They also were recommended in last year’s Federal Railroad Administration’s Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study, which includes a potential extension to Texas.

The Federal Railroad Administration is expected to open a new grant application round this year for its “Corridor Identification and Development Program,” which plans for intercity passenger rail development throughout the country. The city council resolution calls upon the Legislature to direct MnDOT to submit a Corridor Identification grant application to the FRA.

Amtrak’s Empire Builder already makes daily stops in Fargo/Moorhead, but it’s notorious for falling hours off-schedule as it competes with freight trains in the Northern Plains and confronts weather delays The council resolution notes that a second daily train would improve scheduling and better connect the Twin Cities to North Dakota.

Meanwhile, a St. Paul-to-Kansas City corridor would draw from three major population centers — the Twin Cities region (3.7 million people), the Des Moines area (740,000) and the Kansas City region (2.2 million). It also would connect existing Amtrak routes that serve Denver, San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

The city council resolution notes that freight railroads, which often operate on the same tracks as Amtrak, would benefit from the increased capital investment, including railroad crossing upgrades.

The state-supported Borealis train, which launched in May 2024, has seen first-year ridership exceed projections by about 50%.

Rather than merely drawing passengers away from the St. Paul-to-Chicago segment of the Empire Builder route, the combined ridership showed a 227% increase at 293,000 riders, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

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