SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - If the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad's application for a $2.5 billion federal loan for a three-year coal train project is approved and shareholders go along, "we could be laying track next year," Kevin Schieffer, DM&E president, said Saturday.
Plans include rebuilding the DM&E's 600 miles of track through South Dakota and Minnesota; upgrading about 250 miles on its sister line, the Iowa Chicago & Eastern Railroad; upgrading 150 miles of track from Wall to Colony, Wyo.; and building 280 miles of new line into Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal fields.
"It is not something that costs the federal government money and it's not something that puts the federal government at risk. We have to put up collateral for it, and the collateral has to meet the loan amount. And if it doesn't meet the loan amount, then we have to come up with a credit risk premium, which is basically, you're buying insurance to make sure it's repaid."
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