Boise city leaders are again pressing to restore passenger rail service to Idaho's capital, and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City may supply the political and financial momentum the effort has lacked for nearly three decades.

The Idaho Statesman reports that local officials see the Olympics — awarded to Salt Lake City for 2034 — as a potential catalyst for re-establishing rail connections through the Intermountain West. No passenger trains have served Boise since 1997, when Amtrak discontinued its Pioneer route between Seattle, Boise, Salt Lake City and Denver.

The absence of service has persisted even as the region has grown substantially. Boise and the wider Treasure Valley have ranked among the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the United States, and elected leaders argue that highway capacity alone cannot absorb continued population increases. Restoring rail, they contend, would give the region an alternative travel corridor linking southern Idaho to Utah and beyond.

The Olympic connection is practical as well as symbolic. Salt Lake City will host athletes, officials and spectators for the 2034 Games, and regional planners across the Mountain West have already begun discussing how visitors might move between dispersed venues and gateway cities. Boise sits roughly 340 miles northwest of Salt Lake City by road, and organizers and state officials in Utah have floated regional transport coordination as part of Games planning. Idaho leaders want their state included in those conversations before infrastructure funding decisions harden.

The push faces familiar obstacles. Restoring the Pioneer or a comparable service would require negotiations with Amtrak, agreements with the freight railroads that own the tracks — primarily Union Pacific on the former route — and a federal funding commitment. Congress has not funded a Pioneer restoration in the years since its cancellation, despite periodic advocacy from Idaho, Oregon and Utah delegations.

Still, proponents argue the calculus has changed. Federal infrastructure law has expanded the pool of grant money available for intercity passenger rail, and the Federal Railroad Administration has launched corridor identification studies across the country that could give new western routes a formal planning pathway. Boise leaders believe an Olympics-driven deadline of 2034 could focus attention and unlock funds that earlier campaigns could not.

The city's interest adds Boise to a wider set of western municipalities seeking to reverse Amtrak cuts dating to the 1990s. Any concrete outcome remains years away: a restored corridor would need feasibility studies, track-capacity agreements and rolling-stock planning before a single train could run. What the Boise effort has now is a growing constituency, a federal funding environment more favorable than at any point since 1997, and a fixed international event — 2034 — around which to organize the region's case.