The City of Ely, in collaboration with the Nevada Northern Railway Foundation, has been selected to receive up to $3 million through the Federal Railroad Administration’s Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements (CRISI) grant program.

The funding will support a major rebuild of 127 miles of track across White Pine and Elko Counties in Nevada, including a connection with Union Pacific. The railroad aims to restore freight service, which ended in 1999. Since then, the connection to the national rail network has been severed. Potential freight traffic could include copper concentrate, fuel, mill media, building supplies, and limestone.

While additional funding will still be needed for construction, this initial grant will move forward the environmental study, engineering and preparation required to bring freight service back to the railroad.

The Nevada Northern Railway was built in 1906 to help grow the White Pine County economy by transporting freight and passengers, though it was the region’s copper mining that made the railroad thrive. The railroad shut down in 1983 after the Kennecott Copper Company, which owned the railroad at the time, ended its mining and smelting operations in the area. Freight traffic was briefly revived in the 1990s when BHP Nevada Railroad used the main line to move copper concentrate between Ely and the Union Pacific interchange at Shafter.

— Nick Stewart