BISMARCK (AP) — A longtime effort to bring intermodal rail service to North Dakota is finally coming to fruition, according to Gov. Doug Burgum.

BNSF Railway’s plan to provide an intermodal service at a facility in Minot is a “game changer,” Burgum said. It will reduce shipping costs for farm products by as much as 25%, he said.

Intermodal service allows producers and processors to directly load containers on rail in Minot to ship to international destinations. State officials have pursued intermodal rail service for more than two decades, Burgum said.

An intermodal train that will arrive in Minot next week will be “arguably the first true intermodal operation in the state of North Dakota,” said James Leiman, director of economic development and finance at the North Dakota Department of Commerce. “This is the real deal now.”

The private company that will manage the system will be named next week, Leiman said.

John MacMartin, interim president for Minot Area Development Corp., said an event will be held next week, once equipment is in place to accommodate the intermodal service, to announce future plans at the site. The operator will be introduced at that time.

North Dakota Port Services previously operated a transfer facility at the site, leasing property from the city since 2009. NDPS also acquired equipment and constructed buildings that became the property of First Western Bank through foreclosure proceedings intiated in 2018. The city also terminated its lease due to unpaid lease payments. NDPS had been leasing about 134.8 acres. The city had capitalized more than $1.1 million in rail and other improvements at the port.

(Staff writer Jill Schramm contributed to this article)