FARGO (AP) - The North Dakota Department of Transportation is heading a project to create a two-hub intermodal terminal system that will tie Minot with Dilworth, Minn.

The agency formed a committee of representatives from Fargo, Moorhead, Minn., Minot and Bismarck to work with BNSF Railway, which operates the Dilworth intermodal terminal.

Intermodal involves standardized containers, typically 20- and 40-feet long, carried on trains, trucks and ships, often over long distances to foreign markets.

Businesses within 100 miles of Fargo-Moorhead are more likely to use intermodal facilities in Winnipeg and the Twin Cities rather than the one in Dilworth, according to a study by the Upper Great Plains Institute at North Dakota State University. Intermodal rates are typically cheaper in those markets than in Dilworth, the study found.

The two-hub concept would involve setting up an intermodal terminal in Minot and having Dilworth and Minot work together to ensure a higher volume of container loads, said Ryan Griggs, vice president of operations at Trailer Transfer, which operates the Dilworth terminal under contract with BNSF.

"They want to have Minot and Dilworth work together to make sure there is enough volume," he said. "There's the thought that there isn't enough container volume coming out of Dilworth."

Fargo-Moorhead and Minot are working on an agreement to hire a coordinator to match containers with agricultural shippers, said Bob Bright, executive director of the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Council of Governments, which commissioned the study prepared by the Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute.

The coordinator would also work between the two hubs, determining which containers go to Minot and which go to Dilworth, Griggs said. "The idea is to make it cost-effective. Right now in Dilworth, it is not."

Area shippers often send containers by truck to Minneapolis or Winnipeg, where they are placed on trains and transported to ports on the West Coast, Griggs said. That method is cheaper for area shippers than using the Dilworth intermodal facility, he said.

"Theoretically, this new agreement will make it cheaper," Griggs said. "It will eliminate trucking to Minneapolis and allow them to bring their shipments to a closer rail yard."

If business at the Dilworth facility increases, the city wants to move it east into an area zoned industrial.

Griggs said BNSF likely won't agree to the move because of cost. The cost to move the facility would likely have to be paid for by the city, he said. The Dilworth intermodal facility has been in operation since 1983.