The Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. isn’t abandoning a plan to ship Wyoming coal across South Dakota and Minnesota despite dropping condemnation lawsuits against against some landowners, a company spokesman said.

“Everything is status quo except we have changed tactics in Wyoming, only, to proceed with land negotiation rather than eminent domain,” spokesman Mike LeVecchio said Thursday in a telephone interview.

A DM&E Railroad line goes through Albert Lea and Austin, a route which has been an option on the coal-shipping plans should its line through Mankato and Rochester fail to work out.

On Wednesday, the company filed court papers in U.S. District Court in Cheyenne to drop lawsuits it filed against northeast Wyoming landowners resisting DM&E’s bid to obtain rights of way on their land to lay new track.

The Sioux Falls, S.D.-based company has decided to pursue direct negotiations with the Wyoming landowners rather than seeking to force access to the land through the courts, LeVecchio said.

LeVecchio said DM&E isn’t abandoning the project, noting that the company’s eminent domain efforts in southwest South Dakota are not affected by the move in Wyoming.

“We won’t be changing anything in South Dakota,” he said.

South Dakota has a different process for handling eminent domain situations, LeVecchio said.

South Dakota landowners are appealing a decision by their state Transportation Commission approving DM&E’s request for authority to acquire land by condemnation west of Wall, S.D., for the project.

DM&E, which is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway, has been working for years on the estimated $6 billion project to expand and improve its tracks so it can ship coal from northeast Wyoming to power plants elsewhere.

Some landowners in South Dakota and Wyoming have resisted DM&E’s plans.