SDCL § 49-16A-49: Department of Transportation--Appearance before interstate commerce commission.

Whenever a matter is pending before the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States, between a resident of this state as a petitioner and a railroad doing business in this state and engaged in interstate transportation of freight, charging such railroad with a violation of the Interstate Commerce Act, relating to abandonment, consolidation, merger, or inclusion, the Department of Transportation, after it determines that the questions involved are of public interest, may appear therein and be substituted as a party in place of the petitioner. Thereafter the matter shall be prosecuted by the department at the expense of the state in the same manner as though originally begun by it.