One billion dollars and three hundred thousand more can buy a lot of railroad, and that is what will mostly be spent in the next seven years on the 18 miles of track between the Union Station in Raleigh and wherever the end line turns out to be in or near Wake Forest.
Monday the Gazette editor spoke with Jason Orthner, who heads up the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Rail Division. The overall project is for North Carolina to partner with Virginia to build a state-of-the-art high-speed rail connection between Raleigh and Richmond using in part the now-defunct Seaboard railroad that used the route pioneered by the 86-mile Raleigh & Gaston Railroad chartered in 1836 and completed to Raleigh in 1840. Seaboard stopped providing passenger service in the mid-1980s and in the decades since, the CSX rail line between Raleigh and the Virginia state line has consisted of only one set of tracks used by two freight trains serving local businesses and making a round trip every day except Sunday.
As Orthner told News & Observer reporter Richard Stradling, “What we’re doing in a lot of ways is turning a railroad that was originally built in the 1840’s into one of the most technologically advanced railroad in the Southeast.” The most difficult and expensive section is the 18 miles south of Wake Forest and in the town itself where there are six crossings and the Underpass.
Although NCDOT had been planning for a high-speed rail line for years, that part of DOT was shut down two or three years ago. Wake Forest residents remember a show-and-tell some years ago that showed several crossings closed — Elm Avenue and Brick Street — and South White Street traffic routed to either a bridge or a tunnel near Dunn Avenue and West Holding Avenue. Whether those plans will be incorporated into the new one remains to be seen. Orthner said the first step in the new plan is for detailed engineering plans of every section, and those detailed plans will determine how the new tracks will be built and where.
Orthner’s team has to determine where the new Wake Forest station will be built. While the Town of Wake Forest is urging it be placed on the current parking lot on the west side of South White Street, originally the site of the Seaboard freight station, Orthner said NCDOT is determining whether the future station will fit on the lot.
What will we see first? New bridges and underpasses, and that includes the bridge over the CSX track on Rogers Road in Wake Forest. That project — P-5707– is due to have a letting date in March of next year, the date when the bids for an advertised project are opened. This bridge has been delayed again and again for at least five years. Letting the bid and the start of construction will signal the Wake Forest community and the state that this project is for real. Orthner stressed that this entire project has a top priority in NCDOT
Orthner said every railroad crossing will be either closed or traffic will cross it on a bridge or under through a tunnel. In or near Wake Forest that means the traffic bridge over the tracks just north of Burlington Mills Road will be rebuilt if necessary, Ligon Mill Road will get a bridge that is already planned, the Seawell Drive-Crawford Road crossing will be closed with a new access built, Friendship Chapel Road crossing will be closed, East Holding Avenue will be closed with a bridge or tunnel substituted as will Elm Avenue and Brick Street. East-west access overall in town will be impacted.
What about the Underpass? It is a critical access to downtown, but it was built in 1928, 95 years ago. Othner said it, like every existing bridge and other structures will be examined closely for its stability and ability to bear the weight and speed of the new trains — up to 110 mph — and tracks.
More than a dozen new bridges and tunnels are planned for the 18-mile stretch overall with a goal of making the railroad like a super highway with no intersections for the high-speed trains. The federal grant is to help North Carolina build an intercity passenger train service, starting in Wake County with the Wake Forest station and later building a station in Henderson. Much later, the plan is for stations in Youngsville, Franklinton and Norlina.
Meanwhile, once the Wake Forest station is built and the railway itself is rebuilt, the Piedmont train service between Raleigh and Charlotte can be extended to Wake Forest. It currently has four round trips daily. And Mayor Vivian Jones has been promoting the idea of commuter rail service between Raleigh and Wake Forest — and extending it north to Youngsville, Franklinton and Henderson.
We cannot forget about the two freight trains. Orthner said the state plan includes ways to keep the service operating during construction and afterward. “It is essential that the freight service continues to be successful.”
And what about the historic homes near the tracks? NCDOT has to do a complete assessment of all historic homes and other historic landmarks near the old/new tracks and has to make sure they are not affected by the construction or operation.
The Integrated Mobility Office in NCDOT also has a say on how and when trains and anything else that moves performs and how it treats customers.
And the high-speed trains? Well, that all depends on how fast Virginia can rebuild the S-line it has just purchased. And how fast NCDOT gets another injection of federal money to rebuild the much longer section from Wake Forest to Henderson and Norlina.
The S-line refers to Seaboard, not some kink in the tracks near Cary, Orthner said. Seaboard Air Line Railroad took over the Raleigh & Gaston about 1900. Gaston is a town on the Roanoke River across from what is today Roanoke Rapids. Seaboard built a more direct route to Richmond from Norlina.
Seaboard morphed into CSX after a series of mergers. With the nationwide decline in passenger train service in the 1980s, CSX abandoned the line from Norlina to Petersburg and instead used a line going through Rocky Mount for its freight trains headed north. It also stopped providing passenger rail.
The current funding is $1.1 billion in federal funds for the 18 miles plus an additional 20 percent match by NCDOT and Amtrak to bring the total above $1.3 billion.
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16 Responses
Wasteful spending… Amtrak already goes north to NY and DC through Rocky Mount from Raleigh.
Yeah, but has to go southeast to Selma to hit the A line, just to go north. Terribly inefficient and makes the trip to DC from Raleigh over 6 hours. Amtrak has to share the A line with CSX, and it’s their primary N-S mainline, meaning lots of priority freight traffic. Reinstating the S line, which is otherwise sitting practically unused between Raleigh and Petersburg, will shave off around 2 hours and make SEHSR actually competitive to alternatives. It is sorely needed, and will only help boost ridership to the state-sponsored Piedmont service, which continues to grow, as well as future Wake commuter rail. It’s a smart investment for the future, and the corridor is established at the federal level. This is also being supported by additional trackage installation at Quantico and Long Bridge over the Potomac, which will collectively make for massive improvements in Amtrak travel time and on-time reliability for all service south of DC.
For full disclosure, I am involved in P-5707 and am just about to board the Silver Star at DC Union Station bound for Raleigh, so I’m pretty familiar with the need for reinstating the S line.
Carol –
Thank you for your article and response. I do think this is the only article that I saw that addressed the reality of what this all would really do and all the things it would actually impact. We live on a curve in the track that we have heard would need to be straightened to accommodate the high speed rail & the logistics of that worry us on top of the re-routed access to our property. There have been many groups of engineers & others out several times doing surveys and
environmental studies to ours and neighboring properties along the tracks in the last few months so the overall lack of communication and information of specifics is just unnerving but again like you said I don’t think much has actually been figured out. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Thank you
It’s appears positive that there is a train station in the works for a stop and pick up of passengers in Wake Forest. Previously the train would have blown though town at high speed had the other plan been implemented. But people, hold your horses, if you think this train route when completed will have the slightest, the absolute slightest perceptible impact on reducing vehicle traffic you are completely wrong. It will be awesome to have better connections to Richmond and DC and further to Charlotte hopefully, but saying this new option will help with vehicle traffic (business and vacation) is something that gets constantly repeated, but has no foundation as truth. Just imagine how many train seats will be available and consider if everyone of them was full, every day, would make the slightest difference? No. Gazette, you provide such a great source of information, thank you.
Mr. Lidas, completely agree with your statement.
The impact on vehicle traffic will hardly be noticable. I am a life long railfan and have heard this project we speak of for 30 years. In that 30 years not one new passenger train has traveled north of Raleigh.
With the money now on hand to build the first 18 miles of the line, I feel strongly this may be the end of the line for the project. With the Election this year i see the chances of additional funding drying up as Biden has a hard road ahead of him winning a second term.
In another 30 years I very well may not be here to ride a train north of Raleigh to Richmond, so for me I plan to, if I am still here, ride at least to Wake Forrest.
For 5 million dollars, you can build a railroad an entire mile up to mainline standards from scratch. Of course this figure does not include property purchases and such…
But still….you could build the entire S line to Petersburg at regular 79 mph speeds for 3 Billion dollars with money left over… Probably. These well meaning people pushing the project knows this, but still want high speed rail.
If they really wanted rail service restored, they could build the line to regular standards… Get the trains moving, and in the future upgrade the line if they still wanted to. They could also lease the route to CSX, which could run a few trains on it and make money to help with the upkeep. This would help the commuter train operation as well.
Yet they choose not to, because of their priorities. Then they complain no funding is available currently to finish the line. Funding in this case means higher taxes for everyone, to let 0.000002 percent of the population benefit from it.
Access to our property would be directly impacted by the Seawell rd crossing being closed and rerouted as this article says. Where is any information on how this will be done ? The only news is about how great it will be and very little information available about how the tracks will be straightened and how the impact of living along barely used tracks vs a high speed rail will be vastly different. I just don’t understand the lack of communication to all the homeowners
directly impacted.
China would build this line in one year. 2030 is a long time away.
The quick way the Chinese government builds things and can take land from it’s citizens, you wouldn’t want it here. Also, 2030 is just about 6 years away. It’ll be here faster than you know it.
Oh sure, they could build it, bit would you REALLY want to get on a train on that line? The Chinese do good things, and sometimes build good things, but if you look at the crappy construction projects they put into place… You might reconsider. Just sayin.
We need alternatives to highway travel, so this is a good start. Highway traffic is already at an “F” level, and it’s only going to get worse.
Thank you for this information. My property borders the tracks and I just wanted to note that the CSX freight trains do not operate on Saturdays or Sundays; they only operate on weekdays, going once in each direction each day. The line of the tracks will have to be straightened out to be able to handle higher speed trains and my neighbors and I received maps of the proposed straightening and how that is expected to affect each of our property lines. Some of us will lose a little bit of land due to the straightening, if that map is followed. Some of us are concerned about how the higher speed rail could affect the foundations of our homes. My house shakes every time the CSX freight train comes through, although I really don’t mind the train now because it comes so infrequently and because the tracks effectively provide a wildlife buffer.
We also live along the tracks. Where have you seen these maps ? I am struggling to find specific information like that. Thanks
Amanda, My intent in the article was to warn you and others that there may be many disruptions from this reworking of the old rail line. In the past when the closing of the Seawell-Crawford crossing came up there was an intent to extend Crawford, I think, to meet a street in the nearest subdivision. There should be less shaking because they will have to rebuild the old roadbed as well as install new tracks to make the ride smoother for passenger rail.
We also live near the tracks but we are buffered by a half acre and a little strip of land owned by the Holdings. I also did not intend to sound enthusiastic about all this. I have misgivings particularly about how they will treat downtown. I don’t think there is enough room to build a bridge or tunnel to provide access to the south part of South White Street to and from South Main Street.
NCDOT is not providing information to you and others affected because it does not know how and where changes will be made to straighten curves etc. until the detailed engineering is complete. If NCDOT starts on the Rogers Road bridge that will mean something. I have heard at least one or more of the buildings close to that crossing may be affected more than was thought.
Carol
The $1.3 BILLION would better spent to serve our area if it were used to improve roads, such as US1… Who wants to ride a train to Richmond? For that matter, find someone who actually wants to go to Richmond. Once again, to quote a visionary, we buy what we want and beg what we need.
I would love to take a train from Wake Forest to Richmond and on to New York. Much better than dealing with I-95 through DC. Our family always takes trains when they are an option, and it is a great way to travel with kids.
Amén!