On Dec. 19 Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced an enormous public-private investment of $3.7 billion over 10 years to build a new rail bridge over the Potomac River between Arlington and the District of Columbia for passenger and commuter rail only, to add new railroad tracks in the Washington-Richmond corridor and to buy hundreds of miles of passenger right-of-way from CSX, the large private railroad.
There are two parts of this massive deal which will affect North Carolina and the future of high-speed rail through Wake Forest. In the first, Virginia is acquiring the rights to use the abandoned CSX S-Line from Petersburg, Va. to Ridgeway, N.C., about 78 miles, for passenger use. The second is that because Virginia now has control of the S-Line it will be able to transfer ownership of the 10 miles between Ridgeway and the Virginia state line to the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
Jason Orthner, the director of rail operations in NCDOT, called Virginia’s agreement with CSX “a game changer.” Officials in North Carolina and Virginia have been working on the Southeast High Speed Rail plan since 1992, and in 2017 North Carolina completed the environmental assessment studies required for the plan.
Wake Forest residents attended a meeting in 2010 in which section-by-section maps were displayed showing the necessary construction. In Wake Forest, among other changes, NCDOT planned to close the Elm Avenue crossing and every other at-grade crossing. West Holding would be extended east across South Main Street, through an underpass near Dunn Avenue and then would curve north and east to meet East Holding near the post office. Four or five homes and some businesses would be affected.
With the environmental studies completed, Orthner said NCDOT has been able to look at the small projects necessary for the overall plan such as providing traffic overpasses at a number of grade crossings. One of those is the traffic overpass at the CSX crossing on Rogers Road, now scheduled for construction to begin in the fall of this year. Overpasses will also be built at Durant and New Hope Church roads in Raleigh.
Before high-speed rail – 85 mph through towns and built-up areas – another “very real possibility,” Orthner said, is providing commuter rail between Wake Forest and Raleigh on the existing tracks.
There is no funding now for any part of the SEHSR plan in North Carolina, and it will take a lot of work and money to rebuild the S-Line in Virginia and North Carolina. During the 1980s CSX sold some of the right-of-way and tore up the tracks from Petersburg, Va. to the North Carolina state line, a major impediment for 110-mph passenger trains from Washington to Jacksonville, Florida.
The remnant of the S-Line in North Carolina between Raleigh and Ridgeway is currently used by a freight train running a round trip most days depending on the needs of the businesses and industries it serves. Most CSX freight is carried on a line that runs from the north through Rocky Mount where the company is building an intermodal truck-train terminal due to be completed this year.
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2 Responses
Caveat Emptor to learn from the experience of other states to prevent tarnishing this long awaited concept to resolve growing transportation need to enhance mobility:
Prevent Amtrak from extending its tentacles to falsely claim such an operation falls under its alleged monopoly right for interstate and intrastate rail travel. Important to secure a variance from any Amtrak control /operation between Washington-Raleigh-Charlotte. To acquiese to any demands by Amtrak would load-up excessive costs due to PRIIA, a congressional act created with Amtrak’s connivance.
The Passenger Rail Investment & Infrastructure Act of 2008 (PRIIA) allows Amtrak to use its seriously flawed internal accounting methodology to charge states the allocation of full costs as devised by Amtrak.
-As the premise of such cost allocation is not validated by any external forensic audit, Amtrak defies GAAP by shifting to states costs exclusive to the Northeast Corridor (NEC). Amtrak does not follow common business concepts by charging just the incremental costs for increased frequencies on the same route.
-Amtrak overcharges the state-supported corridors to subsidize its deficit-ridden NEC.
-Although PRIIA requires Amtrak to charge states for any passenger train operating under 750 miles, interestingly, Amtrak does not charge the states along the NEC for their twice per hour intercity trains between Boston-Washington (a mere 457 miles).
-Amtrak’s Board Chair was in position, which included Chair, Finance Committee, that tolerated Amtrak not charging or collecting operational fees and infrastructure depreciation costs from the many Northeastern commuter rail lines utilizing the NEC. (Talk about regional favoritism.)
The project developers must work respectfully with the Class 1 railroads involved e.g., CSX, Norfolk Southern, who will value such a professional, business relationship, as compared to Amtrak, which refuses to recognize today’s value of track access and timely dispatching. Involve these Class 1s in any P3 proposal to be financed by investors, feds, state, and local governments to ensure they too derive an economic benefit.
Provide timely communication to secure the active support of local counties, cities, and states along the proposed right-of-way, whether or not they are to directly benefit from the HSR service. This will usurp the needless legal costs and delays due to lobbyists and local politicos stirring up the NIMBYs, as in Florida and Texas. Note how lobbyists will be quickly funded by competitive modes, e.g., airlines, bus carriers, rental car firms, auto and air manufacturers, tire and oil companies.
As another pushback on Amtrak, important to note how privately-financed rail firms are now actively filling in the service vacuums long ignored by Amtrak: in Florida (between Miami-Orlando-Tampa); in Nevada (between Las Vegas-LA); in Texas (between Dallas-Houston). In comparison, despite multi-million dollars invested, Amtrak still cannot operate at intended high speed and frequency between Chicago-St. Louis and Chicago-Detroit.
The announcement of a $ 3.7 Billion dollar public & private investment in enhancing high speed rail service between Washington, DC, Richmond and the N.C. state line is welcomed news. To ultimately connect Charlotte, Raleigh and the planned lines through Richmond and Washington will be welcomed provided it is a true “high speed”, limited stop service. If every community along any proposed route decides they will support the concept as long as it stops in their town/city, it becomes a high price tag “local” that will deter travelers from abandoning their cars.
Take a page from the highly successful European high speed train system and limit the stops, provide a good level of customer service and “they will come”. The same holds for any Wake Forest to Raleigh service. Make it a “true express” service or it becomes a white elephant on expensive tracks.