I want to add to this list a bit by including some more interesting details about the plan for RUS. Due to this project, there will naturally be a need for increased capacity at RUS for intercity + commuter rail service.
There were three different options raised on how to achieve this (which I would show pics of, but on mobile and a little inebriated); however, the lowest-cost solution that NCDOT also preferred was for a portion (<1/2) of the future S-line platform to be built north of the station building. Then, Piedmont trains will service the new S-line platform, and commuter + intercity trains (Carolinian, Silver Star) will serve the current platform.
If memory serves, there are concerns about parallel entry to the existing platform area that are preventing a 2nd island platform from being constructed parallel to the current one for GTCR. I feel okay about the (seemingly) preferred alternative, but seems odd that the area next to the current platform was always planned for commuter rail and it just… won’t work.
Report out for Charlotte’s new east/west light rail line (including to the Charlotte Airport): it will take 20 years to build out. However I feel like Charlotte has the determination to expedite their project while what the heck are we doing to make this process faster for a much less complex and effective commuter rail project?
It also helps that CATS is a city agency, and the core of the Charlotte metro is in just one county.
This means politically, CATS is more like a beefed-up GoRaleigh (also a branch of the city) than GoTriangle (a state-chartered corporation that has to please multiple cities and counties). Because there’s fewer toes to potentially step on, it’s fundamentally easier for CATS to commit to big projects versus GoTriangle.
Call me a contrarian, but I don’t want to see our rail dollars going into light rail. I’d rather have a heavy regional rail system. Lord knows that we won’t get both funded.
Oh yeah no, I’m 100% with you (and I think anyone who’s seriously thought about DOLRT would agree, too). I think commuter/regional rail and BRT, together, are perfectly capable of giving the Triangle the heavy-duty mass transit that we need and deserve.
All I meant was that the transit-related power dynamics for Charlotte are easier to deal with than what we have here. Even though we’ve grown up and moved on from our fling with light rail, we still have to fight many of the same demons if we truly want heavy rail.
Yeah, we are on the same page, and I fully agree that the multicore nature of the Triangle is a much more challenging dynamic within which to operate and come to a transit solution for the entire Triangle.
Wake Co. is going to be pushing 1.4 Million people by the end of the decade. It could be 1.7M by 2040. If we don’t start thinking about developing some walkable nodes in conjunction with future rail station planning, then we are dooming ourselves to Atlanta or Houston type traffic on ever widening clogged freeways.
Probably will have virtually no effect on current car traffic levels. But it does future give developments and people moving here options to live close to transit and not be car dependent. Vs continues buildout of car dependent suburbs and exburbs, which just make traffic much much worse.
Saying it will have no impact on car travel is just false. Everyone that will be traveling by train in the future, will not be stuck in traffic on I-40.
Wake County will still be suburban in layout 30 years from now. No one centralized employment, shopping or entertainment. If electric car prices significantly come down over the next decades and self driving actually becomes usable, mass transit will increasing become a harder sell.
It will mostly be, no doubt, but at the speed it’s growing Wake County is sleepwalking toward ending up with Atlanta-style traffic, which will make driving as a commute or for errands even more of a pain than it already is.
As unglamorous as it is, MARTA is a godsend as a visitor to get between the three main business districts and the airport. Anything like it here to add another option and lessen the load on the roads will make life better for drivers, too. Ditto denser development where people live closer to work and errands.
And you can still have your yardwork and 45 minute drive from Chatham County, we won’t take that away
Less so with dependable transit and walkable neighborhoods, more so without. It’s really quite simple, I don’t understand why we keep having to explain this.
Man Raleigh 30-40 years from now is going to sound like the place to be. Fully (hopefully) finished Dix Park, this rail project going to downtown Durham, rail going to DC, and maybe a finished 540
Right? Like, sure, much of the suburban development that currently exists will be the same… but as hundreds of thousands of people continue to move here, we – right now – have the choice to give them the opportunity to move into denser, transit-adjacent neighborhoods.
Hold on, instead of bombarding everyone with what just looks like groupthink, let’s try to understand where @Boltman and @HardeesBiscuit are trying to come from. If I’m understanding what they (and other people) are feeling, it’s that trying to make a smaller increase in suburban developments do not matter; they only see the urban vs. suburban debate in absolutes.
Even if serious transit investments can encourage the creation of more urban, more walkable neighborhoods, it doesn’t prohibit or put an absolute stop on suburbia from continuing to grow. So if the Triangle as a whole keeps having a net rise in suburban, car-dependent neighborhoods regardless of whether we actually get regional trains, you could say that it becomes a pointless investment.
Going back to the arguments about the Moxy Hotel outside of Glenwood versus SEHSR, a lot of people are pessimistic about serious transit in America, and they don’t care about investments that could benefit their children but not themselves. Throw in the fact that the full project could take several decades to become a reality, and it can feel like real impacts would only happen too far in the future to actually matter.
“If it won’t matter for me anytime soon, what does it matter?” - is that kinda what y’all are thinking?
i grew up with visually impaired parents in raleigh. we used cabs on occasion, busses almost every day and got rides with neighbors when we could. is there a difference in car dependence or transit dependence? im not knocking transit all together only wondering about the efficacy of fixed route spending in spread-out raleigh.
Most people in Wake county ride public transport because they have to not because they want to. Eventually get the cost of driving and ownership down and it helps those who do not want to use it. Wake county public transit is very difficult because it would need to go to very many places to be effective. Jobs and leisure are spread everywhere. Hard to get consistently high ridership numbers.
