I love this so much (and clearly, so do a lot of people here) and kinda want this to happen. But I have a question that I promise is genuine and legit:
What is novel or innovative about this?
Sure, it’s never been marketed under the banner of one, ambitious portfolio except for that one time in the Amazon HQ2 debacle. Still, almost all the parts of such a plan are already in the works, not to mention the geographic distribution of existing developments, traffic, and businesses. Aren’t we, in a way, already doing the hard part of making this integrated corridor idea into an imperative?
A rundown of projects along this central corridor, for those of y'all who don't look at every thread on this site (click me!)
In case you don’t look through every thread on this site, I want to refer you to these threads (or project websites):
- Downtown South
- Dix Edge Area Study, which the City is working on now
- Raleigh Union Station’s bus terminal
- other existing projects Downtown, especially around Glenwood Av. and Peace St.
- *additional economic activity that could be spurred by SEHSR and Devereux Park
- the myriad projects of Five Points/East End, including Dock 1053 and the Iron Works
- Midtown with its new area plan that also covers Midtown Exchange and North Hills
Aside for the one starred area (i.e. between Peace St. and through Five Points), every area in the above list has at least one major project under construction, in planning/design/rezoning, or is otherwise being seriously considered with real investments already on the line.
As for how to connect these different locations? The recently-adopted Wilmington St. BRT corridor LPA and soon-to-start-being-planned Capital Blvd. BRT corridor would almost perfectly work as the backbones for this corridor. Commuter rail could work, too, but as Phil pointed out, hours are restricted. It’ll take time to get all of these components in place (let alone playing well together), but our local government is already putting in the work for this.
Maybe it’s just me and my weird personal biases or I misunderstood something, but I thought it was obvious to treat this entire corridor as one ecosystem that’s both urban and suburban (and to not see those things as dual opposites) 
Was that not how the rest of y’all perceived how things are going around here?