So sorry to hear that! 
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Oh my god man, so sorry to hear this. Much love to you and hope you’ve found some peace.
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My guess is that the NCDOT will go the cheap way out with no additional trackage. Either they run push/pull with a reversal, or they thread the balloon loop at Center and Beech Streets in either direction. That means there is no eminent domain issue.
Reactivating the Midland Cutoff would entail a fair bit of trenching to go under 795 and 117, even though the track geometry would be better.
The feasibility study was a little thin on the specifics, and the appendices weren’t active. So, WGI didn’t openly publish the full report. There is only a mention of something happening at NCRR MP 127 connecting to AC 160.5.
The References mention another report from Crouch Engineering regarding rail geometry specifics, but it’s buried somewhere at the NCDOT.
And, when I queried the two proponents from ‘Eastern Carolina Rail’ about transiting Goldsboro, I didn’t get any feedback. They’re admittedly Wilmington ‘entrepreneurs’ without any specific background in railroads.
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OMG, So sorry Dean! That’s horrible and can’t imagine. Thank you for continuing to be a part of the forum but certainly understand taking a break. Glad to have you back.
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We went down to CLT for the weekend and ended up taking the Piedmont back to Raleigh today due to our car being full of IKEA furniture. Everything was great until halfway from Durham to Cary - we ended up being stuck on the tracks because another Piedmont engine broke down at the Cary station, preventing us from progressing on our route. Also didn’t help that our “assigned” car (don’t know why Amtrak does this) barely had any functioning air conditioning.
TBC, I completely understand that these things happen - but it’s because ‘these things happen” that NCDOT/FRA/NCRR really need to prioritize additional track capacity between Greensboro and Raleigh, especially as the S Line comes on and we start getting significant additional trips up to DC through the corridor. While something like this is hopefully rare, it does happen and all it takes to sour someone on train travel is one bad experience like that.
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I was on that stopped train! My brother and I had made plans to take the train to Greensboro for a Grasshoppers game and take the late train back. Instead, we sat on the train at the Cary station (also with no AC) for an hour before giving up and taking the bus back to Raleigh.
It was my brother’s first train experience, which is extra disappointing, because I had hyped it up a lot. Apparently the train eventually made it to Durham before being cancelled, so I’m glad we gave up when we did, but it’s going to be hard to sell my brother a train ride again.
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We were on the train that was leaving Raleigh around that time, and we were also delayed with no AC—held up two hours in the train car in Raleigh… Our train picked up all the passengers from the stuck train. Normally all of our Piedmont experiences have been great, but this one truly sucked.
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Just heard about this bill introduced in the NC Senate for the Corridor ID routes. The Train Infrastructure Acceleration Act would allocate $1M to each of the following routes for engineering, feasibility studies, and initial development.
Asheville to Salisbury
Charlotte to Washington, D.C. (Southeast Corridor (SEC): Norlina Subdivision realignment of the existing Carolinian)
Charlotte to Atlanta, Georgia (SEC: Greenfield alternative)
Charlotte to Kings Mountain
Raleigh to Fayetteville
Raleigh to Wilmington
Raleigh to Winston-Salem
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I wouldn’t get too excited about this given that all the sponsors are democrats. Would love to be proven wrong but that bill is going nowhere unless/until it gets support from republican leadership.
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It’s real! This is very very cool
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just got my tickets! Incredible idea and execution. Will be interesting to see how full it is
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Once people realize you get dropped off right by the clubhouse and don’t have to deal with another shuttle or traffic, I imagine it will be pretty full.
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Per NC By Train, as of today, 1000 tickets have already been sold
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Do my eyes deceive me or did I see an Amtrak Airo trainset out in the wild at Union Station yesterday?
Airo promo image
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Airo trainsets arent done yet but the Seimens ALC-42s are regularly assigned to the Silver Star.
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Somewhat surprisingly (despite the likely funding issues for rail transit) it looks like the Red Line is still moving forwards. Obviously it still has a long ways to go before service, but considering this seemed dead in the water until very recently, it’s a good sign.
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That’s the temporary service to the US open I believe. Not sure what the car is, but have seen it stationed at the rail yard for a couple weeks
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That, I believe, is a train.
Aberdeen Carolina & Western Railway is what it says on the side, and like Evan said, it’s for the US Open. I found more info here, and the company has a website also.
I’m not sure what the deal is specifically with that glass roof. That’s pretty neat.
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Y’all have it right.
That is a dome car owned by the Aberdeen Carolina and Western, that is in the consist for the US Open special trains.
NCDOT used to own a dome and run it on the Piedmont. It was very popular but they had to sell it off I believe because it did not meet ADA standards.
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