Commuter rail from Garner to Durham was clearly stated on the Wake County transportation referendum. It’s why I voted for it.
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This needs to be the focus now. Along with the build out of BRT to supplement the commuter rail.
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The difficulty with commuter rail is the sheer number of players: the municipalities, the Research Triangle Foundation, two counties (three if the trains serve Clayton), NCDOT, the North Carolina Railroad (owned by NCDOT but operated at arm’s length), the General Assembly, and Norfolk Southern that operates the trackage leased from NCRR. Add in the utilities that will have to be relocated, the architects and general contractors for stations, stakeholders in terms of property owners adjacent to station sites, etc and you’ve got a mammoth project on your hands.
This isn’t rocket science, but it takes time, persistent intentionality, consensus-building, and leadership.
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I’m afraid the region is lacking in these things. Much easier to just spend millions to add more lanes to I-40, then the spend millions and implement commuter rail. Sad but true.
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I’m afraid something like this will probably happen, but what does it solve. Like, actually solve? I know it encourages sprawl.
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It solves the issue of congestion the same way a band-aid solves the issue of an expanding bullet wound:
It doesn’t.
…but it’s a quick and dirty patch you can apply that makes you feel like you accomplished something while you never really put any thought into why you did what you did. It’s a product of democracy and compromise (with the two extremes being “let’s build transit! even if it might hurt us!” and “build nothing, save money, and keep the government’s hands off everything”) that pretty much does no one any favors.
Oh, I didn’t realize you were only talking about Amazon, specifically. In that case, yeah that’s probably true. But bigger trends also suggest it could’ve helped.
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Rail is one. There was a number of reason Austin and Nashville and DMV area won out.
If Johnston County doesn’t want to engage in the commuter rail project constructively, though, it would be extremely easy to just forget about extending it to Clayton, since that’s not at all a high priority, especially since the eastern terminus in Garner would be a park-and-ride that would serve a lot of Johnston County residents.
But, yeah, either way, a lot of consensus-building to do.
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And it is only going to get worse as the years go by. Kind of makes you think that one should start building now before it’s too late! It seems easier to build a city around this system than it does the other way.
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I do think JoCo should go ahead and get involved. The county is growing at a rapid rate and should go ahead and get involved!
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I think they should get involved too! But knowing the political predisposition of Johnston County, I can’t imagine that they would feel like contributing any money to this project.
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I believe that the same legislation that authorized Durham, Orange, and Wake to hold referenda for a 1/2 cent transit sales tax, allows other counties to do the same for a 1/4 cent tax. If Johnston wants in, that is what they would have to do.
A park-and-ride in Garner might suffice, but bear in mind that NCRR is basically 79 mph (except for curves) all the way from Garner to Selma. It might also be that a trainset storage facility will have to be built on the east end somewhere, and such a facility is likely to cost less in JoCo than Wake. In fact the cheapest place to put such a facility would be Selma next to the existing NCRR freight yard.
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I believe Wilsons Mills was the officially studied endpoint of commuter rail service if it were extended into JoCo. That would be close enough to serve people from the whole Smithfield-Selma area.
Long-long-long term, more frequent intercity rail east of I-95 might be a thing, and in that case, a rail-rail grade separation so the NS line can cross over the CSX line might make sense, but for now, not really. Putting the yard at the NCRR facility in Selma is not a good idea either because trains would have to cross the CSX line to get there.
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" As expected, last night the Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously to discontinue the Durham-Orange Light Rail Project. This step formally discontinues the project. - Sally Greene"
We know need to move the discussion over the Commuter Rail thread.
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Darn who designed the Selma passenger station, it fronts on CSX and NS/NCRR tracks. Also walk right out of station onto platforms. LOL they should be fired.
Interesting note — Looking at street view on Google there is a train load of wind turban blades passing by on CSX.
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Watch out, I hear those things can give you cancer. 
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Wind turbines? Those are Russian made military training hindrances to undermine our air Force!
FACEPALM*
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BRT could be a much larger part of US infrastructure. We generally have large stroads often with inefficient use of space and continue to devote too much land area to single family housing even in areas that could accommodate transit support densities and lifestyles. Rail certainly has its place but so does frequent and reliable bus service.
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The aftermath, comment from reader in the NY Post,
Reader Calvin Chin is disgusted with the rising cost of living — and traveling — in New York. He writes: “As the politicians raise taxes and tolls and introduce congestion pricing to force people to take mass transit, they also raised prices on commuter trains.”
Friday I was on 40 coming back from Southpoint at 430, traffic was backed up. As I inched along for 7 minutes I was side by side with an express bus. Nice and new by the way, they look great. It had 4 ppl on it at rush hour. Maybe they will need to force us on to fill it and then charge us more when we do.
Anyway, after passing a fender bender accident of 2 cars that refused to move from the high speed laneto the breakdown lane, I cruised into the city from from exit 285 in 15 min of open road, alas, at the the Trophyhouse with cold beer in hand and the weekend was here.
I am for transit of all types but we just do not have the density yet.
I was in Hawaii for a year, they have been building a cummuter rail for 10 plus years, billions and billions over budget, a horrific looking infrastructure of 2 and 3 story raised track supports, not one inch of it works, I don’t know if any actual track exists, the locals despise it and no end in site for completion. The good news is they just increased taxes to continue it.
Sometimes it’s just not needed or it’s not time for it.
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