I too think Norfolk Southern would not agree to give up the whole line nor should we ever ask them to. It’s a valuable transportation corridor.
What I would try to do, is buy the 2.5 miles of railroad immediately south out of downtown Raleigh (through Dix Park and until just past the I-40 bridge), and build a ‘belt line’ bypass sort of thing parallel to I-40 to connect it to the NCRR.
This has the following benefits from their perspective:
(1) It allows Norfolk-Southern to realize a great deal of one-time revenue through a high value real estate transaction.
(2) It allows the diamond west of the Boylan Wye to be decommissioned, which allows for simpler operations on the much busier mainline. The headaches will only increase when commuter trains start rolling through Raleigh.
(3) It retains freight service to every single existing freight customer on the line.
I’ve gone back and forth on what I think is the form such a bypass should take. The above is one possibility.
As far as geometry is concerned, I think what is depicted is fairly reasonable. 5 degree curves and a 1% grade. It is a little curvier, longer, and steeper than the portion of alignment they would be vacating, but well within the parameters of what exists elsewhere on the line and so wouldn’t require trains to be any shorter or the engines to be any more powerful. It also skips the diamond and two at-grade crossings at Maywood St and Lake Wheeler Rd, so, on the whole: even trade?