I don’t think @orulz is saying that because high-speed rail inherently needs more right-of-way (though that is kind of true because of additional space so that noise barriers can be built safely and sensibly). Rather, I think it’s because it’s highly likely that high-speed trains will require their own tracks -if not two (one in each direction)- so that passenger traffic doesn’t risk getting in the way of freight operations.
If we were to use Norfolk Southern’s specs as described in this study for the O-Line commuter rail attempt in Charlotte, we’d want 26 feet of right-of-way for each track (or 13ft on each side if you drew an imaginary line midway between the two steel rails that make up a track) PLUS more than 5ft on each side. Assuming we need three tracks (26ft * 3 tracks + 10ft buffer = 88ft; 44ft each side), this means we’ll have enough right-of-way for HSR as long as the new tracks are on both sides of the existing single freight track and the existing rail track is consistently in the middle of the right-of-way.
…bad news: we have places where that’s not true. Here’s a map of city parcels around the future Moxy Hotel site (501 N. West St.) according to iMaps (Raleigh’s GIS service), with the measurement tool indicating the distance between the existing freight line tracks’ midline and the edge of the right-of-way:
That’s under the 44’ that we just guessed we’d need, which means there’s not enough land here to physically build high speed rail tracks. And because there are points north of this area (e.g. near Peace St.) where it gets even narrower, you can’t just solve this by moving the existing tracks. This means NCDOT (or NCRR or whoever) must buy parts of the land from the future hotel site and reserve it as right-of-way; it will be physically impossible to build new train tracks to existing specifications, otherwise.
They’re working on it: that’s one of the goals of the Southeast Corridor megaproject, which includes the state’s attempt to buy the S-Line. The only problem is that the state still has to produce evidence that this investment would be worth it to taxpayers (e.g. the ongoing transit-oriented development study).