The platforms have to be straight, otherwise the cars will hit them when pulling into the station. If they’re built further away to avoid this, then there will be a large, awkward gap between the platform and the doors. The London Underground has some curved platforms where this is apparent.
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Filmed it this morning - it’s actually the Silver Star NY - Miami Northbound Train 92
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I’m not sure if this article has been linked, but it contains an interview with Jason Orthner with quite a few details on what the grant is to be used for, including station and grade separation work.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/counties/wake-county/article282968553.html
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Highlights:
- All 12 grade crossings from DTR to Wake Forest will be eliminated
- Breaking ground within months
- Opening estimated 2030
- New platform at Raleigh Union
- Potential North Raleigh station at Spring Forest Rd
- Likely Wake Forest station at old freight depot site
- Current track is rated for 25 MPH, future will be 110 MPH
- May include Trinity/Maynard grade separations
- New 2nd/3rd track segments for freight
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Didn’t we also already get some $30+ million to remove 3 at-grade crossings (Millbrook, Durant, etc) already a couple of years ago? Where does that factor in. Is that money in reserve?
Nice article on this: NC: NCDOT got $1.1 billion to build a railroad in Wake County. What does that buy? | Mass Transit (masstransitmag.com)
It pretty much reiterates what @paytonc mentioned.
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Unless I am oblivious, has this (pedestrian bridge) ever been noted before? The area they are referring to is over the tracks near Tobacco Road/Google Fiber building?
Will all the railroad crossings be eliminated?
Yes. More than a dozen new bridges and underpasses are planned between Raleigh Union Station and Wake Forest to eliminate at-grade crossings. Other crossings, such as Jones and Hargett streets downtown, will be closed, with traffic re-routed to nearby bridges. A pedestrian bridge is planned at Jones Street, connecting the Glenwood South area with the rest of downtown.
This was the first I’ve heard, too, about a pedestrian bridge. That would be a welcome addition. I believe you are correct in citing the area of tracks next to the Tobacco Road facility.
The pedestrian bridge has been a part of the plan since at least 2011, when the EIS process was underway for the SEHSR line.
As always, I would prefer a pedestrian underpass instead of a bridge. A bridge you have to climb up and down something like 28 feet on either end. For a pedestrian underpass, you only have to go down about 10 or 12 feet. There is no worthwhile view that you would have from a 28’ high pedestrian bridge on Jones Street, that you wouldn’t also get from standing on the sidewalk on the Hillsborough Street bridge.
New pedestrian underpasses under railroads in Greensboro and Elon (both built in 2014), as well as the numerous older tunnels on NC State’s campus, fit the environment well and are heavily used. There’s the one under Trinity Road out by Carter-Finley (2018), and of course many greenway tunnels around the area, all of which are just fine - so there’s plenty of precedent.
Pedestrian overpasses are often cheaper to build, but are universally underused because of all the climbing, unless they fit the natural topography (which: here, it won’t.)
One of the worst things about underpasses is moving utilities, if necessary. There is no sanitary sewer at all (which helps) but I don’t know what else there may be.
Now, if you want somewhere that a pedestrian bridge does make sense: Hargett. Build the bridge from next to Wye Hill over to RUSBus. Or directly from Boylan Avenue over to Union Station itself, a connection which is (supposedly) actually planned.
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If anyone is curious where that is, this (mostly accurate) article claims that the old freight depot was located at 120 S. White St., which is currently a town parking lot. The article @aqdillman71 linked states that NCDOT is doing some engineering work to determine if a station will fit there. Personally, I hope they can make it work; downtown stations are so much better for ridership.
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As for this guy, I’m assuming we’d be looking at a big 'ole park-and ride somewhere on the northern side of Spring Forest. Fantastic way to get some suburban commuters, shoppers, and diners off of Capital and keep their cars out of downtown (assuming the overall travel time is fairly competitive).
It’ll probably be the least-interesting station on the entire Piedmont route, but it has potential to pull in a ton of new riders.
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There are long-standing plans for two new S-line crossings in North Raleigh: One just south of 540, connecting between Cynrow and Ruritania:
And another between Millbrook and New Hope Church, an extension of Pacific Dr:
In both cases, the railroad seems to be up on somewhat of an embankment already. Seems like this would be the time to go ahead and put the railroad on a bridge, to allow for the roads to go ahead and get extended through in the future. There is ample precedent for doing this sort of thing, especially given that these road connections have been in Raleigh’s comprehensive plan for decades.
For precedent: there are plenty of cases of including an overpass for future planned roads in highway projects (such as making the I-540 bridge over the S-line extra long to allow for future extension of Sumner Blvd). But there is even precedent among recently built NCDOT Rail projects: they included a bridge for future extension of Mallard Creek Church Road into the ~2016 double-tracking project near University City in Charlotte:
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That would be awesome for Millbrook students who live downtown or in wake forest. Wish I would’ve had that when I was there.
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We need this! While they do this, I hope they upgrade the rail lines between Petersburg and DC Because the trains move slow and you can experience delays when getting stuck by a LONG freight train. CSX owns those tracks and they oppose high speed rail. I don’t know about the trains going to 110-125 mph. Idk though. There’s way too many at-grade crossings and the curvature at Peoria will need to be straightened out. And there’s just too many curves. This can be an alternative to widening I-95.
As far as getting the S line built, I hope they start between Norlina and Petersburg and that way all trains heading to Raleigh can use that line without backtracking to Selma. This will be way more convenient. I enjoy Amtrak but there’s improvements that I would like to see done.
~Tolbs
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^ In 2021, CSX announced “the conveyance of a permanent land easement to enable the separation of passenger and freight rail operations in the Washington, DC to Petersburg, Va. corridor”
Virginia has various projects underway to speed travel in this corridor now that they own the tracks (and a slice of state revenue dedicated to intercity rail):
In my experience, delays have definitely declined since the purchase. CSX is still dispatching, but the dispatchers report to new bosses.
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Let the record show that the Carolinian arrived at RVR 22m early today. If only there was something to do outside the station besides, well, uhh, there’s a tire shop here?
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That might even be worse than our potential future Spring Forest Rd station, though not by much.
I’m really hoping we as a region can get on board with and get serious about TOD, for the sake of the S-Line and BRT for that matter.
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Raleigh ↔ Fayetteville is among the expansion prospects. The Fayetteville mayor claims 20,000 residents commute to Raleigh daily. That seems high but can anyone corroborate? If those numbers are real we at least need some more intercity buses. That commute has gotta suck.
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