I know of at least one Fayetteville airport worker that lives on downtown Raleigh commutes to Fayetteville. Horrendous car accident on one of the commutes nearly killed him.
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Any idea of the commute time for a typical day of the week?
DTF to DTR? 
I unfortunately have to make this trip on occasion. Depending on traffic it’s ~1 hour. But any accident in the construction area between Benson and Fay shuts everything down.
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Here’s the citation but I can’t source it.
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My brother commutes to Fayetteville from DTR. If there was a Ft. Liberty shuttlebus from the proposed train station he’d do that in a heartbeat.
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I have a coworker who also commutes from Fayetteville to downtown Raleigh. No idea if he’d take the train instead though.
Maybe I’m dumb (likely) but wouldn’t Smithfield be pretty out of the way? It says in that article that the route is shorter, but my brain can’t comprehend that. Fuquay-Lillington-Fayetteville is like almost a straight shot, while Smithfield is more like a hook shaped line?
Is it shorter because the passenger line from Selma to Raleigh already exists?
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Yes, and also because it’s straighter. Majority of the eastern option (which I’ve hastily and lazily marked with blue arrows) is rated for 79mph currently. Not sure what the western (red) option is currently rated for, but with all those twists and turns, I imagine it’s a lot slower.
Also, because the western option has exclusively hosted freight for quite some time, the track likely hasn’t been maintained to the same standards that passenger trackage is obligated to have. That’ll slow things down as well.
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Anyone know how to access Intercity commuting data? I can’t believe that 20,000 daily commuters figure is accurate. Fayetteville is only 200,000 total and that includes Bragg. If 10% of the population is making the trip, there’s gotta be insane demand for a train. Or at least Greyhound should run more.routes as a stopgap.
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Thanks, this is very helpful! I can see how having Garner and Clayton on the route would be beneficial. Another benefit would be to potentially follow the current Carolinian route to Wilson and Rocky Mount, since that passenger route already exists. Wilson and Goldsboro seem like no-brainers, if you can get enough capacity between Smithfield and Raleigh, but Rocky Mount might be a tad far.
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I wonder if they mean the Fayetteville region, which is more like 500,000 people. I agree that 10% seems high for just Fayetteville proper.
https://onthemap.ces.census.gov/
I imagine that’s Fayetteville MSA, which includes the counties immediately south of Wake.
Before anyone gets carried away with railroad dreams, do keep in mind that job centers in both areas are largely dispersed. Fort Liberty doesn’t have one spot where 52,000 soldiers all show up every day, and Raleigh’s jobs are infamously spread all the way everywhere.
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True, the route would really rely on strong shuttle connections at either end (and most of the stations would likely be park and ride type stations, especially further out).
Obviously any line into downtown should continue on to the RTP stations without requiring transfers. That gets kind a complicated if you’re adding Wake Forest and/or someday Sanford, etc. But I don’t see any logical alternative. I doubt someone in Clayton would get on a train to RUS and then transfer to another train for RTP when they could swing around on 540 in way less time. But Clayton straight through to RTP with a free shuttle at the end to their office would be appealing to a decent % of people, imo.
Logically, you would almost have to treat DTR, DT Durham, and RTP as three hubs with trains coming from both directions. Which is definitely feasible, but obviously more complicated than a basic hub and spoke setup that most cities have.
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Trains will never be as fast as driving until we get High-Speed Rail. People who need that level of convenience or are pressed for time will always choose driving. And people whose work or residence is really far flung may not be good candidates for commuter rail either. But I suspect with a solid shuttle system on either end, you could get a 1000 riders daily which approaches the minimum threshold for viability.
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Yeah, that’s true and commuter trains in particular will never be faster than driving unless we added several million more people and the major roads all became parking lots. Really, commuter trains will compete on convenience and stress reduction rather than speed.
It’s a hassle to change trains and then get on a shuttle at the end, but it’s less of a hassle to go straight through to your stop. If they are reliable and they have free wifi, then people will ride them. I rode transit for a long time and the most important aspect is knowing that it will be on time, you can adjust your schedule around it, if you feel confident that it will get there when it’s supposed to. You’re right, anyone who is always in a hurry will not take transit of any type in a region like ours.
I think the main appeal of this is that over time, the existence of the stations should impact the development patterns, and also potentially make some outlying towns more attractive. It takes time, but you need the transit corridors in place first before any TOD can happen.
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The ICE (inter-city express) trains in Germany are an amazing example of how a train system can effectively connect an entire country for easy fast commuting between cities. And it stops in some smaller cities too so that people can commute very easily without a car.
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Update on S-Line construction from a recent TBJ article:
“The S-Line between Raleigh and Wake Forest is the most complex segment of the project going north, said Jason Orthner, director of NCDOT’s rail division. Work on grade separations is already underway. This year his team will start construction at Durant Road and New Hope Church Road. But the bulk of the railroad construction isn’t expected to start until 2026, with 2030 being the target for completion.”
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Saw this interesting update for an upcoming Apex town council meeting. They are working with the NCDOT to conduct a feasibility study on potential ‘mobility hubs’ near future passenger rail stations along the S-Line.
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Yeah, I believe this is probably related to some grant money from a few years ago. In total 7 towns on the S line got money to study mobility hubs, the other 6 were Sanford, Wake Forest, Franklinton, Henderson, Norlina, and Youngsville. Better rail service for NC? State working on ‘missing link’
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Another small federal grant for planning, but notable that this was one of 3 nationally
North Carolina – VA-NC Compact Administration & Southeast Rail Network Analysis Project (Up to $200,000)
North Carolina DOT on behalf of the Virginia – North Carolina Interstate High-Speed Rail Compact Commission (VA-NC HSR Compact)
The proposed grant involves administration and system planning activities to complete the Southeast Rail Network Analysis. The project will help advance efforts to improve the fluidity of the Southeast rail network to benefit both passenger and freight rail. The North Carolina DOT and Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, entities that operate the VA-NC HSR Compact, will contribute funds totaling a 50 percent non-federal match.
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