A few recent project updates from Jason.
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Saw this interesting bit of information I’d like to share here. Town of Apex is sharing links to public inputs on upcoming transportation projects. Looks like they might already have some areas in mind for a potential rail station as part of a bigger ‘mobility hub’
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Good to see them planning ahead.
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They expect to finish construction in only two years?? That would be great!
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Sounds like the only part breaking ground right now is the grade separation at Durant Road.
These grade separations have been advancing under state funding and federal grants for some time, and will be breaking ground fairly soon:
The rest of the project will not be underway for a few years yet.
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2030 is the year i keep hearing for Wake Forest extensions of the Piedmonts.
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My favorite part of the article is the geographic accuracy!!
“The S-Line will introduce a passenger rail route between Raleigh and Richmond, Virginia. It is due to include stops in towns along the way, including Apex, Henderson, Wake Forest and Youngsville.”
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Amtrak is temporarily combining the Silver Star (one of two daily trains through Raleigh) and the Capitol Limited into the Floridian:
The big schedule impact is to the southbound service, which will run about 2h earlier than the existing Silver Star from Washington DC through Raleigh. Most of that time will be added to pad the schedule, as the Floridian’s scheduled arrival in Miami is just 36m earlier than the current Silver Star’s.
That pushes its schedule closer to the Carolinian’s: right now, the options DC → Raleigh are to leave at 11:08AM on the Carolinian or 3:04PM on the Star – kind of nice to get another half-day of sightseeing or a lunch meeting in. The Floridian will leave at 1:43PM, which cuts pretty far into the day and is only ~2.5h away from the Carolinian departure. (The northbound trains are also only ~2.5h apart, which IMO defeats the purpose of having multiple departures on the same route.)
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So basically towns like Columbia SC and Southern Pines lose direct service to NYC in exchange for direct service to Chicago, for a while. (And Florida/Savannah gain direct service to Chicago.)
I believe the high platforms at Raleigh Union Station (more specifically, the lack of low platforms) will force this to be an amfleet/viewliner train. Otherwise they would be able to run Superliners. I don’t believe there are any other hard constraints that would prevent them from doing so. (Well, other than the availability of superliner equipment!)
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Thanks for sharing this. I’ve been wanting to bike the c&o and great Allegheny trails with my kids for a while but my hesitation has been the hassle of changing trains in DC.
Reading about the project it seems like the Floridian might serve this new route for a few years.
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The problem with Brightline is that it’s not really HSR in the way that most of us hope will come to our region. It’s like a modernized Amtrak service masquerading as HSR IMO.
While the service has been lauded and everyone is excited by the shiny trains and slick marketing, the service has substantial flaws in South Florida, especially with at grade crossings and the number of accidents caused by stupid drivers. These crossings prevent us from really having HSR. For me, Brightline is possibly the solution we can have while not being the service that we really want.
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It’s not Frecciarossa or Maglev fast, no. But Brightline Miami to Orlando (and vice-versa) is:
- The same ride time as the drive would be (3.5 hrs)
- Frequent - 16 trains per day per direction
- A more comfortable riding experience than the average Amtrak one (based on my personal experience)
If Brightline came and enabled frequent, comfortable train rides that matched drive times between here and DC, that would absolutely be an improvement.
I just can’t see us ever having HSR rail like one would experience abroad for many unfortunate reasons ($$).
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It’s a terrific ride, do it! My reflections:
And yes, the route will likely be in place for several years. Both the Hudson River tunnel project and the procurement of Superliner replacement cars won’t be done until the 2030s (!).
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Brightline is the exact model NCDOT should pursue for the Piedmont corridor.
- Hourly trains (This is the top priority, an order of magnitude more important than faster speeds)
- Speeds up to 110mph on shared tracks with grade crossings, 125mph on newly built, grade separated, dedicated tracks built inside or adjacent to the existing corridor
- High platforms at every station with train-mounted bridge plates to fill the gap between the train and the platform
- Shares much of the corridor with heavy freight trains but does so successfully by having freight trains adhere to a schedule
- Capacity for local/commuter service on the line as well
- Diesel for now, electrification a possibility in the future
This is the endgame for the state owned NCRR corridor. Anything more than this will require a greenfield corridor.
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it’s certainly nirvana or the ideal situation… but I doubt it’s a very realistic expectation UNLESS a private company like Brightline steps in (and is even ALLOWED to step in), instead of the state running the passenger service.
The biggest and most expensive obstacles I see are new grade separated crossings and high platforms at every station, and the idea that the freight trains actually keeping to their schedule. As I understand it, that’s the benefit to the freight companies of owning and maintaining their tracks: they always have priority to use it when their freight trains get off schedule, which seems unavoidable. And meanwhile the passenger rail traffic has to wait as it’s lower priority.
That’s not exactly how it goes; RRs are required by law to prioritize passenger trains, and mostly freight RRs don’t just outright ignore that law, but sometimes the way they comply requires a loose definition of the word “compliance”. They do have rough timetables for their freight trains but do not follow exact, to-the-minute schedules, nor do they generally go to great lengths to allow passenger trains to adhere to theirs.
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thanks, that’s a detailed and understandable explanation of why it’s such a cluster sometimes riding Amtrak
The new train from FL to Chicago via Cary and Raleigh sounds like it’d be quite a one-time adventure, clocking in at 24 hours from Cary or Raleigh to Chicago, and double that if starting in Miami.
But anything longer, like a transcon NY to LA clocking in at 3 days on a train…I think after one night in a bedroom or roomette on Amtrak and I’d be ready to get off and fly anyone, even Spirit, to get me the rest of the way to LA.!
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I did Toledo to San Francisco as a kid and loved it. We did get off at Denver and looped around through Dinosaur National Monument as a break, but otherwise enjoyed the scenery (which is admittedly quite a bit more dramatic than the Eastern forests).
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I did Raleigh to Chicago in coach once about 20 years ago (unfortunately I can’t claim to have been a kid back then). It involved a couple hour layover at Union Station in DC. The experience was about what you would expect. The train was quiet, pretty comfortable, and peaceful, but I didn’t manage to sleep well (or very much) in a seat. All in all it was tolerable as long as you have the right expectations. I was really ready to be off that train by the time I got there, and was glad to fly back rather than ride the train like that again.
I also did a Raleigh to Orlando round trip once in a roomette about 12 years ago, which was fantastic both ways. Schedule was perfect and I slept about as well as I ever manage to in a hotel. The train ride there and back was actually the highlight of the trip for me.
As for going the entire distance, I can definitely see it in a sleeper. Long, but the accomodations are nice and it would actually be really relaxing to just unplug for two days. But riding coach for two days (instead of one) would take what I’d describe as tolerable with the right mindset, into an experience that is just far too drawn out. The second night in that seat would be … bad.
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