Glad to see they are running the design concurrently
Yay for more service in… 7 years 
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Just came across this press release - Wake Forest Awarded Federal Grant to Construct 'Mobility Hub' on S-Line Passenger Rail Corridor
Wake Forest received a RAISE grant for the last-mile connections component of their station on the S-Line. Seems very likely they will locate it at the site of the old Seaboard station - a parking lot on White Street. I imagine this will include a drop off location for cars/rideshare and maybe bike parking facilities.
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Does anyone keep up on planning and developments in Wake Forest? Are they currently building, or at least encouraging, TOD around the future mobility hub?
The planned “mobility hub” is in a fantastic location, right in the middle of downtown Wake Forest.
As far as downtown Wake Forest in general is concerned, it seems fairly similar to other suburban downtowns like Apex or Wendell: a lively little town center and some new development, but they seem to be making a concerted effort to keep the Small Town/Main Street vibe.
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Thw Town of Wake Forest’s 2017 downtown “Renaissance Plan” definitely has that suburban vibe…
…but on the other hand, the more recent “TOD Playbook” from the NCDOT has specific recommendations for the same area that make me think that the seeds are being sown for density in the far future (as well as other parts of Wake Forest, too, in the nearer future).
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Looks like it might be near the future Wake Forest food hall?
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Friendly reminder that the Trump administration’s ham-fisted freezes of federal grants and spending includes the grants that North Carolina’s received for the S-line.
Despite the SEHSR/S-line project being an obviously important initiative for North Carolina, Virginia and beyond, the new Secretary of Transportation isn’t doing his homework like his predecessor Pete Buttigieg did in his tenure…
To be fair, it is normal for new presidential administrations to review their predecessors’ financial moves - but pausing already-committed funding, especially in such a chaotic way, is weird and unusual in our nation’s history. And the fact that he’s not even thinking about the S-line, any of the Outer Banks infrastructure projects etc. when asked about them point blank during a site visit… at the very least, it’s terrible professionalism that doesn’t make it easier to trust the USDOT the next four years 
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Yeah I feel like I said this awhile back and people were like, no it would be just crazy to pull back already committed funding. Did we not think this would be a crazy time? Infrastructure project holds are not even on the radar when this administration is talking taking over Gaza, Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal, etc.
And are we surprised that the cronies heading up whatever departments don’t know shit about their jobs?
And this isn’t a political, D vs R complaint from me. This is about this particular administration and the complete chaos it’s bringing to virtually everyone in the country and beyond.
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Not good, but I do hope that the friendly visit between Stein, Budd, Tillis, and Duffy facilitates some DOT cooperation wrt those grants and future S-Line projects (though, I imagine some other states will certainly not be so fortunate). I think that both our senators being supportive of the project will help.
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Friendly reminder that you can write or call your representative to let them know that you’re pissed off and you want them to act like they’re pissed off too. Democratic leadership has been characteristically cautious about getting out and raising hell and this is not the time for that, it’s time for brick bats. Let them know that if they don’t start acting like an opposition party we’ll find someone who will.
Seriously it takes 5 minutes
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Side note: offices of elected officials (which, really, means their overworked and underpaid assistant(s)) have a harder time ignoring phone calls and faxes compared to social media comments or emails. If you want to be annoying, you gotta do it effectively 
There’s several online platforms you can use to fax things…
…and the app to control HP printers also lets you fax things for free, too!
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on the other hand, i have no problem with a re-examination of spending if it means a slight delay.
President BIDEN’s administration came up with an estimate that there is half a TRILLION dollars of government spending that is waste fraud and abuse. That was pre-Trump 2.0, pre-Musk and teenage programmers looking into it where they have found even more. After all, It’s not like the train was going to start running next week. This chaotic time won’t last forever but this is money that every one of us paid with our taxes, and we ought to be upset it’s being wasted, not upset that the spending got paused.
This is just a bump in the road, and hopefully the people upset about this all being discovered (or upset at who it was that discovered it) will stop the violence. Let it get sorted out and the money will flow. Lord knows we have to wait even longer for things like the new bus station to be finished.
There’s a REALLY good business interview brand new, about 20 mins long from Larry Kudlow’s business show on TV that sits with Musk while he explains IN DETAIL what he’s doing with the funding investigations, the pauses on funding,WHO is doing it, what the condition of the accounting and payment systems they found, etc. If one can set aside who one voted for, watching things like this are REALLY reassuring. Here’s the interview:
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Wasn’t really impressed by that video. Elon Musk had the same generic right wing talking points–TRANS SURGERIES FOR PETS, SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS FOR DEAD GUYS. The kind of schlock I’ve heard my entire life, spoken by parasites who dodge all their taxes and pay their workers starvation wages so they can afford their own private space program. You really find that stuff convincing? Okay, man…
Let’s do an audit of every billionaire’s accounts and see how much waste is in there.
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Let’s not worry about government waste until we address forum waste. Let’s stay on topic, please.
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Meanwhile, the CEO of Amtrak resigned this week – reportedly under pressure from the White House, which is going to try again to eliminate Amtrak as we know it. And this time, the White House seems to be in a much stronger position. If they succeed, the question won’t be how to build SEHSR; rather, the question will be how to hold onto the intrastate passenger service that NCDOT already has.
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NCDOT owns its equipment, yards, stations, etc - for the Piedmont at least. It would be a matter of staffing the trains, I guess, which wouldn’t be that difficult. NCDOT already directly owns and operates the ferries, with the crews being state employees. This would be similar.
The IT side (ticketing etc) would be a layer of complexity but could probably be worked out.
That said I dont think either the Piedmont or Carolinian would be on the chopping block. I’m pretty sure that Amtrak does not lose money on either of these routes, as NC covers 100% of the operating losses through their Section 209 State Supported Corridor payments.
The long distance trains would be another matter, however.
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I don’t know about the 403(b) trains. The White House seems to be acting on general principles and disregarding details. In any event, yes, LD trains such as the Crescent, Floridian, and Palmetto would be (already are?) toast… and that will release a lot of Amtrak locomotives and passenger cars for reuse. Absent Amtrak, I don’t see enough sales opportunity for a manufacturer to get excited about building new passenger cars even if several states went in together. NCDOT must replace the Piedmont equipment soon, and eventually additional rolling stock will be needed for Asheville and/or Wilmington. Refurbed Amfleet II or Superliner cars would be an improvement over what the Piedmonts use now. Refurbed equipment may also be the only option for Triangle commuter service.
Wouldn’t surprise me if AC&W or RJ Corman offered to operate the trains on behalf of NCDOT.
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nothing is ‘normal’ with the current DC.administration…nothing
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Yes, any defunding of Amtrak would mostly affect the long-distance trains south of NC – except Auto Train, which makes money. The Silver Star was one of the worst money losers, and its current schedule now just duplicates the Carolinian for Raleigh to points north. Looking at 2024 numbers, the NC services do very well; they carry more passengers than the Hiawatha but at roughly half the state subsidy.
It’s worth noting that the federal law establishing Amtrak does not even mention profit. (Law may not be a consolation given recent behavior by the admin.) Any withdrawn service must be offered to states first.
The Piedmont could be run by a non-Amtrak vendor; for a while, Indiana paid a short line carrier to run the state-supported Hoosier State, though Amtrak still did ticketing. Didn’t AC&W provide equipment for the Pinehurst special train last year?
PS. Any reasonable effort to identify waste begins with audits, not by firing the auditors: “Trump also removed the director of the Office of Government Ethics, the independent agency responsible for overseeing ethics rules and financial disclosures for the executive branch, and 17 inspectors general, auditors appointed to root out abuses of power, waste and mismanagement.”
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Actually the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 that created Amtrak (technically, the National Rail Passenger Corporation) mentioned profit in several places. Section 201 made “potential profitability” a criterion for selecting the initial routes to be served. Section 301 specified that NRPC shall be a for-profit corporation. Section 304 contemplated that NRPC would pay dividends to its shareholders.
These provisions were concessions made to get the bill through Congress. There was opposition.
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