As a former resident of Atlanta and an advocate for passenger trains there, I can tell you that the combination of indifference outside the Atlanta metro area, the highway lobby, and the influence of Hartsfield-Jackson Airport and Delta Air Lines has effectively blocked any development of passenger rail. From time to time there is still talk of Atlanta-Savannah but I’ll believe it when I see it. (I remember a demonstration train by Amtrak that ran Atlanta-Savannah in 1980.) Atlanta, Fulton County, and GDOT can’t even come up with a replacement for the embarrassingly inadequate station in Atlanta. First it was going to be downtown, then at Atlantic Center, then at the former GM BAP plant in Doraville, and now who knows. If you think Charlotte is bad, go to Peachtree Station in Atlanta.
Ride by Peachtree St on 85 often. I went once, the location was awful.
NCDOT is continuing S-Line grade separations - the New Hope Church project was started this month. The road embankments are complete for Durant Road and the actual bridge will start construction in the summer. I’ve also seen the flags/spray paint for the utility work by Rogers Road.
It feels like the press release is trying to indicate that the $1B federal grant isn’t getting clawed back, but I haven’t heard anything relating to that since after Helene.
Based on what I’ve heard from the inside is that the state is confident that the $1B in funding will not be rescinded. The rail division is also in the process of applying for an additional grant for the S-Line, which is the $1.5B that was rescinded from the LA High-Speed Rail project. Sadly, they plan to use roughly half of Wake Transit planning funds (for next 10 years, $125M) for the 20% match (80% federal, 20% local match needed).
If I’m reading between the lines correctly, NCDOT’s grade separation projects (Durant, New Hope Church, Millbrook, Rogers) are the state’s “match” for the S-line project. These projects are not justifiable based on today’s rail traffic, at least compared with some other much higher traffic crossings on the NCRR, and yet they were placed in the STIP and prioritized.
This also allows them to maintain some forward progress on this project in spite of the FRA S-line grant not being disbursed yet.
As far as the local funding is concerned - Wake Transit has $164m of revenue budgeted for FY2027, $84m of which is allocated to capital expenses. From that, $24m is earmarked for regional rail. If it’s half of something - I don’t know what it’s half of. At the same time, they plan to continue that expenditure, so over 10 years it will add up to quite a bit more than $125 million.
This is what they’ve been talking about for the past year or two - spending Wake Transit money on railroad improvements to incrementally work our way to regional rail service on the NCRR and S-line. While the NCRR to Durham is probably more important from a regional transportation perspective than the S-line, Durham is hesitant to partner on any sort of rail project, while the S-line lies largely inside Wake County - so it might get prioritized.
Not to mention that there was already a separate federal CRISI grant to double track the NCRR from Cary to the new RTC location, which is about one mile past the Durham County line. I could potentially see Durham allocating a token amount toward rail platforms at the new RTC, and I could also see Wake footing the bill even if Durham refuses to participate at all.
All of the funding that you’ve mentioned is true and is consistent with what’s mentioned in the recently adopted Wale Transit Plan. However, NC Rail’s request for $125M to put towards a 20% local match was made a month or so after the adoption of the plan. I’ll look into it but that’s what was presented by the NC Rail division in December.
Could be that they are asking that half of what’s earmarked for regional rail go towards the S-line effort, which seems like it is reasonable and may indeed even be what that money was added to the budget for.
Perhaps the only word I disagree with in what yoh saod earlier is “unfortunately”. I think it’s good to spend a modest fraction of our transit funds on regional rail on the S line.
Noticed this article today: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article314839857.html
Seems like the folks at NCDOT have done a fine job of keeping the administration placated, and it’s great news that it looks like they’ll finally unlock the $1.1B. However, it’s also completely ridiculous that this money was already allocated and approved and a new admin comes in and tries to conditionally disburse it. Probably illegal, too, but what can ya do.
