The N.C. Department of Transportation is moving full steam ahead with plans to enhance rail service for the train passengers of today and tomorrow.
Earlier this month, we officially opened the new Durham Train Station. It was an exciting event for me, a Duke graduate, and the community to see a project 16 years in the making become a reality. Over that time, the station evolved from a bus shelter to a modular unit “interim” station to finally the new 10,000-square-foot station that offers daily service on four state-sponsored Amtrak trains to Raleigh, Greensboro, Charlotte, eight other North Carolina cities and the northeast.
Our efforts to expand rail service do not stop there. We are also working hard to compete for a portion of the $8 billion in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding available for high-speed rail. That money would help us develop the Southeast High-Speed Rail corridor between Charlotte and Washington, D.C.
We recently submitted a list of 90 rail projects to the Federal Rail Administration as part of the pre-application process. The list includes more than $900 million in “shovel ready” projects and more than $3 billion for corridor development projects, which will involve Virginia and North Carolina. The U.S. Department of Transportation will award the money on a competitive basis, and NCDOT is aggressively pursuing this funding.
The projects will not only improve service for current train passengers but will also help establish the framework for SEHSR. The projects include significant rail and highway work to add tracks, straighten curves, expand stations and build a rail shortcut between Richmond and Raleigh.
A good example of the benefits of this type of work is the I-85 Corridor Improvement Project in Davidson and Rowan counties. Making changes to the tracks under I-85 and the parallel bridges above them will allow us to increase track speed by 45 percent and lay the groundwork for SEHSR.
By improving our rail system, we can provide a safe and efficient alternative to car travel that also benefits the environment and the economy.
