Virginia-North Carolina High Speed Rail

[MrPete]

While most HSR attention has been focused on California, Florida, Illinois & Wisconsin, our neighbors to the south have been making quiet but steady progress with what I believe is a realistic cost-effective strategy. Their web site is: http://www.sehsr.org/

Below is an Email update received today.

January 28, 2010

RE: Southeast High Speed Rail Update, Richmond to Raleigh

Note: Please do not “reply” to this email as it will not be seen. Thank you.

GENERAL UPDATE – January 2010

This update is going to all of the public who have furnished emails to our project team. If it has reached you in error you may call our toll free number (1-800-749-7245) and ask to be removed (be sure to leave your email address and phone number with area code).

Recovery Funds Awarded

We are happy to announce that North Carolina was awarded $545 million in federal recovery funds today for the advancement of high speed rail along the Southeast High Speed Rail corridor. The award is an acknowledgment of the thorough planning, design, and engineering work that has gone into the SEHSR project since it was established by the Congress in 1992. Most of these funds at this stage will be used to improve train capacity, speeds, and frequencies between Charlotte and Raleigh. The award was announced by Ms. Lisa Jackson, Administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, at the new train station in Durham.

Virginia received $75 million that will improve train speeds and capacity in the Richmond to Washington DC part of the SEHSR corridor.

Overall Project Information and Updates

The 1000+ page Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) has gone through internal review and is now in the signatory process with FRA. Following FRA’s approval of the DEIS, we will print a limited number of copies of the report for public review at locations in Virginia and North Carolina. We also will be preparing DVD’s of the full report for distribution, as well as posting the report on our web site. We anticipate holding public hearings in May (four in Virginia and four in North Carolina). Based on input from the public and the regulatory/resource agencies, a “recommendation report” (which will recommend the preferred corridor in each of the 26 Sections) will be prepared this summer, followed by Final Design and the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), which will continue through 2010 and into 2011.

The project web site, www.sehsr.org, continues to be one of your best sources of information on the project. We try to update it periodically as major changes occur and as major work elements progress.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at 919-733-7245 ext 266.

David B. Foster, PE,

SEHSR Tier II EIS Project Manager
Rail Environmental Program Manager, NCDOT Rail Division

[Donald H.Flayhart]

Thank you Mr. Pete. As a postscript, the past two days hearings have been conducted in Tidewater, VA concerning the implementation of studies for providing a spur service for "higher speed trains" between the WAS-RIC-RDU-CLT line and Newport News/Norfolk [or both]. Trains would initially be limited tp 79mph, with eventual upgrading of the CSX/NS lines "James River Lines" to allow a maximum speed of 90mph. What may eventually occur is improvement of current AMTRAK runs on the CSX line and inauguration of "higher speed trains" east of Petersburg over the NS [old N&W] line.

Sometime later this year, possibly in early summer, a second RDU-CLT "Piedmont" is to enter service, which - coupled with the current CAROLINIAN trains - would boost this service to three round trip trains daily. Incidentally, the NCDOT Rail Division lists upon its website passenger equipment now rostered; quite a collection from varied sources.

Back to Tidewater, VA......opening date for THE TIDE LRT line, an HRT route which is strictly intra-city [Norfolk] has been rescheduled for early, 2011 instead of Fall, 2010 as previously announced. Meanwhile, CLT is moving ahead with plans for a streetcar [non-LRT] line which would replace a present CATS bus route. BTW, both HRT and CATS have websites which provide information about these projects.

[Donald H.Flayhart]

This is an update concerning the planned Southeast High Speed Rail [SEHSR] project. Earlier today a memo was released jointly by DRPT (VA) and NCDOT Rail Div (NC) addressing the finalization of a DEIS report covering the segment between Richmond-Raleigh. A portion of one paragraph caught my attention, viz: "the planned service would have top speeds of 110 mph with targeted average speeds of 85-87 mph". Too, all grade crossings RIC-RDU are to be eliminated. Essentially, SEHSR trains would travel upon the former SAL (SCL, CSX) right-of-way thru Norlina.

Although absent this memo, a spur between Petersburg-Norfolk is planned, via the present NS [ex-N&W] and old VGN rights-of-way. NS presently will not allow passenger train speeds to exceed 90 mph, but a portion of the former VGN line would be upgraded to permit a maximum speed of 110 mph. Or so it goes, at least for now.

The entire memo can be perused at www.sehsr.org