cowboy_wilhelm

Has anyone else noticed that the reflectors are being dislodged along the newly widened stretch of 85 through Kannapolis? They're all over the road. I was expecting one to come flying into my windshield yesterday.

I've noticed over the past couple of years that everyone is going faster on 85 between Charlotte and Greensboro. Used to be comfortable at 5-10 over, but now I'm looking down and realize I'm doing 10-15 over and people are blowing my doors off. There doesn't seem to be much of a SHP presence when I go through, and the locals aren't out like they used to either. It seems like there's a trooper every few miles on 40 between Hickory and Winston.

NCDOT publicly took notice. Deal Advances on Southeast Rail Corridor If I'm mathing right... "acquiring approximately 350 miles of CSXT right-of-way and 225 miles of track" (575 Miles) "$525 million of the $3.7 billion will be paid to CSXT over the next three years for the acquisition of property and track" (roughly $1 million per mile) It's about 55 miles from Raleigh to Ridgeway, so... maybe $55 million for NCDOT to acquire? Probably more since it's an active and operational line. I don't know what the construction estimates are. As mentioned, several grade separation projects are already funded in Wake County. But it will still cost a lot to bring the existing tracks up to Class 4. Too bad NCDOT's financial situation is so dismal right now.

Proposed or done deal? I remember signing up for snail-mail updates from NCDOT regarding SEHSR circa 2002. I think it was supposed to be done in 2015? 2020 at the latest. I'd give it another twenty years and maybe we'll be chugging through Norlina at the blazing speed of 79 mph. Which will actually be a huge improvement due to the current routing.

I wouldn't rule out all of the proposed stations just to keep the time down and speed up. As mentioned, you need support from all the areas to get it built. Greenville/Spartanburg is a decent sized market with plenty of commerce and connections between Atlanta and Charlotte, but the Greenfield GSP station does seem a little wacky. I'm not sure what the proposed frequency is, but you can always have different levels of service, i.e., "express trains" with limited stops. E.g., morning, mid-day and evening ATL>GSP>CLT only, mid-morning and mid-day serves all stops (and shave a few bucks off the ticket price for the slower service).

Nice. If they'd just get that cluster of an interchange fixed at 485 and southbound 85 on the west side it will finally be a pretty decent drive. It's amazing to think that at the start of this decade construction hadn't even started on the new Yadkin River bridges.

Try 100 years to never. A greenfield high speed rail corridor in South Carolina? Not in our lifetimes.

It looks like the connector itself is scheduled to start construction around 2021. The rest of the widening southeast of Hendersonville to U.S. 25 has been delayed and is now unfunded in the upcoming 2020-2029 STIP.

I was wondering about this part. Is it really worth the cost for maybe 5-10 minutes saved? On the other hand, would the marketing behind 90-110 mph service! spur increased ridership and demand for more service?

It has probably been discussed many pages back, but what is preventing higher speeds between Charlotte and Greensboro? Many grade crossings have been eliminated, it's double-track and Positive Train Control is (maybe?) in place. Does there have to be more signal upgrades? More track improvements? Or is it Norfolk Southern? I think it was mentioned on here that they'll never allow anything more than 90 mph on shared track.

Also, out of curiosity I wanted to see how high speed rail in Europe compared to a similar distance trip in the states. Paris and Marseille are about 480 miles apart and it's a 3.5 hour trip on the TGV. Raleigh to New York is roughly 500 miles and 10+ hours on Amtrak.... Paris to Lyon/Raleigh to D.C. = 280 miles. It's a 2 hour trip on the TGV. Imagine the impact that would have on the east coast.

So, what's the next logical service for the Piedmont? Late evening train? E.g., RAL>CLT 8:00 PM - 11:10 PM (or later?) Could probably bump up the northbound 78 from Charlotte. I'm assuming it's scheduled to avoid the Silver Star between Cary and Raleigh? That can be avoided at both stations now.

I think capacity on the H-Line between Greensboro and Raleigh is still an issue affecting frequency. Much of that segment is still single-track, and several sidings had to be constructed before the additional frequency could be added. Even with the return of double-track on the main line, you have freight trains running at different speeds and without a schedule. Even with two tracks, it's like a two-lane road. If you get behind a slow truck or you don't have any turn lanes, it's still not a very efficient drive compared to a freeway. I'd rather have fewer frequencies that are reliable than more frequencies that are often delayed. Regarding NS and "precision scheduled railroading," they are about to implement some operational changes. An excerpt from an online article by Trains magazine: I'm not sure how this will impact Charlotte and Linwood, since Charlotte is a local yard, but has seen less traffic recently. I'm not sure about Pomona and Raleigh. They're going to focus on intermodal next year, so who knows what changes are coming.

Just a sampling of "free" highway projects currently under construction or starting soon: I-40 is being widened for 12 miles southeast of Raleigh ($360 M) US 64 Asheboro bypass under construction ($244 M) US 74 Shelby bypass under construction by section (~$250-$300 M) US 17 Pollocksville & Maysville bypass ($143 M) US 70 Havelock bypass later this year ($221 M) I-26 widening southeast of Asheville starts this year ($415 M) I-26 Connector in Asheville expected to start next year ($1 B) I-95 widening starts next year ($700 M+)

Public meeting maps for the I-85 widening are now available. Apparently the new on-ramp from 321 that isn't finished yet is already out-dated.

It's going to be a mess. The Norfolk Southern mainline crosses I-85 three times, twice within about three miles.

I guess now wouldn't be a good time to mention the upcoming widening of I-85 to 321? Public meetings announced for 5/21 and 5/22, but no maps yet. Construction is still a few years off.

Speaking of 485, are there any plans yet to address the one-lane funnel to 85 south on the airport side? I know the left lane drop was recently removed, and there was talk of reducing 85 SB to 3 lanes at the Sam Wilson Rd exit to make room for two lanes from 485. I figured they would happen around the same time.

First, SC started raising their gas tax. Now they're talking about passenger rail? What is this madness?

Based on this schedule from 1964 for the Carolina Special, it looks like Saluda was faster up the mountain than the Old Fort Loops, but a little slower down. These schedules also included a lot more stops than they would today. South North Milepost Biltmore 11:27 16:40 436 Spartanburg 13:55 14:15 503.4 2:28 2:25 67.4 East West Milepost Biltmore 11:30 15:09 436 Valdese 13:44 12:15 504 2:14 2:54 68

Saluda was an exception where trains operated significantly faster going up-grade than down-grade. I think the track limit was 20 uphill, and 8 downhill was strictly for safety reasons. Those rules were also in place when the majority of the downhill trains were mile-long unit coal with 20 million pounds heading to Belmont. Southern surveyed other routes around the turn of the century after acquiring the line, but they didn't come up with anything better (at least that they were willing to spend the money on). The curves between Tryon and Melrose and at Zirconia near Lake Summit would still keep max track speed around 25 mph, maybe slightly faster for passenger rail. I can't find it at the moment, but an old Southern passenger timetable had the roughly 20-mile trip between Tryon and Hendersonville at something around an hour or more. Either Watco wasn't interested in buying or NS didn't want to sell that section when the Blue Ridge Southern RR was formed in 2014. There's only one potential customer (wood chips at Capps Brothers in Landrum) along roughly 40 miles of track, so there's no reason for anyone to buy it. It would make for a good connection and short line between Asheville and Spartanburg, but it would take millions to fill in all of the washed out sections and get the tracks and signals operational again. I'm also not sure why NS is still holding on to it 18 years later, but what else would they do with it? The Town of Tryon has tried to do landscape and interchange improvements in town, and NS has consistently said NO when they wanted to encroach on the RoW. I'm pretty sure there had been some discussion over the years about a western connection at Clinch-Cross, but nothing came to fruition. You could go Charlotte>Spartanburg (with a new wye)>Marion (with said connection)>Asheville without the cost and impact (i.e., years of study) to lay new track.

That's even more unlikely. Max. speed down grade was 8 mph or you were automatically routed on the runaway track! Corporate lawyers would have a stroke if you suggested passenger rail service on a 5% grade.

I know the Garden Parkway was not well received and is dead, but is there any talk of another crossing of the Catawba in southern Gaston/Mecklenburg?

Sweet. Nice. Looks like their dates have been updated on the website to match the construction progress report, which is also indicating they're roughly 10% behind on progress (and 30% over budget on a $107M contract ). Hopefully we'll have a little less rain this year....

What's the status of the 85 widening through Kannapolis in each direction? It's been a couple of months since I went through there and I recall there being more lanes open one direction (southbound?) than the other at the time. I know the section by China Grove is still a ways off from completion.