thetrick

FRA only restricts "light" passenger rail vehicles from running concurrently with freight. Amtrak runs with freight all the time. The Red Line was always designed to use heavy weight passenger vehicles (like Amtrak). The real problem is capacity and that CATS seemed to totally disregard Norfolk Southerns ownership of the tracks and what their future needs might be. Currently NS runs two trains daily up the O line it would get very expensive to build enough track to accommodate concurrent operations with out delays to the passenger service, which would obviously be unacceptable to passengers. What it's going to boil down to is that the Red Line needs to be double tracked at least up to Gerdau Ameristeel if not all the way to Hunterville, and who is going to pay for that? I am a big passenger rail supporter, and support most of CATS plans, but they screwed up the Red Line not covering all the bases and making some unfounded arrogant assumptions about what they could do with other peoples property. If the Red Line project was farther along and had strong support and a funding plan I doubt the grade crossing separation could have been killed so easily. TH

Drove past the Old NS intermodal yard, looks pretty much emptied out, only a few trailers. Is the new one in operation already?

There is no technical reason you can't run a light rail train on a street car line. Run express light rail trains that bypass the slower street cars. Run these express trains from the outer most station skipping the inner stations. These light rail express trains could diverge back on to the blue line downtown. Or more to the point, why cant we have both a street car and light rail. TH

This is better than I expected these days. I'm glad they are going to a push-pull operation, should simplify track work and operations. Frankly the grade separation had a pretty damn high cost for what it accomplished (operationally). Clearly you can operate passenger trains through the crossing (as they do now) so it's not really a show stopper for anything, just not really an optimal configuration. With expanded service and increased ridership hopefully the pressure for a real solution will come.

You should take a trip to the University area, they have done quite a bit of work on both sides of the road north and south of Harris. Just about every tree and sign is gone. They have built a retaining wall in front of Showmars, and there is a contractor staging area at the site of the JW Clay parking garage.

Kind of. The Orr Rd grade crossing will be removed. Where Grier and Orr now intersect at that funky wye there will be a normal 4 way intersection with Grier being extended over the tracks to Old Concord Rd.

Finally some visible work on the ARRA improvements, or what the DOT now calls PIP (Piedmont Improvement Program). I was taking the family to get some dinner last night and noticed signs up that they are closing Caldwell Rd at the grade crossing with NS in a couple days. Did a search on NCDOT site and looks like recently the have awarded a whole bunch of contracts that are starting NOW! NCDOT Awards $24.9 Million Contract for Railbed Construction in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties NCDOT Awards $13.7 Million Contract for Grier Road over Norfolk Southern Railroad in Mecklenburg County NCDOT Awards $4.9 Million Contract for Caldwell Road Grade Separation over Norfolk Southern Railroad in Cabarrus County NCDOT Awards $3.4 Million Contract to Extend Caldwell Park Drive in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties NCDOT rail NEWS I am very happy to see this with such a long absence of news. It's going to be an interesting couple years in the university area for transportation with this the BLE and finishing 485 TH

I'm guessing they look more at the economic tax implications of NOT fixing that bridge. I imagine that the mentioned CSA's federal tax contribution is orders of magnitude more than all of NC. But still....for just one bridge... damn.

Finally some visible work on the ARRA improvements, or what the DOT now calls PIP (Piedmont Improvement Program). I was taking the family to get some dinner last night and noticed signs up that they are closing Caldwell Rd at the grade crossing with NS in a couple days. Did a search on NCDOT site and looks like recently the have awarded a whole bunch of contracts that are starting NOW! NCDOT Awards $24.9 Million Contract for Railbed Construction in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties NCDOT Awards $13.7 Million Contract for Grier Road over Norfolk Southern Railroad in Mecklenburg County NCDOT Awards $4.9 Million Contract for Caldwell Road Grade Separation over Norfolk Southern Railroad in Cabarrus County NCDOT Awards $3.4 Million Contract to Extend Caldwell Park Drive in Mecklenburg and Cabarrus Counties NCDOT rail NEWS I am very happy to see this with such a long absence of news. It's going to be an interesting couple years in the university area for transportation with this the BLE and finishing 485 TH

I agree. U-City will take longer than the south side to organically grow from where it is to more urban high density along the LTR. It might even take a couple cycles of build and re-build. Thats why the car lots don't bother me, they are pretty cheap (comparatively) investment and are more likely converted to denser use in the long run.

Well as long as we are discussing station options, here is mine. The Green line is all Amtrak services. This station would serve the BLE Redline and Amtrak all in one station.

Honestly I think the red line was the city's failure. They failed to involve the railroad along the way, and have them agree to basic principles form the beginning. The City also failed to understand the political environment they were getting them selves into with Iredell county and the Koch brothers.

To tally up the wins and losses for government and railroads and claim that someone is better off than the other is very short cited, it's not a zero sum game. Atlas Shrugged was fiction. Oh and railroads love corporate welfare just as much as any business. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Gateway and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent_Corridor both of these are programs are expansion of freight capacity and have a significant portion of the cost paid for by the government. Back to the original question of why is CSX so hard about passenger trains crossing here when similar situations exist all over the country. "because they can" is not an answer. Is there a technical or political reason that sets this crossing apart? TH

What I don't get is why CSX has such an aversion to passenger trains crossing their tracks. This is done all over the country and all over the CSX system, what is it about this crossing that is an issue? Or is CSX just being difficult?

I wonder if the frosty relationship Foxx has with with NC gov will hurt us if he tries to hand down any money for projects as US Sec Trans. Seems the trend in the south is to take joy in throwing money back to the fed, and now with the all GOP NC gov I see this being even more of a problem. I don't put it past some people to give up free money for the sake of ideology. (while not all money is as free as it looks) TH