jthomas

I picked both, but think residential is much more important at this point. A bigger full-time population will support greater activity 24/7, as well as a more diverse array of restaurants, retail, and other neighborhood amenities. If downtown’s residential population were to double or triple, it would be a noticeably more vibrant area.

Business 40 through downtown W-S to reopen this weekend: https://www.bizjournals.com/triad/news/2020/01/31/business-40-to-re-open-after-15-month-rebuild-6.html?iana=hpmvp_triad_news_headline It's a shame that the freeway wasn't removed entirely and replaced with a surface boulevard. Perhaps if this project was only in the planning stages now, there might have been a chance - attitudes towards urban freeways seem to be changing quickly. But now that this investment has been made, the gash in Winston-Salem's urban fabric seems destined to remain for another generation.

Parking deck construction in full swing today.

Amtrak Piedmont at High Point yesterday.

Links: http://www.drpt.virginia.gov/rail/transforming-rail-in-virginia/ https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2019/december/headline-850120-en.html http://drpt.virginia.gov/media/3008/map-program-highlights.pdf Virginia is buying the portion of the abandoned S-Line in VA, the Buckingham Branch between Doswell and Clifton Forge, and 1/2 of the RF&P ROW between Richmond and DC. They will also have trackage rights on CSX between Richmond and Petersburg, and VA will own the new Long Bridge over the Potomac, which will be exclusively for passenger use. I can't quite make out how the RF&P portion works. It says VA is acquiring 1/2 of the entire ROW and 39 miles of track. I'm guessing that CSX retains the existing double track, and VA gets any existing additional tracks as well as any additional track in the future (there are an additional 37 miles planned as of now).

The one on the left is owned by the city; the one on the right is owned by Lincoln Financial and is used for their employees (towers on the right) as well as for residents of the Center Pointe tower (center). I wouldn't expect either to be able to accommodate additional structure on top. IMO, the ground floor of the Lincoln Financial deck could be converted to decent retail space fairly easily, but I don't see that being a priority for the owner. It's a shame how these two decks kill the streetscape of an entire block.

Parking deck structure going up today

I went to the workshop last night (at the new SouthEnd Brewing Co. - cool spot BTW). There was a great turnout and overall a lot of enthusiasm for the ideas presented and for downtown in general. The consensus seems to be that downtown has made great strides in the past 15 years, and now we need to build on that and get more of everything - more residents, more retail, more restaurants, etc. There was also a lot of interest in improving and promoting walkability, transit, and car-free mobility, which I find very encouraging. I thought that DGI had come up with lots of good ideas. The one that seemed to get the best reception was to develop the area around the Depot into an active mixed-use district. I think this would be a home run. If our region, state, and country ever joined the rest of the developed world in investing in rail transportation, the Depot would become Greensboro's front door. High-intensity mixed use development is a natural fit with railway stations, and as the city already owns almost the entire block that the Depot sits on, I see this as a great opportunity. Support for the arena idea seemed a little more lukewarm. To me, this one came out of the blue - I'm not opposed to the idea, but I don't see it as a priority. And I certainly don't think it should go in the middle of an area (like the ballpark district) that is already developing. Arenas can be dead spaces in an urban fabric. Even if it hosted 200 events a year (which I think is ambitious given the other venues in town), that is only 55% of the calendar, and each event would only activate the area for a few hours out of the day. Better to put more active uses on the prime land, and put something like an arena on the fringe of downtown. There is another workshop today from 11-1 in the Triad Stage lobby - anyone who is interested should swing by!

Drove by the site this morning. Demolition is well underway on the parking lot where the parking deck will go. There also appeared to be demolition work in progress on the county building - a crew was removing the roof of the awning in the area circled below.

I too am pleasantly surprised by how well the greenfield option performed in this analysis - it seems to be the superior choice by far. It will be interesting to see how the alignments get refined, particularly the Atlanta approach (I think they have the right general idea). On a side note, it is hard to come up with a good way to serve Greenville and Spartanburg on a high-speed line. Normally I'm not crazy about the French approach of bypassing intermediate cities (ex. Montpellier or the Bordeaux line), but I think that could be the best strategy in this case. Perhaps there could be 1-2 stations on the bypass which get the majority of trains, while some trains could serve the central stations via upgraded legacy tracks.

Interesting. Overall, I think it is a better look to run modern equipment on this route. Perhaps the current Piedmont equipment can be used to start a new service (Wilmington?).

Drove by the site this morning, and there was a good amount of activity. Hopefully this one will finally move forward with no more hiccups.

Also, regarding the new Harrisburg station, I am a little surprised at the location that was selected. I had expected it to be closer to 485, perhaps right near the top of the ramps from outer 485. That location would have had the potential to attract riders from the northern/eastern suburban areas for whom it would be more convenient than Gateway or Kannapolis. It also could have allowed for a short-ish extension of the Blue Line so Amtrak riders could transfer directly (useful for people bound to/from UNCC). The proposed location is good for a regional rail stop, but I think the intercity station would have been better at 485.

Would love to see regional rail happen along the NCRR in Charlotte, the Triad, and the Triangle.

Darn right - go Pack! I never understood how this was supposed to be an insult...

What tech have they actually developed towards the end of doing tunnels faster and cheaper? Don't get me wrong - I would love for them or somebody to be successful, because the ability to tunnel at a reasonable cost would be transformative in this country. But so far, they have a small diameter tunnel, some fantasy renderings, and a bunch of hot air. If anyone other than Elon Musk were doing this, would anyone be impressed by what they have done? I admit that I am biased because I have a distaste for the guy, but just because he's had success in the past (in other fields) does not mean that every idea and utterance of his is some brilliant insight that no one else can see.

Building off the conversation in this thread and others, I want to ask - what do you see in the medium- and long-term future for rail service in NC? In the short term, the Piedmont Improvement Project is just about finished. I have not seen this spelled out, but I assume that the promised fifth frequency of the Piedmont is contingent on the completion of the new platform and track work at Charlotte Gateway Station. But once that is in place, then what? SEHSR is still stuck in future limbo - Long Bridge expansion in DC seems to be a prerequisite, and it could be years before that project is in service. Personally, I think now is the time to begin some truly ambitious long-range planning for expanded rail service within the state. NC has urbanized tremendously in my lifetime, and that trend seems destined to continue and accelerate in the future. If highway-centric transportation policy continues to hold, the Piedmont region could turn into a sprawling, traffic-choked nightmare - like a 180-mile-long Atlanta. But, I don't think it's too late to choose a different path. Our urban geography, with a large percentage of the state's population along a single linear corridor, sets up well for succesful rail service. I-40 and I-85 can't be widened indefinitely, so I think it is absolutely necessary to invest in frequent, high-capacity rail service to meet the travel demand along that corridor in the future. In the medium term, I would love to see Brightline-style higher speed service between Raleigh and Charlotte. Punctual, reliable, travel time roughly 2:45 end-to-end, with departures at least once an hour throughout the day, maybe 16-20 trains each way per day. I think a service like this would be a very competitive alternative to driving and would make a real impact on traffic and development patterns. In the long-term, I think the biggest priority should be securing the NCRR for primarily (if not exclusively) passenger use. If I read the lease agreement between NCRR and Norfolk Southern correctly, the current deal runs through 2029, at which point NS can renew for 15 more years. But, in 2044, the deal should be up for renegotiation. At that point in time, the line will have more value to the state as a corridor for transporting people than for freight, and the state should leverage its asset accordingly. If this were to happen, it would open the door for a whole host of improvements, such as additional regional and local service, electrification, higher speeds, and so on. What do you envision for the future? And what steps need to happen now to make that future a reality?

Good to hear. I'm curious about the specifics of the North End Passenger Bypass that is proposed. I would assume that the idea is to have dedicated passenger tracks that extend from Gateway Station to beyond the north entrance of the NS yard. If that is the case, it seems like the space taken up by the ADM sidings would be an important component of that project. (Trying not to take this too far off-topic - I'll post some more thoughts in the NC intercity rail thread)

Could someone just nuke this thread and start over? I'd love to discuss the actual topic, but the OP turned into an excessively long, off-topic ramble and photo dump, and now we have a pointless city-vs.-city debate. I'm thankful that the city made the investment to rehab the Depot and consolidate all train and bus service there. I believe that the Piedmont corridor is ripe for a much higher level of rail service than what currently exists or is planned. I can envision a future where the Depot is a more important transportation hub than PTI, and if that were to come to pass, it would have a transformative impact on downtown.

I can't remember the specifics of the CSX/NS grade separation project - would moving the ADM mill make that project more feasible? Seems like the at-grade crossing is an impediment to increasing passenger frequencies on the Piedmont line.

If this is done well, it would make a nice gateway entering downtown. This site also fronts onto the future A&Y greenway, near where it will come into the Downtown Greenway. Hopefully the building will interact with the trail - could be a neat little spot.

Again, trying to stay on topic... Looking around, bland architecture on projects like this is hardly unique to Greensboro. But in the end, I don't think it matters that much. The two most important things this project can do are 1) activate the street, and 2) concentrate more people downtown (residents as well as hotel/office users). To that end, the renderings are promising. If the street level is a success, then this project will be a success to me. Downtown has one great pedestrian street (Elm Street), but the rest is pretty bad for pedestrians except for small isolated pockets. This project should help to expand that pedestrian district. Also, we've talked about how the ballpark-area projects make the area between the ballpark and Elm Street more attractive for additional development. I know Elon University owns a lot of property around Greene and Commerce Streets. Does anyone know what their long-term plans are for the area?

I agree that this is a much better project overall than the tower that was initially proposed. The office portion of the new design is still pretty lackluster, but the street level uses if built as shown will do a lot for the area. The parking on the Eugene Street frontage of Carroll at Bellemeade is a mistake that will weigh on this area for a long time, so I'm glad to see that won't be repeated here. Couple of interesting tidbits from the Business Journal article on the project: Project Slugger is apparently back up to 9 stories due to strong office demand. Carroll plans to ask for the ability to have private inspections for the new project (Carroll S.O.B.?! Needs a new name ASAP - haha), and says that he likely won't move forward without that concession. He claims that waiting on city inspectors added six months to the timeline at Bellemeade.

I disagree - I think the Saluda line has more potential, even if that potential is unlikely to be realized in the short- or even medium-term. On the Charlotte end, a route from Charlotte to Asheville via Spartanburg would benefit from any improvements to the Charlotte-Atlanta route (which should really be 300+ km/h HSR, but we'll see). If you could get to Spartanburg in 45 minutes (~70 miles in 45 minutes is 93 mph average, doable even without true HSR) and then from Spartanburg to Asheville in 2:00, you'd have a trip that was decently competitive with driving. This service would be timed to transfer cross-platform at Charlotte with Piedmont trains. On the Asheville end, the line from Hendersonville to Asheville has a decent alignment that could be upgraded for higher speeds, and could serve as a spine for regional rail in that area (River District-Biltmore-AVL Airport-Hendersonville). The Saluda segment will always be slow without massive investment, but any upgrades at either end would make Charlotte-Asheville more competitive while benefitting more than just this one route.