has anyone got news on high speed rail in us and abroad. il project moving along nicely by me . high speed service starts between pontiac and diwight soon. tis summer.
Some news from down south: Virginia received 75 million to build 12 miles of third track, a project crucial to reduce congestion. Environmental and design work is being done on a direct Richmond to Raleigh connection over the currently abandoned CSX S-line between Raleigh and Richmond. Rebuilding this line would give passenger trains a congestion free route between the two cities and allow trains to travel 110 mph between the two cities, shaving almost 3 hours off the current travel time. Raleigh Union Station is moving towards reality with funding in place for track work. NCDOT is beginning upgrades such as grade separation, curve straightening, and adding additional sidings between Charlotte and Raleigh. Double tracking current single track sections between Charlotte and Greensboro has also been started. A very congested CSX-NS level crossing in Uptown Charlotte will be separated by putting the CSX trackage in a ditch under the NS track. With the eventual implementation of PTC, these improvements will allow for the increase of speed from 79 mph to 90 mph between Charlotte and Raleigh saving 35 minutes in travel time and making the train faster then congestion free drive times. A third Piedmont train may be added in the next few years.
Just curious- How much opposition is ongoing about rebuilding that abandoned line? One would hope nobody is objecting, but all too often...
The most vocal opposition is from a Virginia private/charter school which would have to be relocated when the rail line is built. Although the new route would use the abandoned CSX S-Line, designs call for reducing the original routes curves and the school happens to be located in a location where a curve would have to be realigned. Besides that there is not much opposition yet, mostly because it is in the preliminary design stage, a few worry about losing some recreation use provided by some parts of the old ROW, but currently the biggest roadblock to reconstruction is obtaining funding when design work is complete. With the current timeline, the earliest completion of the rebuild project is still a decade a way. There has been no opposition from CSX (just a guess, I think they want Amtrak off there active route). There has also been some rumors that the Silver Star would be rerouted over this new line to Raleigh, then over the NC Railroad to Charlotte, and finally over the NS Charlotte to Columbia line. Mostly because the current route which avoids Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh lacks population density. This would create a Charlotte to Columbia service which I think would be very beneficial.
