The Charlotte-to-Washington high-speed rail project, in the planning works since the early 1990s, is one of six corridors considered to be likely candidates for federal stimulus money this year, according to a here for further information on high-speed rail planning in North Carolina and a potential extension to the Southeast Corridor from Charlotte to Atlanta, as reported by the Xpress in January.
— Nelda Holder, associate editor
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I’m not too excited. Amtrak already offers service between Charlotte, Raleigh, Richmond, and Washington. What do we gain, a few minutes of travel time?
On the other hand, that’s a lot of moola: a thousand dollars per capita! I wish we could put that $8 billion into pedestrian/bicycle routes. Maybe buy a bike for all of us? Really. Or a million of those Segway thingies.
News flash: Trains burn fossil fuel. I wish we had some government leadership that gave more support to methods of transportation that are sustainable.
good idea as long as only counties with rail have to pay for it. I don;t think it;s fair to have the entire state foot the bill for something that is only going to be used by the metro areas.
unless you are having it available to “all” cities in the state. which I doubt. Don;t allow raleigh, charlotte, durham and chapel hill, tax the entire state so they can have train service.
what’s up. didn’t like my comment. or just filtering for comments that may seem negative :(
I’d really like to shorten the 12 hr overnight rail trip from Greenville to DC. In my opinion, a good connection to the train route would increase Asheville tourists.
I can’t think of a downside to this, but I admit I’m prejudiced. I find trains more comfortable than any other form of travel. They have drinking cars, smoking cars, even private compartments for folks who prefer that. The seats really recline and you can walk around as much as you want–no seatbelt!
I have fond memories of the very efficient rail transportation in Europe.
The trains are efficient, economical and get you around fast. I’m all for this….would love to get from Asheville to the Gulf Coast or Florida in half the time it would take to drive. Preliminary plans I’ve seen show it stopping in Greenville, so that’s a 45 minute drive to get to the station…totally do-able for me.
hey chops.
are you suggesting people ride a bike from WNC to DC?
here’s a news flash, trains use a lot less fossil fuel than cars. A LOT less. How much does your computer rely upon?
chops, if we can enough of you pedal pushers together, we could have a really fast downhill railride to Greenvile …. but you are right, there isn’t much to gain here except a few minutes. On top of that, the people who ride high speed rail are the mostly well to do as it is quite expensive.
I was suggesting people ride Amtrak to DC. helloooOOo.
Hey Chops….a lot of these high speed rail trains are actually electric so who says it would all be fossil fuel use? If we ever get our energy dependence structured to a more green way these trains could actually use wind, solar, nuclear, etc.
Also PFKaP is right that conventional trains use a lot less fossil fuels then cars.
What I want to know is whatever happened to the NC Rail authority’s plans on extending its current rail service to Asheville passing through Winston and is any money going to be allocated for that. The last I heard is there was a hang up because a bridge in Winston needed to be replaced and it would cost millions of dollars.
Also are they going to give any money to upgrade the existing tracks. The ride from High Point to Raleigh takes forever, you can drive it a lot faster in a car.
To be a viable service I also think these trains are going to have to go a lot faster then 90 MPH…I’d say they are going to have to go about 130 to 150 to be worth while and not be such a bottomless money pit for taxpayers.