 | NARP blogTRAINS: A travel choice Americans want |
» Visit the Official NARP Website
Southern Mobility: North Carolina Leads the Way
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Unlike many states where the DOT is little more than a highway department, the Tar Heel State certainly isn’t stuck in the mud when it comes to passenger trains.
A third-daily round-trip between Raleigh and Charlotte will commence operation [PDF] in four weeks, adding a mid-day run to the existing morning and evening departures in each direction. The line should also see a fourth daily round-trip in the next two years. The state continues to invest in its stations, with Durham’s new depot having opened in December and plans in the works for modern multi-modal hubs in Raleigh and Charlotte to complement Greensboro’s crown jewel. (Full disclosure: I grew up and went to college in Greensboro.)
The NCDOT Rail Division, led by Pat Simmons, has made tremendous progress in modernizing the rail lines used by Amtrak trains, with the goal of nearly consistent 90-mph operation between Raleigh and Charlotte within the next five years. Thanks to the Sealed Corridor Program, spearheaded by Dr. Gary Burch Memorial Safety Award honoree and NCDOT Director of Engineering & Safety Paul Worley, grade crossing collisions (such as the this morning in Mebane, NC) will be largely prevented. Station and track work has also been completed in hopes of returning passenger trains to Asheville via Salisbury.
In addition to the Rail Division’s exemplary work, the North Carolina Rail Road (NCRR)—the quasi state-run owner of the tracks between Charlotte and Goldsboro—has completed a study [PDF] of potential frequent commuter service between Greensboro, Burlington and the Research Triangle area (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill). NCRR found that ridership on such service would be significant: possibly 3 million annual passengers by 2022. This would place it at number 13 amongst current US commuter rail systems by ridership, slightly below the Miami area’s TriRail and the South Shore Line between Chicago and South Bend, IN.
It took two decades of building capacity and expertise in railroading and a culture of intermodal thinking at NCDOT. Now, North Carolina offers an outstanding template for other states to follow. Fast, frequent intercity service, plus expanded light rail and bus networks (like those in Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, and Greensboro/High Point), equals real travel choices. If all Americans are to benefit from such connectivity, work must be done at the state “highway department”—and in Washington to give states the financing and policy tools to get there.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: connectivity, dot, frequency, highway, intermodal, north carolina, planning, safety, trains, transportation,Southern Cities Discovering that Trains Mean Business
Friday, July 30, 2010
For the past few decades, city boosters in Charlotte, NC, have wanted the Queen City to become more like Atlanta—taking advantage of its location to become one of the Southeast’s premier business hubs. Now, when it comes to modern transportation, it’s Atlanta that is looking enviously towards Charlotte.
Both locales, like all medium- and large-sized US cities, had streetcar networks early in the 20th century. But while Atlanta does have the 30-year-old MARTA heavy rail transit system, it lacks modern streetcar or light rail lines. Charlotte, meanwhile, opened its first light rail line in 2007 and has plans to greatly expand the system. Just this week, Charlotte’s City Council agreed to accept a $25 million federal grant to build an east-west streetcar line to connect with the north-south LYNX light rail line. There are some plans afoot to build new rail transit lines in Atlanta, and a funding application was made in February for a streetcar on Peachtree Street, but Georgia has yet to receive any federal grants for transit.
And it’s not just transit—intercity passenger rail has a lot to do with it as well. Charlotte is connected to Greensboro and Raleigh by six daily Amtrak round-trips, with two daily round-trips linking it to the Northeast Corridor—a link that the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor aims to solidify. Credit for this can be given to the state of North Carolina’s decades of planning and investment, while Georgia has spent next to nothing on trains, the result being that Atlanta is served by only one daily Amtrak train in each direction and high(er)-speed rail is a much longer ways off.
This has Atlanta business leaders worried that the metro area, which is suffering from worsening traffic congestion and deteriorating transit service, may be losing jobs to cities like Charlotte. MARTA and its connecting suburban bus systems have the dubious distinction of being the only urban transit system not to receive state funds—they are funded primarily by a 1% sales tax levied only in the counties they serve. This left these systems particularly vulnerable to the effects of the recession on sales tax revenue, resulting major service cutbacks. Yet the Atlanta area remains far behind in the competition for federal transit dollars because its planning process is not as far along as those of Charlotte and other cities.
Hopefully the success of Charlotte’s rail transit investments in catalyzing smarter development—aided by better intercity train connections—will finally persuade Georgia’s political leaders to get serious about passenger rail. Not only are trains (and buses) an essential lifeline for those without access to cars, but they are the most proven way to combat crippling congestion while creating jobs and desirable places to live and work—places centered on people, not cars.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: atlanta, business, charlotte, economic development, georgia, jobs, light rail, metropolitan, north carolina, passenger trains, rail transit, southeast, streetcars, transit, transportation,Responding to Critics, Educating the Public
Monday, April 04, 2011
NARP President Ross Capon sent the following letter to the Wall Street Journal’s editors, responding to a March 29 op-ed piece by Ronald Utt of the Heritage Foundation:
President Obama’s High Speed and Intercity Passenger Rail Program is improving both passenger and freight train services. It is not the “extravagant Amtrak bailout” that Ronald Utt claims.
For example, 28 miles of second main line will be added between Greensboro and Charlotte so the entire, 82-mile segment will again be double tracked. These tracks will be there 24/7. Passenger trains will not, so Norfolk Southern’s freight operations will benefit.
Utt makes much of Amtrak’s 2009 ridership decline. He should have acknowledged the 11.2% ridership jump in 2008 caused largely by Americans seeking to avoid rising gasoline prices.
Those prices are rising again. So is long-term world demand for oil, and the amount of revenue Saudi Arabia needs to balance its budget. Utt’s endless trashing of passenger trains betrays a rear-view mirror focus that makes for bad public policy. Department of Energy figures indicate that Amtrak is 30% and 20% more energy efficient than automobiles and domestic airlines, respectively. Trains are an important travel choice that Americans increasingly want.
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: greensboro news & record, high-speed rail, malcolm kenton, north carolina, passenger train critics, ric killian, ronald utt, ross capon, state legislation, wall street journal,Demonstrated Economic Benefits Draw Strong Backing for Rail Transit Expansion in North Carolina
Monday, October 31, 2011
Charlotte, NC’s growing LYNX light rail system—currently one operating line, with an extension in the pre-construction stages and two others proposed—has already drawn an additional $1.4 billion in private-sector business development in the city, Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx reported last week.
 |
| Photo by NARP member Matt Johnson (tracktwentynine on Flickr) |
Rail transit’s success in the state’s largest metro area has bolstered the resolve of transit supporters in the state’s second largest metro—the Research Triangle area anchored by Durham, Raleigh and Chapel Hill—to press for an additional half-cent salex tax in Durham County (the heart of the Triangle) to fund an initial rail transit line there, as well as improvements to bus service. Durham County voters will decide next Tuesday, Nov. 8, whether to raise their own sales taxes for this purpose. Early voting there is already underway.
A voter-approved half-cent sales tax in Charlotte’s home county of Mecklenburg, in place since 1998, is what allowed the city’s light rail system to be built. It took until 2007 for the first line to open—which it did just 20 days after county voters flatly rejected an attempt to repeal the additional sales tax.
The identical Durham County ballot measure has one the backing of three influential community groups: the Durham People’s Alliance, the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, and the Friends of Durham (the latter has traditionally opposed tax increases). A host of statewide transportation, environmental and public interest groups have also backed a “For” vote on the measure.
The referendum’s passage would give momentum to similar efforts elsewhere in the state. The counties of Wake and Orange (both also in the Triangle, home to Raleigh and Chapel Hill, respectively) and Guilford and Forsyth (the heard of the Piedmont Triad, the state’s third largest metro area, and home to Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem) are also eligible to consider half-cent sales tax increase referenda for transit under a new state law enacted last year.
The development of rail transit networks in these three metros (re-creating ones that existed in the early 20th Century), in tandem with the intercity passenger rail service improvements and expansions the North Carolina DOT continues to pursue, would provide a major boost to job growth and allow the state to accommodate its growing population without resulting in gridlocked roads and the worsening maleffects of urban sprawl caused by new highway construction.
—Malcolm Kenton
Posted by Malcolm Kenton
Tags: charlotte, durham, elections, light rail, north carolina, referenda, research triangle, sales tax, transit,©2010 National Association of Railroad Passengers | » NARP website
» Recent Entries
» Blogroll
» Terms of Service for Comments
You may register to post comments in response to NARP-generated postings on the Blog. By registering you agree 1) that all comments will be relevant to the respective posting and 2) not to post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, or that violate any laws. We reserve the right to permanently block postings from any user who does not abide by the above terms. NARP reserves the right to remove, edit, or move any messages for any reason.
» Monthly Archives
