WILMINGTON -- The state is making progress in plans to bring an improved railway system to southeastern North Carolina.
Seven million dollars from the state budget could be used to eventually bring freight and passenger train services to our area.
Supporters say it would reduce highway congestion between cities like Raleigh and Wilmington.
Pat Simmons from the North Carolina Department of Transportation's Rail Division said improving the current freight system is the priority right now, but there are plans for a passenger system down the road.
Simmons says improving the freight system would mean a shorter transit time and more reliable service into Wilmington's ports.
The state's Port Authority's CEO Tom Eagar is in full support of the project. Eagar said, "With the additional rail it certainly opens up the port of Wilmington and the new international port in Southport to support and aid the movement of military cargos."
Simmons says the state needs a federal funding partner to move the project along.
The DOT owns property in downtown Wilmington for the proposed bus and train station.
Good Idea
I think this is a good idea. Yes, I-40 is there, but what about goods that come in from the midwest via rail. What I guess you would have to do is send it by rail to Raleigh, put it on a truck and then drive it to WIlmington. Too manual. Instead those products go to Charleston or Virginia Beach leaving NC out of it. New Rail service opens up the port to the entire mid-eastern US. Rail is much cheaper than trucking. On top of that, you have the chance to add customer rail which would be very successful in my opinion. Just like Wilmington and Wrightville were heavily traveled routes in the past. Yes, there would be stops along the way but that is the way it is.
I think it is a good idea. You either grow or you die and this is another notch in NC continuing to be a place of business and jobs.
Check out the system maps
CSX enters Wilmington from the West, connecting us directly to the Midwest. Norfolk Southern enters Morehead City from their hub up near Raleigh-Durham. There is no contiguous track connecting us to directly to Raleigh.
If we need improved intermodal facilities at the ports, by all means, invest in them. If we need additional staging areas and sidings, reach for the checkbook. But the idea that a passenger rail service between Raleigh and Wilmington could even be self-sufficient is ludicrous. Considering the construction and right-of-way purchases, the start-up capital required would be astronomical! Then add in your operations and maintenance, for......HOW MANY people?
Passenger rail died in this country for a reason - the law of supply and demand. There IS no demand. Amtrak's sea of red ink proves that in every federal budget.
Until there is a demand, building it will not "make them come." It will become a bottomless money pit.
Oh....as far as rail's relationship to growth, remember that when New York City opened the first IRT line in 1904, the population was already 3.5 MILLION.
We have a way to go....
Teleporter on it's way!
I have applied for and received a $7,000,000 grant to develop a teleporter to ferry people to Raleigh and back. The trip will be instantanious. It still has a few kinks, you have to get naked to use it.
It's not like that money will go towards anything better.
I've tested it on a few girls who work at the Pure Gold and so far they never knew they left Wilmington and came back. It happens in an instant. I'll be selling the dvd of the trips via the internet.
What highway congestion?
I-40 is more than adequate to handle both commercial and private vehicular traffic between Raleigh and Wilmington.
More important, exactly where are the billions of dollars to do this going to come from? We can't even figure out how to pay for one bridge over the Cape Fear.
If there was money to be made, you can bet that CSX and Norfolk Southern would be chomping at the bit to get better service into Wilmington and Morehead City, respectively.
As far as passenger light rail, you have to be smoking those cigarettes with the twisted ends to think that a passenger rail service between Raleigh and Wilmington could ever make money unless it went from ILM straight to RDU...and that involves a LOT of right-of-way purchases in some very expensive real estate!
Please, no more black holes sucking in taxpayer money!
Aww come on, spending our
Aww come on, spending our money is what they do best
Kiss that $7million goodbye
You are too right. These are exactly the kind of pork barrel PR type actions that serve no one but the special interest politicos. The real problems lie in the 17-74/76 commute into Wilmington. Any chance that there'll be mass transit that not only addresses the route, but also actually gets people where they need to go, in roughly the same amount of time as if they drove themselves, and costs less per trip? No way, you won't see it. Any passenger rail system proposed isn't going to end up saving anyone any time, money or frustration, so nobody's going to use it, and we all know that the commuters are the ones who are going to be blamed for not getting on board in the end.
NHC can't even get a bus route working on time and serving any areas that might really alleviate congestion. What makes anyone think some dream railway 's going to be handled any better. How many "Field of Dream"/"If you build it they will come" type of fantasies do special interest groups in the Cape Fear region need to bill the taxpayers for before the public finally says no?
An I-40 corridor railway will undoubtedly be required to make stops all along the way to/from Raleigh just because podunk towns on the route feel like it'll bring money. If it's an express, with no stops, costs less than the fuel that would be used by the car in the same trip, and actually has stations at both ends that don't leave the passengers in an area of town undergoing "revitalization" (meaning crime-infested and therefore cheap property), then just maybe people will leave there cars and ride. Any other scenario and this will just be another taxpayer subsidized charity case for some politicians.
$7million would probably buy a number of clean fuel burning buses that could serve the mass amount of commuters from Brunswick Co. to Wilmington, maybe even from Pender. The new Wal Mart in Leland has a huge lot that could act as a "terminal" and help relieve the parking problems downtown.
Local Transit
Local public transit already fixed the Wal-Mart to Wilmington thing. It might not be a huge help, but at least they observed it was needed and was included in the new Brunswick County to Wilmington bus route. That's not a major improvement, but a step in the right direction.
Agreed on the railroad. WASTE OF MONEY!
VEHICLE TAX
MIGHT AS WELL SPEND SOME HONEST TAX PAYERS DOLLARS ON IMPROVING THE RAILWAY SYSTEMS.THEY SURE ARE NOT SPENDING IT ON IMPROVING THE DEGRADED ROAD SYSTEMS IN SE NORTH CAROLINA.JUST GOT BACK FROM MY SECOND TOUR IN IRAQ AND MOST OF THE ROADWAYS IN BAGHDAD ARE IN BETTER SHAPE THAN THE ONES IN WILMINGTON!