Senator Thom Tillis speaks on $1 billion NC rail grant

NORTH CAROLINA (WWAY) — New reaction to the Federal Department of Transportation looking at potential new rail routes or improvements across North Carolina.

About $3.5 million from the recent infrastructure law will be used to develop a scope, schedule and cost estimate for 7 potential corridors. Some of those include one that would connect Raleigh to Wilmington. The route would involve restoring railroad tracks from Castle Hayne to Wallace through Pender County. Also constructing a new bridge over the northeast cape fear river for modern rail traffic.  Trains from Raleigh to Wilmington are slated to run under three hours.

Senator Thom Tillis says it’s part of a larger focus from the federal government.

“A billion dollars that was enabled by the bipartisan infrastructure bill that I played a role in getting passed will be appropriated to align between North Carolina, the Durham area and Richmond. That’s a billion dollars, that’s another billion dollars in addition to about $9 billion that’s been sent down to the state of North Carolina,” said Sentor Tillis.

Eastern Carolina Rail says the start of passenger rail service would be on a 7 to 12-year timeline.