North Carolina NCDOT-Amtrak Piedmont Service

[gokeefe]

Piedmont cab ride showing track realignment and a new bridge under construction.
http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/vid ... ride-video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Article in FEB trains.

Wow! Amazing to see such extensive railroad engineering underway in the South for passenger operations.

[Arlington]

I think people get that "Cary" is the better spot if you need parking or are going to points west of Raleigh. It's kind of like finding out after your first trip to WAS or BOS that you could have done New Carrollton or Route 128 instead. Not the end of the world if you miss it as a newbie/out-of-towner, and every local knows how it works.

I'd say that they need a real "Research Triangle" station, that gets a big parking garage, transit oriented development, and easy rent-a-car / car share / taxi access to the sprawling office parks.

I say put it right here: https://goo.gl/maps/u6UcNJPZsxS2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, or anywhere along S. Miami Blvd where there's still good access to I-40, RDU Airport (for its services and general vibe of being "in the middle of things", not that anyone'd make connections) and the "orignial" Research Triangle labs (eg IBM), but really, they could pick almost any hotel and call it the "station hotel" and build around it or almost any old office building and knock it down for redevelopment.

With so much of the "last leg" / "first leg" of trips being made by car, the Research Triangle is exactly like the office parks of Suburban MD/DC and South-Suburban Boston (and Metropark NJ, and BWI to some extent) in its need. That the car is often faster than the train makes a "halfway" station even more useful (for folks from the West/South for whom Durham is "too soon" and Cary is "too late" and vice versa from the North)

[Bob Roberts]

I'd say that they need a real "Research Triangle" station, that gets a big parking garage, transit oriented development, and easy rent-a-car / car share / taxi access to the sprawling office parks.

I say put it right here: https://goo.gl/maps/u6UcNJPZsxS2" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, or anywhere along S. Miami Blvd where there's still good access to I-40, RDU Airport (for its services and general vibe of being "in the middle of things", not that anyone'd make connections) and the "orignial" Research Triangle labs (eg IBM), but really, they could pick almost any hotel and call it the "station hotel" and build around it or almost any old office building and knock it down for redevelopment.

Such a thing may be coming sooner rather than later. Wake County is moving towards a transit plan sales tax referendum in November. Assuming it passes, Its looking likely that commuter rail on the NCRR between Durham and points east of Raleigh will be part of an otherwise bus-centric plan. That project will certainly include at least one RTP stop which will likely serve as a hub for some type of transit within RTP and the airport area. RTP itself is also undergoing a major redesign (its really just a suburban office park and its been struggling lately) -- at one point their plans included three transit stations within the park boundaries (I think they have become a bit more realistic since their initial proposal).

While I think intercity rail in NC has a bright future (if the current legislature can keep themselves from selling off the NCRR), it does run the risk of diluting itself with too many stops (I am not suggesting an RTP stop is a bad idea). New stops are currently planned for Hillsborough and Lexington and additional stops have been mentioned for Elon, East Greensboro, Harrisburg and Concord (along with a short Southern extension to CLT airport). Additional stops can certainly be managed without hugely impacting travel time (skip stop service, express etc), but I think ultimately (25 years) we will see connecting commuter service between Charlotte and Raleigh in addition to a more robust inter-city service on the NCRR as part of SEHSR.

[Gilbert B Norman]

NBC Nightly News aired a segment last evening on the mishaps at the Durham Gregson Ave. underpass.

http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/vid ... 8000195549" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Bob Roberts]

Back on the Carolinian for a quick CLT-DNC roundtrip for the first time in almost a year. Despite the return trip running almost two hours late I noticed:
1) the onboard staff is much more pleasant, happy and helpful than in the past. The coach attendant (not in business class) on #80 asked (very nicely) for a single rider to move across the aisle so a couple could site together, he happily complied and the coach attendant brought him a cup of coffee as a thank you.
2) The business class cars have been refurbished and now have leather seats. They are certainly more comfortable than the previous generation. I have not yet noticed anything different other than seating in the BC car.
3) The outer skin on the viewbag looks kinda wavy and dented (you can see the outlines of the structural framing beneath the skin of the car). Its not wear and tear, its assembly. Its not awful, but not what this train nerd was expecting. Shrug.
3) double tracking between CLT and Greensboro is progressing (most of the grading is done and about half of the sub-ballast), but its going more slowly than I had expected. There are a couple of segments near Charlotte where the route travels on newly laid track, these are the smoothest tracks I have ridden on in North America (sorry about the hyperbole, I was impressed!). The full CLT-Greensboro double track project is scheduled to be complete within the year.

[Arlington]

Thanks for the update. It's exciting to hear about the double tracking!

[orulz]

Piedmont cab ride showing track realignment and a new bridge under construction.
http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/vid ... ride-video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Article in FEB trains.

Wow! Amazing to see such extensive railroad engineering underway in the South for passenger operations.

NCDOT track chart dated 2009 has this listed as a roughly 2 mile segment with a 55 mph speed limit, from milepost H69 to H71. Based on the curvature shown in the map from the NCDOT page for the project, the speed limit will be 70 or 75mph after the project. As of the time that chart was created in 2009, NCDOT was not actually planning to do any curve improvements here, only a grade separation, but since building the bridge requires moving the tracks anyway, they must have figured why not fix some curves while they're at it. So this will perhaps cut an "unexpected" extra 30 seconds or so off of the schedule.

Morrisville Parkway will be closed for six to eight months starting on February 8th during during the switch over.

Just west/north of here, NCRR and Norfolk Southern, recently reached a deai with the town of Morrisville are also planning to replace the rickety looking railroad bridge over Crabtree Creek with a modern two-track structure. The project is funded to the tune of $1m from Morrisville and $6.9m from NSR/NCRR. Design is underway.
This is very similar to the Hopson Road grade separation which recently completed and was also an ARRA project.

[gokeefe]

Very pleased to continue to see these projects moving forward. They will provide a great example to rest of the Southeast of the potential that passenger rail holds for economic development.

[jstolberg]

Piedmont cab ride showing track realignment and a new bridge under construction.
http://trn.trains.com/photos-videos/vid ... ride-video" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

Article in FEB trains.

Wow! Amazing to see such extensive railroad engineering underway in the South for passenger operations.

NCDOT has just posted a ride-along video that shows the current status of all Piedmont improvements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rODlGDz1GJ0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The video is sped up to cover the route in just 4 and a half minutes, so you may have to pause it at points for a better look.

[Rockingham Racer]

Thanks for that. I did not realize the Charlotte station was so far out of town.

[Bob Roberts]

^ yup, there is _nothing_ good about the Charlotte station. The city did land a TIGER grant in the last round to build an interim station downtown -- still no word on when that project will start.

Turns out the video linked above was attached to NCDOT's announcement that the Piedmont Improvement Program had reached the 'half-way' point. There is no mention of completion dates in the article but it was an ARRA grant that had a completion deadline of 2017 attached to the money.

http://www.progressiverailroading.com/r ... ram--47298" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;?

[gokeefe]

Good to see they are moving along and at a good clip now on this project.

Interesting to imagine that heights that ridership will reach once the improvements are completed and the schedule is faster.

[Bob Roberts]

2) The business class cars have been refurbished and now have leather seats. They are certainly more comfortable than the previous generation. I have not yet noticed anything different other than seating in the BC car.

I learned the hard way (a BAL-CLT trip) that not all of the BC coaches have been refurbished yet.

[electricron]

I learned the hard way (a BAL-CLT trip) that not all of the BC coaches have been refurbished yet.

I didn't realize the Piedmonts went to Baltimore, nor further north than Raleigh?
But it is great to know that the Carolina BC seats are more comfortable than they used to be.

[Bob Roberts]

I learned the hard way (a BAL-CLT trip) that not all of the BC coaches have been refurbished yet.

I didn't realize the Piedmonts went to Baltimore, nor further north than Raleigh?
But it is great to know that the Carolina BC seats are more comfortable than they used to be.

Yea, busted. Mea culpa. In my defense the Carolinian is funded by the NCDOT so I am still nominally on topic. (I also did not remember a seperate thread for the Carolinian)