A tantalizing prospect for regular or would-be commuters between Fayetteville and the Triangle is one step closer to becoming a reality.
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has allocated $3.5 million to the N.C. Dept. of Transportation (NCDOT) to scope out service development plans for seven intercity rails linking major cities in the state — with a Fayetteville-Raleigh passenger railway among them.
The Fayetteville-Raleigh line, like the other lines, is being financed with an initial $500,000 federal grant made possible by Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that the U.S. Congress passed two years ago, Sen. Thom Tillis said in a Dec. 5 announcement. The new service line would have intermediate stops at Lillington and Fuquay-Varina using an existing alignment.
The Fayetteville-Raleigh corridor is part of the federal DOT’s Corridor Identification and Development Program, a program focused on intercity passenger rail planning and development. The news of the Fayetteville-Raleigh rail line comes alongside another major state infrastructure announcement last week of a $1 billion rail line between Raleigh and Richmond, Virginia.
In his city council inauguration speech, Mayor Mitch Colvin said the train will help the city retain young professionals living in Fayetteville by allowing them the opportunity to easily commute to work in bigger cities if they need to.
“This will allow the young, most talented, vibrant people in our community to remain here by continuing to work and explore opportunities at advanced technology, advanced medicine in the Triangle,” Colvin said.
“This connectivity,” he continued, “will make it easier and more of a reality for someone to leave in the morning and return home for dinner to the family and continue to invest in Fayetteville.”
Liz Macam, communications officer for NCDOT’s Rail and Integrated Mobility Divisions, said the department does not have a “definitive timeline” for the train line’s completion. However, she said NCDOT will begin looking at the planning and scope for the individual corridors in 2024 and the $500,000 will be used to prepare a scope, schedule and total cost estimate for each project.
“Each of those corridors is completely unique,” Macam said. “So this $500,000 really gives us the opportunity to look at them all in their individuality and say, ‘What would we need to plan to be able to make this a viable corridor?’”
The other corridors include: Charlotte to Washington, D.C.; Charlotte to Atlanta, Georgia; Charlotte to Kings Mountain; Winston-Salem to Raleigh; Wilmington to Raleigh; and Asheville to Salisbury.
Macam said the city of Fayetteville will be involved in the train line’s development process.
“From an NCDOT standpoint, we always look to be good partners and to partner with the cities, the towns, any other organizations that we need to ensure a successful process,” she said. “So, yes, the city will be engaged. What the scope of that is — I do not have an answer to.”
Fayetteville's city staff directed all questions about the rail to NCDOT.
Macam emphasized that NCDOT is still developing a timeline, among other aspects of the project, which is now in its early stages.
As per the Corridor Identification and Development Program, there are three phases before construction can begin on the railway. The first phase involves identifying potential routes and feasibility for each route, and the second phase is completing a service development plan, or an implementation plan for initial train service. The last stage before construction is preliminary engineering, which includes design, planning and environmental studies.
“At this point, we really just don't have any way to give people a definitive timeline as to when construction could begin on these corridors, if construction is needed, when service would be implemented on these corridors,” she said. “That's the whole point of the corridor identification and development program, to identify and develop that sort of information — it’s a significant process.”
Contact Evey Weisblat at eweisblat@cityviewnc.com or 216-527-3608.
