News
NC lands nearly $300M for rail safety, track upgrades
Federal funds will close nine crossings, add double-track segments and boost safety and reliability on key North Carolina rail corridors.
Opinion
As Congress writes transportation bill, rail must remain NC priority
Across NC, 21 freight railroads move everything from construction materials and grain to finished consumer goods. Two of the nation’s largest railroads — CSX and Norfolk Southern — intersect right in our region.
News
Musk proposes privatizing Amtrak amid DOGE endeavor
Billionaire tech mogul and presidential advisor Elon Musk has suggested privatizing Amtrak passenger train services, among other federally funded services, as part of the DOGE drive for efficiency. During a virtual appearance at a Morgan Stanley tech conference on March 5, Musk described Amtrak as a “sad situation” compared to high-speed rail in Europe and...
News
NCRR launches strategic property acquisition initiative
The North Carolina Railroad Company (NCRR) announced last week the launch of an economic development program company executives say will ease the path to further economic growth by boosting industrial site readiness along the 317-mile rail corridor. The aim of the Options Program is to preserve land for future industrial users and strengthen North Carolina’s...
News
NC awarded major federal grant for rail infrastructure improvements
Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday that the North Carolina Railroad Company (NCRR) has been awarded a $105.6 million grant from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) through the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvement Program or CRISI. The funds will be used to enhance North Carolina’s rail infrastructure of the state’s busiest rail corridor, improving...
News
CATS gold line streetcar beset with financial woes, federal data reveals
A federal report finds that the cost incurred to move a single passenger one mile is $18.71 on the Charlotte’s Gold Line streetcar. This comes in addition to logistical problems faced by CATS Gold Line rail over the past three years.
News
Diverted cargo en route to NC’s Port of Wilmington
Additional cargo shipments are headed to North Carolina’s coast this month amid the ongoing Baltimore Port closure, North Carolina Ports has disclosed.
News
NC owns a railroad? Well, yes.
The State of North Carolina is the sole shareholder of a 317-mile rail corridor, winding from Charlotte to the Port of Morehead City, known as the North Carolina Railroad Company (NCRR). That is the short answer, to be sure; the whole story of how NCRR came to be is a tale of North Carolina history,...
News
Durham-Orange Light Rail project is dead
In a major blow to proponents of light rail, the GoTriangle Board of Trustees voted unanimously Wednesday, March 27, to end the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit project. The $2.7-billion project would have included a nearly 18-mile railway connecting UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill with Duke University, but significant setbacks and obstacles killed the plan. “Unfortunately,...
News
Looking to land auto plant, state pushed not-ready-for-prime-time megasite
North Carolina officials insist the state is prime territory for the next big industrial manufacturing facility — most likely an automaker. Auto assembly plants can attract billions of dollars in investment, create hundreds of high-paying jobs, and revitalize a local economy. But we keep losing the competition for new auto plants to nearby states. South...
News
CSX to get $700k subsidy for every job created
The Carolina Connector, a $272 million Edgecombe County transit hub for CSX railroad, would receive taxpayer subsidies from the state of North Carolina of at least $700,000 for each of the 149 jobs the rail project is projected to create — for jobs that are expected to pay an average of $64,000 per year. That’s...
News
CSX continues search for rail hub site
Months after the N.C. Department of Transportation approved a $100 million subsidy for CSX to build an intermodal rail terminal in Johnston County near Selma, the railroad — amid local opposition at every North Carolina location CSX has considered — says it continues looking for sites in North Carolina and other states. CSX approached the...
