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Norfolk Southern Railway wants to make friends fast in Raleigh’s Five Points neighborhood, so it will pitch an air-conditioned tent at its freight yard office Saturday for a “family / community day” with “food, a dunk tank & games for the kids! FREE!” [7/21/10 update: see print edition story with Norfolk Southern comments.]

The railroad says its freight operation would suffer – and so would its Five Points neighbors – if the state Department of Transportation decided to route fast passenger trains through Norfolk Southern’s yard on the west side of Capital Boulevard.

Norfolk Southern apparently hopes to hear its views echoed by Five Point residents at a public hearing Monday on the impact in Wake County of the proposed Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.

Lu-Ann C. Perryman, a Cary lobbyist, delivered invitations to Five Points homes this weekend for the Saturday event. The cards say that residents attending the gathering will hear from “informed speakers and concerned neighbors about a better route for Five Points.” ... [MORE]

Determined to dodge extra chores that could get in the way of their re-election priorities this year, two North Carolina politicians deftly engineered the election of a Virginia legislator today as the first chairman of the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate High-Speed Rail Compact.

Rep. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat, nominated Virginia Sen. John C. Watkins to chair the 10-member board, which held its inaugural meeting in Raleigh.

“We’re in an election cycle and you folks aren’t,” Cole explained, smiling across the boardroom table at his Virginia counterparts. “We need to devote more time to it.” ... [MORE]

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Public hearings start this week (Tuesday in Norlina, July 26 in Raleigh) for a proposed new rail shortcut between Raleigh and Richmond that would take trains as fast as 110 mph and arrive there almost two hours sooner than they do now.

The first big question is how to get the trains out of Raleigh (see Sunday's story, "Fast train route could detour Raleigh's scene" with readers' comments).  Read the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor environmental impact statement and offer your ideas online at sehsr.org. 

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Public hearings will start next week (Tuesday in Norlina, July 26 in Raleigh) for a proposed high-speed rail line to carry trains as fast as 110mph from Raleigh to Richmond.

State and federal agencies in June released a 666-page draft study of alternate routes that follow U.S. 1 and an old CSX track. [See 6/4/10 story "Tracks might divide Raleigh" with reader comments.]

The line would cut about two hours off train times from North Carolina to the Northeast.

Two daily round-trip trains would go nonstop between Raleigh and Richmond. A third train would stop in La Crosse, Va., and a fourth in Henderson.  

Residents are invited to comment at the hearings, and online at sehsr.org.

“This is a great opportunity to learn more about the project and to inform us if there is an area that we have missed, or if there is an issue that a person or a company wishes to have raised,” Pat Simmons, who heads the state Department of Transportation’s Rail Division, said today. ... [MORE]

Four North Carolina legislators will be sworn in next month to represent their state on a new two-state oversight agency, the Virginia-North Carolina High-Speed Rail Compact.

The compact, established by Congress and the legislatures of both states, will have its inaugural meeting July 12 at the state Department of Transportation headquarters in Raleigh. It will coordinate the states' efforts for the planned Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor, now in development, from Charlotte to Washington, D.C.

North Carolina and Virginia won $620 million in federal stimulus funds this year to make corridor improvements south of Raleigh and north of Richmond. The two states recently released a draft environmental impact statement for a proposed $3 billion, 186-mile link from Raleigh to Richmond that would cut travel times between the state capitals by two hours.

North Carolina's five representatives on the compact are Sens. Fletcher Hartsell, a Concord Republican, and Clark Jenkins, a Tarboro Democrat; Reps. Nelson Cole, a Reidsville Democrat, and John May, a Louisburg Democrat; and Paul Cooke of HDR Engineering Inc.  Virginia will be represented by two members of its Senate and three members of its House of Delegates.

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North Carolinians and Virginians will be invited this summer to comment on a 666-page study, released today, on the wide-ranging impacts of a proposed 162-mile line for trains that would run as fast as 110 mph between Raleigh and Richmond. [See 6/4/10 story "Tracks might divide Raleigh" with reader comments.]

The two states received $620 million in federal grants this year to provide faster and more frequent passenger train service south of Raleigh and north of Richmond, as part of the proposed Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor from Charlotte to Washington, D.C.

The new draft environmental impact study advances their quest for more than $3 billion in federal funds to build the new route between the two state capitals. It follows U.S. 1 and primarily uses a partly abandoned CSX line.

“This is a significant step in completing the high-speed rail line from North Carolina to Washington, D.C.,” Joseph Szabo, the federal railroad administrator, said in a prepared statement. ... [MORE]

It turns out that North Carolina will get a bit more money for high-speed rail than we first reported this morning: A total of $545 million.

The Federal Railroad Administration says North Carolina will receive $520 million to fund nearly 30 projects between Raleigh and Charlotte that will increase top train speeds to 90 mph and double the daily round trips along the corridor.

And another $25 million for work on a planned new line between Raleigh and Richmond. At the other end of that track, Virginia will receive $75 million toward its work to improve rail lines between Richmond and Washington, D.C.

We don’t know yet what all this means for the future.

The Raleigh-Charlotte money covers more than one-third of North Carolina’s total request for that corridor. Between Raleigh and Richmond, the $25 million is only a few drops of the state’s total request for $3.7 billion to establish 110-mph rail service.

So how do we stack up, nationwide? ... [MORE]

President Obama will make the big announcement Thursday morning in Tampa, explaining to the nation how he will divvy up $8 billion in high-speed and intercity rail money for projects in 13 rail corridors across the country.

North Carolina will get a personal announcement at 1:15 p.m. Thursday from Lisa Jackson, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator. She will come to Durham's new Amtrak depot to talk about our state's share of the train money.

Durham Mayor Bill Bell and spokespersons for the state Department of Transportation, U.S. Rep. David Price and U.S. Sen Kay Hagan said today they don't know yet how much money will be coming to North Carolina.

“None of my peers and my compatriots around the country know the details yet,” said Pat Simmons, the state DOT rail director. 

North Carolina and Virginia are developing the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor from Charlotte to Washington.  North Carolina seeks a total of $5.7 billion to improve tracks and train service between Charlotte and Raleigh, and to build a new rail shortcut that would cut 35 miles off the train trip between Raleigh and Richmond.

Citing unnamed White House sources, Washington press outlets report this morning that President Obama has chosen a wide distribution plan for the first $8 billion in federal high-speed and intercity passenger rail funds: 31 states will get money to start developing new high-speed rail corridors or to upgrade existing lines for faster train service.

The grants, to be announced Thursday in Tampa, will include grants on 13 major corridors and smaller awards to improve existing lines.

North Carolina is among the contenders for rail money, with a request for $5.7 billion to build out its fast-train network from Charlotte through Raleigh to Richmond. Virginia is picking up the plan for getting the train from Richmond to Washington. The two states began developing the planned Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor in the early 1990s.

When Obama announced the plan to invest in fast train networks a year ago, he called the $8 billion allocated by Congress in federal stimulus funds a "down payment." He proposed an additional $1 billion a year for the next five years.

In this year's budget, Congress has approved a second dose of $2.5 billion for high-speed and intercity rail. That money is expected to be distributed in coming weeks.