NCDOT has scheduled a public meeting 4-7 p.m. Sept. 27 at the Raleigh Convention Center to hear citizen views on a new idea for routing high-speed passenger trains through downtown Raleigh: a 700-foot bridge to carry northbound trains diagonally over automobile traffic on Capital, just south of the Wade Avenue interchange.

Maps have been posted on the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor site to show the new option, called NC5, along with new modifications to three alternatives that were aired last year.   All options are still on the table. [Update: see 9/10/11 story "Rail plan looks to pass over boulevard."]

NCDOT ran into heavy opposition when Norfolk Southern Railway and residents of neighborhoods near Five Points objected to its originally favored NC3 proposal, which would have run the new trains north along the west side of Capital, disrupting Norfolk Southern's freight yard.

Lawyer Ben Kuhn and other downtown residents suggested taking the trains across Capital near where it crosses Peace Street.  The new NCDOT approach adapts that idea but moves it farther north, bridging the busy boulevard at a lower elevation just south of the Wade Avenue interchange. ... [MORE]

North Carolina today won just $4 million of the $624 million it recently requested in federal high-speed rail grants.

The Federal Railroad Administration said NCDOT will use the money to advance planning and finish environmental studies on a proposed new short-cut track from Raleigh to Richmond, for passenger trains that would run as fast as 110 mph. ... [MORE]

The John Locke Foundation today issued a 14-page report attacking North Carolina’s plans for beefed-up passenger train service. It called on the state to reject hundreds of millions of dollars in federal high-speed rail grants, and suggested that intercity buses would be a better investment.

The report by writer Wendell Cox (see photo) seeks to validate warnings by state Rep. Ric Killian, a Charlotte Republican, that the planned rail upgrade will hurt freight railroads, weaken the state-owned N.C. Railroad and stick state taxpayers with heavy annual expenses – without providing economic benefits, easing highway congestion or improving air quality. ... [MORE]

A House vote is scheduled this afternoon on a bill by Charlotte Rep. Ric Killian that would require NCDOT to consult the legislature before it accepts more federal high-speed rail grants.

Killian wants to do more. He calls state-supported passenger rail service "a joy ride" (see today's Road Worrier column) and says the money does nothing to reduce road congestion or improve transportation safety. ... [MORE]

Republicans on the House Transportation Committee helped Democrats turn back a GOP proposal today that would give the legislature veto power over the state’s ability to accept federal railroad improvement grants – but rail foes will have another chance in a transportation budget vote Wednesday.

GOP Rep. Ric Killian of Mecklenburg County abandoned his push to make the state Department of Transportation send $461 million in rail improvement grants back to Washington. He changed tactics with an approach that could squelch chances for more money, including $624 million requested by DOT two weeks ago.

The committee voted 17-15 to weaken Killian's bill, and then approved language that only requires DOT to consult the legislature before accepting rail grants. ... [MOVE]

While Senate Republican leaders have said they won’t go along with legislation to block the state from spending $461 million in federal railroad improvement grants, some House Republicans have redoubled their effort to kill the rail projects and return the money to Washington.

Rep. Ric Killian, a Mecklenburg County Republican who had pulled his kill bill from the House Transportation Committee agenda last week, said Thursday that the committee would resume debate on his proposal next week.

“That bill is still alive and well, and it is going to be heard in some way, shape or form next Tuesday,” Killian said at a meeting of the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, which is debating the transportation section of the House budget plan.

Meanwhile, Killian and other House members have drafted a special budget provision that would take a different approach by subjecting the state Department of Transportation Rail Division to new, unusual layers of legislative oversight.  ... [MORE]

House Republicans say there should be no more free rides on state ferries.

The budget proposal released Tuesday by GOP House leaders would require the state Ferry Division to collect tolls on all ferries that are free now and to charge higher rates on ferries where riders already pay – enough to increase toll collections by $2.5 million next year and $5 million the year after.

The Ferry Division would determine the new rates for individual trips and for multiple-trip passes.  No decisions have been made, but state Department of Transportation officials have said they would consider a $10 toll on North Carolina’s busiest ferry – the 40-minute ride from Hatteras to Ocracoke, now free – and a doubling of the $15 toll collected on the longer Pamlico Sound ferries that link Ocracoke to the mainland at Cedar Island and Swan Quarter.

The budget proposal also would cut jobs elsewhere in DOT and in the Highway Patrol, and it would subject state rail programs to special new layers of legislative oversight.

It would authorize local schools to charge new fees for driver education classes, up to $75 per student, to make up for an $8.7 million cut in state funding. ... [MORE]

A Republican push to reject $461 million in federal railroad improvement grants for North Carolina appears to have collapsed. [4/10/11 update: more details in today's story.]

The high-speed rail kill bill championed by state Rep. Ric Killian of Charlotte was pulled Friday from the agenda of the House Transportation Committee, which had been scheduled to vote on the measure next week. Killian's bill was attacked at this week's committee meeting by Democrats, mayors and business advocates.

The Charlotte Business Journal reports that another Mecklenburg County Republican, Sen. Bob Rucho of Matthews, said at a Charlotte business meeting Friday that GOP leaders agreed that North Carolina should keep the $545 million in high-speed and intercity passenger rail grants awarded in early 2010 by the Obama administration. ... [MORE]

As a House committee prepares today to debate a Republican proposal to have the Perdue administration return $461 million in rail stimulus funds to Washington, Perdue's Department of Transportation is asking Washington for $624 million more. [4/6/11 update: see today's story with reader comments.]

North Carolina would use the new funds to:

- replace outmoded train stations in Charlotte and Raleigh,
- build new ones in Hillsborough and Lexington,
- add more freight and passenger service between Raleigh and Charlotte,
- complete the environmental studies and purchase an abandoned CSX rail corridor for a new high-speed shortcut from Raleigh to Richmond, for trains that would travel at speeds up to 110mph, and
- make rail safety improvements between Raleigh and Charlotte.

The new application (documents attached below) seeks a share of $2.4 billion in funds that became available after Florida's governor killed a high-speed rail project between Tampa and Orlando, and sent the money back.

The application was filed as the House Transportation Committee prepared today to debate a bill by Rep. Ric Killian and 12 other House Republicans to kill North Carolina's high-speed rail program, and to join Ohio and Florida in sending the money back to Washington. ... [MORE]

Rep. Ric Killian of Charlotte is not alone in pushing legislation to kill federally funded railroad projects worth tens of millions of dollars in his home county.

Killian has signed up a dozen fellow Republicans to help sponsor a bill that would have the state Department of Transportation give back $461 million in federal railroad improvement funds, and bar it from seeking federal high-speed rail money for any project that has not been approved by the legislature.

The $461 million includes money that would be spent in counties represented by Killian and four of his co-sponsors from Cabarrus, Rowan and Davidson counties. [3/30/11 update: see today's story from a House committee meeting.]

The House Transportation Committee will consider Killian's kill bill today. ... [MORE]