Posted on 03/23/2011 12:13:31 PM PDT by Nachum
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP/WBTV) - North Carolina transportation officials say they've reached an agreement that will allow them to obtain $461 million in federal grants to improve train service.
The agreement will allow faster and more frequent passenger service between Charlotte and Raleigh. State transportation secretary Gene Conti says the agency will seek bids for contracts for tracks, bridges and trains.
Officials say the new service would cut travel time from Charlotte to Raleigh to less than three hours, even with seven stops along the way. However, the ride will only be 13 minutes faster.
The project is expected to create nearly 5,000 jobs.
With the millions, the state will be taking out a zig-zag Norfolk-Southern and CSX trains have to maneuver through in Charlotte's Fourth Ward area.
The project will also add miles of double track and miles of passing track so trains can pass each other.
The work will also straighten out some of the lines and build bridges where the trains intersect with roadways.
Money will also go to begin developing a huge train station in Fourth Ward north of the Panthers stadium. That will be called the Charlotte Gateway Station, which will bring together Amtrak, a future commuter rail to north Mecklenburg and a streetcar through Charlotte.
North Carolina had to obtain an agreement with Norfolk Southern Railway to qualify for the grants. The Federal Railroad Administration had been concerned that slower freight trains might hamper the new service.
Copyright 2011 WBTV. All rights reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The list, ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
what waste ...
By my calculations, that works out to $92K per job. The government is spending $92K to give someone a temporary job. Sometimes I'm surprised we're not 26T in debt, rather than just $14T.
Willie Green will be elated!
North Carolina transportation officials say they’ve reached an agreement that will allow them to obtain $461 million in federal grants to improve train service.
This is going to wind up being another waste of money that we do not have. How much will this choo-choo have to be subsidized for lack or customers?
The goal is to increase union dues that end up at the DNC.
As good patriotic Americans we should all be glad to spend half a billon tax dollars to get people to Raleigh 13 minutes faster
And all those workers in those new jobs can be proud of their contribution to easing the lives of taxpayers and to society
(OK, BS meter pegged yet?)
I bet less than 20% will actually go to hardware purchase.. and even then, whatever is bought will be inflated by 100’s of times. But that of course is why the local governments are all for it. Increased taxes be damned.
Idiocy!
$35461538.4615 per minute given....
And about $35,460,000 per minute. Government accounting at it's finest.
....and Amtrak has done so well for all those years!
this post hijacked by saltnlemons(to lazy to sign on)
and you realize, the cost of this is probably WAY under-estimated in any event.
They have over a million and a half people on food stamps and over 400,000 unemployed....those 5000 jobs (if for real) aren’t going make such a difference.
At least Florida refused a similar offer, and we all know the real cost will be at least double the grant.
Not to worry, it’s not your money. We’ll just borrow it from the Chinese and our great-grandchildren will pay them back by pulling rickshaws for them when they vacation in the territories of the former United States.
surest way to a fortune is to have a Govt. contract!
saltnlemons
It is a waste in terms of making trains faster, true. But the principle purpose is to make them safer and a side effect of doing so will be that trains can move faster. The same thing happened on the Boston-DC Amtrak corridor back in the 1980’s. The principle thing was replacing old track with modern track and a side effect was the trains could travel twice as fast on the safer track.
Officials say the new service would cut travel time from Charlotte to Raleigh to less than three hours, even with seven stops along the way. However, the ride will only be 13 minutes faster.
Cut out one of the stops. Duh!
Dud! Why don’t they just leave 13 minutes earlier?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.