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Federal Railroad Administration and Federal Highway Administration recently confirmed that Southeast High Speed Rail completed the first Tier 1 Environmental Impact Statement and may proceed with the second round of more detailed studies.



Officials from North Carolina Department of Transportation and Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation began environmental studies of the 800-mile, Washington, D.C.-to-Charlotte, N.C., corridor three years ago. Tier 1 studies generally take five to six years to complete.



As part of the Tier 2 Study, the states plan to conduct more detailed environmental and engineering studies in phases. First, they would need to negotiate an agreement with CSX Transportation to rebuild and use a section of track CSXT took out of service 17 years ago.



The states also plan to begin work on needed infrastructure improvements, which would include upgrading crossings, adding or replacing segments of double track, realigning curves and installing new signals. The agencies also would begin planning for station development and examining rolling stock that could be used on the corridor.