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In the year’s second half, the North Carolina Railroad Co. (NCRR) plans to begin several infrastructure improvement projects totaling more than $18 million.

The projects include:
• construction of a transfer track in Raleigh to ease a downtown bottleneck and boost capacity;
• straightening a curve in Kinston to improve clearances and increase train speed from 10 mph to 25 mph;
• upgrades to eight bridges;
• improvements to grade crossings from Selma to Morehead City in conjunction with the North Carolina Department of Transportation’s Rail Division and Norfolk Southern Railway;
• construction of a pedestrian underpass in Alamanee County, and rail/truck loading ramp and spur track in Kinston; and
• improvements to track in Dover.

In addition, NCRR plans to move forward with a market ridership study as a follow up to a commuter-rail feasibility study conducted last year that analyzed service segments between Goldsboro, Raleigh, Durham, Research Triangle Park, Chapel Hill, Burlington and Greensboro. A cost study completed in 2008 determined it’s feasible to operate commuter trains on track already used by NS and Amtrak if NCRR added passing tracks, improved bridges and upgraded crossings.

“The market ridership study will provide information to a seven-county area about how increased use of the railroad could take pressure off of our crowded roads,” said NCRR President Scott Saylor in a prepared statement.

NCRR owns and manages a 317-mile rail corridor between Morehead City and Charlotte.