Three years ago the Biden administration pledged $1.1 billion to help the N.C. Department of Transportation begin building a new passenger rail line connecting Raleigh with Richmond, Virginia.

On Thursday, the Trump administration released $550 million of that money to the state, a major boost for the project and a show of support for the work NCDOT has done so far.

Drew Fink, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, made the announcement at the edge of a new bridge that will soon carry Durant Road over the rail line in North Raleigh. Fink praised NCDOT’s management of what is known as the S-line project that will restore a route where dozens of Seaboard Air Line Railroad trains a day once operated decades ago.

“The 162-mile corridor is a critical missing link in completing the build-out of the Southeast corridor and meeting state and federal goals of improving safety, providing economic opportunities and environmentally sound transportation options,” he said.

NCDOT will use the federal money to build the first leg of the Raleigh-to- Richmond line in Wake County. From Raleigh Union Station downtown, the S-line follows tracks now owned by CSX and used by a handful of slow moving freight trains a day. NCDOT will buy the rail corridor and build new tracks that will allow it to extend Amtrak’s Piedmont service to Wake Forest by 2032.

‘News that we can get behind’

When NCDOT and its counterparts in Virginia complete the line to Richmond, Amtrak trains will be able to go as fast as 110 mph, cutting more than an hour off the time it now takes to cover that distance, said Gov. Josh Stein.

“It will also give people an energy-efficient alternative to driving or flying, reducing both climate and air pollution and the wear and tear on cars and our roads,” Stein said. “This is all news that we can get behind.”

To prepare for frequent and fast passenger trains, NCDOT is working to eliminate railroad crossings on the CSX line in Wake County by building bridges, including at Durant, East Millbrook and New Hope Church roads in Raleigh and Rogers Road in Wake Forest. The first of those bridges, at Durant Road, should be finished by Thanksgiving, said Jason Orthner, head of NCDOT’s Rail Division.

Fink said the state’s investment of about $200 million in the S-line project has helped it win federal support.

“There’s not that many states that put as much money in these projects as you do,” Fink told Stein when they met at the Durant Road bridge.

North Carolina and Virginia have been planning for high-speed passenger trains between their capital cities since 1992 and settled on the S-line as the best route years ago. Near the end of Trump’s first administration, NCDOT won a $47.5 million federal grant to buy the railroad corridor between Raleigh and Ridgeway, near the Virginia state line, from CSX.

That purchase should be complete soon, NCDOT’s Orthner said Thursday.

NC’s strong track record

Last winter, the Federal Railroad Administration announced that it had released $58 million for preliminary engineering for the S-line that was awarded in 2022.

But the fate of the $1.1 billion grant, with money from the big infrastructure bill approved by Congress in 2021, remained uncertain. After Trump took office a second time, the U.S. Department of Transportation put the grant on hold as part of a broader effort to re-evaluate federal spending. During U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s first visit to North Carolina in 2025, Stein and NCDOT officials sought assurances the S-line grant would come through.

Fink said North Carolina is one of a half dozen states with a strong track record on railroad projects and that he expects NCDOT will receive the remaining $550 million of the grant in due time.

“As the pieces of the puzzle get put together, then we’re releasing more money,” he said.

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