(The Center Square) – More investment in North Carolina’s rail future has been made through grants totaling $2 million toward four sites.
Richmond, Nash, Burke and Warren counties received the awards in the third year of the Build Ready Sites program operated by the North Carolina Railroad Company. The private corporation whose voting stock is owned by the state of North Carolina gives options for how each recipient will use the money at, respectively, Energy Way Industrial Complex, Ammons Site, Grant Meadows Site, and the Highway 1 Site.
The options include land preparation and extension of water and sewer capabilities. The program prioritizes “rural and economically distressed communities, sites with demonstrated community backing, and locations with support from infrastructure partners, including railroads and certain utility providers,” a release says.
North Carolina Railroad Company has a mission to improve both freight and passenger rail options. Statistically, rail has long trailed when it comes to transporting people — both within urban areas and via intrastate and interstate travel.
Still, investments have come. The General Assembly appropriated $45.2 million from taxpayers for both the current budget year and the next, in part as a match required to leverage federal dollars for the S-line.
A high-performance passenger rail line running from Raleigh to Richmond, Va., and seven other corridors around the state are part of more than $1.4 billion in taxpayers’ money through federal grants.
The state’s Department of Transportation, in June’s approval of the 10-year $35 billion State Transportation Improvement Program, had 101 rail projects.
Awarded money in the Build Ready Sites program, according to the most recent annual report from the North Carolina Railroad Company, were the counties of Alexander, Pitt, Johnston, Moore, Burke and Montgomery in 2021; and Catawba, Iredell, Randolph, Chatham, Montgomery, Scotland and Beaufort in 2022. The company has also invested in at least 19 companies or megasites, the most recent Siemens Mobility, Sumitomo Forestry America, Technimark, Nucor, VinFast and Service Offside Solutions.
