On Thursday, June 4, the Rail Division with the North Carolina Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting to comment on a plan to build a trail in conjunction with the proposed high-speed passenger rail service that would connect Raleigh and Richmond as well as cities to the north and south.
          The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Northern Regional Center on East Holding Avenue in Wake Forest. A similar meeting will be held Thursday, May 21, at 7 p.m. in the Youngsville Community Center on East Main Street.
          At the same time the planning for the Southeast High-Speed Rail project has been accelerated – and planners are anticipating receiving federal stimulus funds – they are proposing to add the multi-use/greenway trail that would parallel the railroad.
          The trail would not be in the railroad right-of-way but would be within the rail line corridor. “As such, all environmental work being collected and analyzed for the rail project would be available for evaluation of the trail concept. That is what makes this such a unique opportunity,” David B. Foster, the project manager for the environmental impact statement within North Carolina, said.
          The trail is proposed to run from the town of Burgess, Va., just south of Petersburg, to the north side of Raleigh at the Neuse River, about 116 miles and would, like the rail line, connect all the cities and towns along the way. “It could become an important link in the East Coast Greenway, a proposed trail that would traverse the eastern seaboard states from Maine to Florida,” Foster said.
          The trail location would vary in relation to the rail line, and it would cross from east to west or west to east using the current bridges or underpasses. There will be no at-grade crossings for the trail or for roads and highways.
          Where the approved rail alignment falls within the existing right-of-way, planners propose the trail have a 30-foot cross-section on a 60-foot right-of-way outside the railway right-of-way. The minimum separation would be 50 to 60 feet with an average separation of 100 feet. That would be for about 76 miles.
          There are also about 40 miles of the probable rail line location where it will leave the existing right-of-way for various reasons. In those areas, the trail would likely use the old and inactive right-of-way.
          For more information about the trail, the high-speed rail plans and detailed maps of the proposed railroad alignment in this area, go to http://www.sehsr.org.