The S-Line is an under construction railway corridor in the U.S. states of

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

and

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

. The line will be owned by the respective states' transport departments and served by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, and will provide a more direct service between

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

and

Raleigh Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

when completed. The line is estimated to have served 25 million people by 2040. The track speed will be upgraded to 110 mph (178 km/h) from 79 mph (128 km/h).

History

The line was proposed by the

Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad The Richmond, Petersburg and Carolina Railroad was a railroad built in the early 1900s. As its name suggests, it ran from Richmond, Virginia south through Petersburg into northern North Carolina. It was a key part of the network of the Seaboard ...

in 1882 to the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

and was granted a charter. The railroad sold the charter to the city of Petersburg and began construction between Petersburg and Ridgeway Junction. In 1889, the

Seaboard Air Line Railway The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , known colloquially as the Seaboard Railroad during its time, was an American railroad that existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime ri ...

purchased the line and extended it to Richmond. The

would be completed by 1900 and would merge with other predecessors into the Seaboard Air Line Railway. The line became the northernmost section of the Seaboard Air Line main line between Richmond and

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

. In 1967, the railroad merged with the Atlantic Coast Railroad to form the

Seaboard Coast Line Railroad The Seaboard Coast Line Railroad was a Class I railroad company operating in the Southeastern United States beginning in 1967. Its passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak in 1971. Eventually, the railroad was merged with its affiliate lin ...

. The Seaboard Air Line main line would be known as the S Line. The

decided to abandon the section of the main line between Centralia and Petersburg and opted for consolidated operations on the former Atlantic Coast Railroad main line known as the "A Line". The section from Raleigh to Norlina would be known as the

Norlina Subdivision The Norlina Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. State of North Carolina. The line currently runs from Norlina, North Carolina, to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a total of 51.2 miles. At its north end the line com ...

. In 1980, the

merged with the

Chessie System Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad (B&OCT). Trains operated u ...

s to form

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of track, it is the lead ...

. In 1986, CSX Transportation abandoned the section of the S-Line between Norlina and Petersburg. CSX continued to own the abandoned right of way between Centralia and Norlina until 2019. In the 1990s, the federal government designated five high-speed rail corridors under the

Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act The Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA, ) is a United States federal law that posed a major change to transportation planning and policy, as the first U.S. federal legislation on the subject in the post-Interstate H ...

. The S-Line was incorporated as a part of the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.

Construction

The

North Carolina Department of Transportation The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is responsible for building, repairing, and operating highways, bridges, and other modes of transportation, including ferries in the U.S. state of North Carolina. History The North Carolina ...

completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) with the

Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (VDRPT) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The agency's mission is "to connect and improve the quality of life for all Virginians with innovative transpor ...

in 2015. The

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce railroa ...

issued a Record of Decision (ROD) in 2017. In 2020, North Carolina and Virginia agreed to purchase the entire abandoned right of way between Centralia and Norlina for $47.5 million as a condition of a $58 million grant by the

FRA Fra is a title of a friar. Fra or FRA may also refer to: Codes * fra, the ISO 639-2 code for the French language * FRA, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code for France * FRA, the IOC country code for France at the Olympics * Framingham station, Amtra ...

Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Program. In 2021, the FRA provided a $57.9 million grant for a land survey and preliminary engineering from Raleigh to Richmond. In 2022, a $900,000 grant was provided for a transit-oriented development study near stations along the abandoned line by the FTA Transit Oriented Development. Also in 2022, the

United States Department of Transportation The United States Department of Transportation (USDOT or DOT) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It is headed by the secretary of transportation, who reports directly to the president of the United States a ...

would provide a $3.4 million grant for transit centers along the line. In 2023, the

would provide a $1.09 billion grant for the project, as a part of the

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL),H.R. 3684 is a United States federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov ...

. The

would provide another $1.09B grant. The

Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail would fund the design and construction for the initial segment of the S-Line, also known as the

. Stations would be built at Wake Forest, Henderson, and Norlina. The

originally envisioned a start date between 2025 and 2029 for this initial phase. On July 1, 2024,

Pete Buttigieg Peter Paul Montgomery Buttigieg ( ; born January 19, 1982) is an American politician and former naval officer who served as the 19th United States Secretary of Transportation, United States secretary of transportation from 2021 to 2025. A me ...

, former

United States secretary of transportation The United States secretary of transportation is the head of the United States Department of Transportation. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to transportation. The secre ...

along with several other state officials participated in the

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, turf-cutting, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such cer ...

of the project, commencing construction.

References

{{Reflist Proposed rail infrastructure in the United States Proposed public transportation in Virginia