The study was designed to determine whether the North Carolina Railroad between Clayton and Durham can be built in three separate phases. The passenger service will reach 15 stations and cover about 43 miles.
Rapid growth in the area is expected, which is why Commuter Rail has been studying how to increase its capacity. GoTriangle predicts an increase in the region’s population by about a million people by 2050, which will bring more cars, jobs, and traffic, and will increase the area’s need for rail services. Studies like this can be shared on documents featuring the letterhead of the organization behind them.
Charles Lattuca, the GoTriangle CEO, commented:
“We have such great data from that study. We're showing more than 700,000 people coming into the area by 2040 and more than 800,000 jobs, so we're actually going to have more jobs than people coming in.”
The project’s total cost is estimated to be $3.2bn. If the project managers are able to meet certain criteria, half of that bill will be taken care of by federal grants and the rest of the money will come from Johnston, Durham, and Wake Counties.
The study found that a new rail system could complete up to 18,000 trips every day and help to ease congestion on the roads.