Putting Wilmington's trains on the fast track

WILMINGTON — They will never be confused with the high-speed TGV trains in France or Japan’s lightning-quick bullet trains.

But officials are working on a plan to see if they can get the freight trains that slowly chug through the Port City to step harder on the gas.

The N.C. Department of Transportation (DOT) and CSX, the rail company that serves Wilmington, want to boost the train's speed from today's 10 mph to 25.

The primary goal of the improvements would be to improve rail service to the Port of Wilmington. As the port’s container traffic grows, officials want to see an increased portion of that moved into and out of Wilmington by rail. A 2017 study estimates rail transport to/from the port increasing 79 percent by 2025.

CSX and the port also would like to see the speed of the trains increase. Currently, it can take a train more than 90 minutes to traverse the 10 miles from the Hilton Bridge, which carries the rail line over the Northeast Cape Fear River and is located just north of the Isabel Holmes Bridge, to the port.

City leaders also would like to see the trains moving a bit faster, especially since CSX plans to start running trains that are more than 10,000 feet long — a significant jump from the 3,000-foot-long trains that now serve the port. Trains of that length snaking their way through the city at 10 mph can cause major traffic congestion, especially if they are crossing several major streets at the same time. According to a feasibility study, more than 180,000 vehicles cross railroad tracks at the places CSX railroad tracks intersect with Wilmington streets.

But the improvements, from rail rehabilitation and curve realignments to improved rail crossing safety and the closing of some of the city’s 26 at-grade crossings, won’t come cheap. The 2017 study pegged the improvements at $30 million.

The N.C. Board of Transportation earlier this month approved paying CSX up to $1.5 million for signal improvements along its Wilmington main line. That work is expected to include modifications to the signals, flashers and gates at the city’s at-grade crossings to handle the increased train speed, since the gates and flashers will have to start warning motorists earlier if the trains are moving faster. CSX also has been upgrading and improving many of its at-grade rail crossings.

Even as officials work on moving trains more quickly through Wilmington on the city's existing tracks, an ambitious plan to get the train traffic out of the Port City completely continues to move forward.

Wilmington has received a $2 million federal grant to study moving the city's rail traffic across the Cape Fear River into Brunswick County.

Early plans show the proposed new rail line crossing the Cape Fear -- possibly linked to a new highway crossing of the river -- and then traveling north on Eagles Island and up the U.S. 421 corridor before rejoining the existing CSX line that runs to the rail yard in Navassa.

The proposed study should help officials determine the viability of the project, which has strong regional political support.

In endorsing the proposal earlier this summer, Brunswick and Pender county officials praised the project not only touting its impact on Wilmington traffic, but also the economic benefits.

New Hanover County and city officials also have endorsed the proposal.

But with like many local transportation and infrastructure projects, the high price tag could derail the realignment idea. A task force told city council in 2017 that moving the tracks out of Wilmington could cost anywhere from $500 million to $1 billion.

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