NCDOT Ride Along the Piedmont Corridor video (Feb, 2016)

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afigg

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NC DOT has posted a neat video to YouTube from the front of a train on the Piedmont corridor from Raleigh to Charlotte showing showing the current status of the improvement projects. The video is not at a constant speed; it slows down for the segments getting improvements and goes at warp speed through other sections, so some parts fly through too fast to see much. Doesn't say when the video was shot, probably within the past several months.

Youtube: Ride Along the Piedmont Improvement Program (4:27 long)

A number of the projects are slated to be completed by late 2016 so could see either some trip time reductions or at least more reliable service by later this year.

If someone could prod Michigan, Illinois, and Washington state DOTs to do this for their stimulus funded corridor projects, that would be useful to see how far along they are.
 
Neat video, thanks for posting. You're right, it could have been a bit slower...maybe another minute or two in total length. But I like it!
 
I had to watch it twice.

At first I was so engrossed in the video that I didn't realize that it had captions with useful info. LOL.
 
Whoa, for a second I thought I might have been in this video ;) From the amount of snow and time of day, this was shot on Piedmont 75 sometime between Jan 24-28, not all at once either as you can tell by snow magically melting at the Cary station, but all within that week. I rode the Carolinian 80 on Jan 28, probably the morning before or after this. We actually had to wait for Piedmont 73 to go by on a segment of the not yet completed double track, too.
 
how fascinating,,, now imagine every ld train with an infoboard with a quarter of the screen being a forward facing cam,,,,,
 
The video from NCDOT was accompanied by a news release on the construction status. Progressive Railroading: NCDOT marks halfway point on Piedmont Improvement Program. Excerpt:

The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) late last week announced that it's now halfway through the construction phase of the Piedmont Improvement Program, which is aimed at modernizing the state's rail infrastructure.

Along with the announcement, the department released a video showing railroad projects being completed along the Raleigh-Charlotte corridor.

The Piedmont program calls for a slew of rail improvements, such as adding 31 miles of parallel track to serve both freight and passenger trains; closing 38 public and private grade crossings; and renovating train stations in Burlington, Cary, High Point and Kannapolis. NCDOT also will build 12 roadway bridges to carry traffic over or under tracks.
So they are officially at the halfway point in the construction phase. Only took close to 6 years to get this far as NC got the bulk of the funds in the stimulus grants awarded in 2010. Like so many of the HSIPR projects, took a long time to start construction. With all the grade crossing collisions taking place, points to NCDOT for using the funds to eliminate 38 grade crossings on the Piedmont corridor.
 
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