BTW - I think they are certain to upgrade the tracks and service from RVR to DC as well as extending service to Main Street Station (nice/downtown Richmond).
*Also it looks very good to put the rails back (again) on the Seaboard to Raleigh - with one stop after Patersburg in Lacrosse, VA (former crossing of SAL/SCL and Virginian RR). And a stop in NC at Henderson, NC . So it would be Raleigh, Henderson, NC, LaCrosse, VA, Petersburg (Ettrick/VA State), Richmond's Main Street Station and RVR (Richmond - Staples Mill Road), and then north to NY/BOS.
I think they are looking at 79 MPH diesel service, between Richmond and Raleigh. The Silver Star and Carolinian would take the shorter route to Raleigh (about two hours quicker)
I might be wrong but I thought the whole idea of the Carolinian was to serve a lot of NC towns which include Rocky Mount, Wilson and Selma to name others. How would routing the train on the Seaboard effect those towns?
The Carolinian is making the "best of a bad situation" since CSX pulled up the main line that went directly from Richmond to Raleigh. And the goal of NC Rail is to really better serve the larger metropolitan areas and get cars off the highways. Just between Raleigh and Charlotte are some rather large cities such as Durham, (plus Burlington, Elon College, etc..), Greensboro and High Point. So naturally, they want to connect these large urban areas in NC with the Northeast (Richmond, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, NJ & NY) and the more direct Raleigh connection (on the old Seaboard mainline) could save about two hours. That makes taking the train more competitive with the car and even air travel.
So routing the Carolinian through Rocky Mount - actually does help Rocky Mount, Wilson and Selma - but at the expense of the other (much larger) urban areas of Central NC. Not to mention, that the Amtrak Palmetto (or Silver Palm) hits those stops within and hour or so of the Carolinian schedule.