DRPT has been working with North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia to advance high-speed rail in the southeast. The corridor will connect Washington, DC, Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte and Atlanta with a spur from Richmond to Hampton Roads.

For additional information on this project, please visit the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor web site.

Project Update: In the Tier I Environmental Impact Statement, which evaluated the route for high speed rail from Richmond to Washington, D.C., two potential routes for high speed rail between Richmond and Doswell, VA were identified, but no route was chosen. DRPT recently completed the necessary environmental review on the two potential routes and submitted a report to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) stating that the Western route, which currently provides passenger rail service along the CSX rail line, is more feasible than the Eastern route, which follows the Buckingham Branch rail line, based on cost and environmental impacts. The FRA agreed with DRPT’s analysis and has recognized the Eastern route as an “alternative considered but dismissed.”  With the FRA’s decision, the route for intercity, high speed rail between Main St. Station and Washington, D.C., has been defined, and the Commonwealth can move forward with the I-95 Corridor development plan to support enhanced passenger and freight rail service along the corridor.