North Carolina gets $550m in federal funds for the S-Line

North Carolina is getting $550 million in federal money for the S-Line, the passenger rail corridor that will link Raleigh to Richmond, Virginia. The funding, announced on 15 October 2026, unlocks part of a larger grant that the US Department of Transportation had frozen.

Governor Josh Stein and Federal Railroad Administration chief David Fink made the announcement at the Durant Road rail bridge in Raleigh, one of the first structures built for the project. The money comes from the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail programme and is part of a $1.1 billion award made under the previous administration. According to Mass Transit, the state still expects the rest.

The S-Line follows a 162-mile former CSX freight route that North Carolina bought and is rebuilding for passenger trains. Planners are aiming for top speeds of 110 mph and a Raleigh–Richmond journey more than an hour shorter than today's indirect route. The state has already put around $200 million of its own into the corridor, and the first phase will extend its Piedmont service north to Wake Forest by 2032, according to the trade press.

The Durant Road bridge shows where most of that money goes. It carries the railway over the road and removes a level crossing; it is due to be finished in November 2026, with final site works in July 2028. A railway built for 110 mph cannot keep dozens of road crossings, and each new bridge removes both a safety risk and a speed restriction.

The decision also carries a political message. The S-Line is one of the passenger projects funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and releasing the frozen money signals that the current administration is prepared to let at least some of them go ahead.

Speed alone will not make the line a success. Trains will run under positive train control, the US system that enforces speed limits and stop signals, on a corridor that freight trains will also use. Passing loops, double-track sections and the timetable will decide whether 110 mph translates into reliable journey times. The next milestone is the completion of the Durant Road bridge next month.

Sources: Office of the Governor of North Carolina (15 October 2026); Mass Transit (15 October 2026).

Photo: NCDOTcommunications, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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