SALISBURY — On Dec. 5, N.C. Senator Thom Tillis declared that the proposed Salisbury to Asheville rail corridor would be one of seven corridors receiving a $500,000 grant from the Department of Transportation “to identify potential new rail routes or improvements across North Carolina.”

The other six corridors that will be getting $3.5 million total in funding are Charlotte to Washington; Charlotte to Atlanta; Charlotte to Kings Mountain; Winston-Salem to Raleigh; Fayetteville to Raleigh; and Wilmington to Raleigh. 

That particular grant will pay for the feasibility studies the NCDOT is going to complete for each possible corridor in order for them to discover which ones are the most viable for the state to proceed with. Cities will not be required to match any of the funds. 

“We all got the exact same amount of money for studies. I think that’s an indication that the federal DOT is interested in all of them equally, but the studies will show priority,” Mayor Karen Alexander said.

The studies are going to consider economic impact and cost and assign values on a matrix to see what the best corridor options are to implement. Alexander said it is still unknown how many of the corridors will be chosen or which ones will be moved to the implementation stage. Even though Salisbury was named as one of the seven corridors, whether or not they will be selected by the NCDOT is still up in the air. 

“There’s no guarantee because part of the reason for doing the study is to talk about the feasibility. How much of the infrastructure that’s already there can be used? What other right of ways? What other changes in grade? Does it pay back in relationship to other competing needs? Many, many different things,” Alexander said. 

Alexander admits the NCDOT’s feasibility study will take a significant amount of time before a decision is made.

“This is not a short process. It will be fraught with delays,” Alexander said.

The NCDOT Rail Division is going to send out request for proposals to engineering firms to find out the cost of the corridors and they are the ones who will select the engineers for future projects.

The study will involve Salisbury being interviewed by NCDOT and for data on ridership and the possibilities of increased ridership from train companies that go through the city be collected and analyzed. Alexander said they are waiting to hear from NCDOT on the RFPs and that component will ultimately reveal the timeline for the studies. 

“I think that it’s exciting that we’ve gotten from a concept to an actual grant that will reveal who’s next or which rail line or corridor will be most feasible to start. Of course, we hope that Salisbury ranks well,” Alexander said.