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Tuesday, April 01, 2008 10:41 AM DOT awards $319,000 grant By Eddie Fitzgerald | Times Staff Writer A small railroad that is helping Wilson industry distribute products is growing. Wilson will be the home office and the service center for Carolina Coastal Railway, which is taking over nearly 150 miles of rail lines from Norfolk Southern. Carolina Coastal once owned only 17 miles of track between Pinetown and Belhaven, but this summer it leased the additional 142 miles of track from Norfolk Southern, which runs through Plymouth, Chocowinity, Greenville and Wilson to just east of Raleigh. To help the company expand, the N.C. Department of Transportation approved a $318,600 grant to pay for maintenance and improvement work to be done on the lines and to build a service pit in Wilson. Patrick Simions, director of the rail division at NCDOT, said the grant was part of $2 million Short Line Infrastructure Assistance Program that NCDOT approved for 11 small freight railroads in the state. "The premise was to keep the railroad healthy and operations continuing, which helps retain industry by serving them," Simions said. "It's a basis for future growth." Doug Golden, president and owner of Carolina Coastal Railway, said his four locomotives have been providing service in Wilson since June, with materials coming through from Chocowinity to Raleigh. Carolina Coastal Railway serves eight Wilson businesses and employs about 18 workers, Golden said. The company has offices located off Black Creek Road, across from the grain elevator that once belonged to Cargill. "One thing we did not have when we took over the additional lines was a place to inspect locomotives," Golden said. The company is planning to put the service pit at its rail yard off of Black Creek Road, he said, adding work could begin some time in the summer. There is also plans for a "run-around" that will allow the train to turn around near Paxton Warehouse instead of coming back to its yard in Wilson after picking up wood chips from N.C. Chips in Sims. The turn around will allow the train to more quickly reach an interchange with CSX Railways, which takes over hauling the wood chips, Golden said. "It will save us quite a bit of time and make the operations a lot smoother," he said. Last fall, Carolina Coastal Railway reopened the rail line between Wendell and Raleigh that had been closed for three years, Golden said. State Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett said the grant program is a commitment to modernize the state's rail infrastructure by improving capacity, reliability and safety. "Public-private partnerships such as this program open the door to increased economic development and diverse industry growth," Tippett said in a news release. The focus of the grant program is to help smaller railroads -- known as short lines -- maintain and improve their tracks and better serve industries in primarily rural areas. Twenty-one short lines currently operate about 930 miles of freight lines in North Carolina. eddie@wilsontimes.com | 265-7820 |
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