Major Cities: Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, Atlanta, Columbia, Macon, Savannah, Birmingham, Jacksonville

Overview: The designated Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor consists of a number of segments covering all the South Atlantic States, with through service to and from Northeast Corridor points. North Carolina, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia have been collaborating to implement high-speed rail in the designated Southeast Corridor. The most intensive effort has thus far gone to the originally designated Washington-Richmond-Charlotte segment for which the FRA and Amtrak have developed detailed transportation plans, which the Commonwealth and CSX Transportation have begun to implement on an incremental basis. Plans show that with up to 110 mph speeds, trip times of two hours (Washington-Richmond) and four and one-half hours (Richmond-Charlotte) would be feasible. Two States have created the Virginia-North Carolina Interstate High-Speed Rail Compact to provide authority and legislative oversight for the implementation of HSR. Georgia just completed a planning study for Charlotte to Atlanta improvements.

Status: Virginia and North Carolina, together with the FHWA and FRA, in October 2002 completed a Tier I Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and selected a route from Washington, DC to Charlotte, NC employing the abandoned CSX “S” line between Petersburg, VA, and Norlina, NC. A Tier II EIS is being prepared with FRA for the Richmond, VA to Raleigh, NC section of the corridor. A Record of Decision is anticipated in late 2010.

Southeast Corridor Contacts
Organization	Personal Contact	Topics
North Carolina DOT 1553 Mail Service Center Raleigh, NC 27699-1553	Pat Simmons Director, Rail Division Tel: 919-733-7245(ext 263) Fax: 919-715-6580 pbsimmons@dot.state.nc.us	Amtrak passenger, freight and grade crossings.
VDRPT 1313 East Main Street, Suite 300 Richmond, VA 23218-0590	Kevin Page Chief of Rail Transportation Tel: 804-786-3963 Fax: 804-225-3752 kevin.page@drpt.virginia.gov	Amtrak passenger, freight, and grade crossings.
Georgia DOT Office of Programs Division 600 West Peachtree Street   Atlanta, GA 30308	Erik Steavens Director Tel: 404-631-1246 Fax: 404-657-4221 erik.steavens@dot.state.ga.us	Amtrak passenger, freight, and grade crossings.
South Carolina DOT 955 Park Street, Room 345 Columbia, SC 29202-0191	Glenneth Johnson Deputy Director for Mass Transit Tel: 803-737-0831 Fax: 803-737-0145 johnsonGC@scdot.org	Amtrak passenger, freight, and grade crossings.