FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - The corn trains that soon will rumble through Fayetteville will be less problematic to traffic than first thought, the city told the Observer.
The trains, probably beginning in December, will travel through downtown and pass over some of the city's busiest roads to their destination in Hoke County to supply an ethanol plant, said Rusty Thompson, the city's traffic engineer.
The $100 million plant, Clean Burn Fuels, is scheduled to open in January, plant officials said.
Members of the City Council fumed earlier this year over the original plan of having trains nearly a mile long hauling corn from the Midwest, that would snarl downtown traffic every five days.
But Monday, Thompson offered some good news after he met with the railroads.
He said that for the first year or so, the trains will average only 20 cars of corn each weekday late in the afternoon and make a return trip in the middle of the night. The shorter hauls mean no streets will be blocked while the trains move into Milan Yard, which is north of downtown.
He said the city has worked with one of the rails, owned by CSX, to double the train speed to 10 mph at two downtown locations, reducing by half the time traffic is stopped on Hay Street.
He said the trains will stop traffic on Raeford Road at McPherson Church Road about 7 p.m. as they travel westward on an Aberdeen & Rockfish line, which also crosses Skibo Road near Cliffdale Road and South Reilly Road.
The council earlier feared the trains would pass through during rush hour.
"It would have been a disaster," Thompson said.
City Manager Dale Iman said railroads have a lot of authority, so the concessions Thompson garnered were good news.
"We are lucky," Councilwoman Val Applewhite said.
(This item appeared Oct. 6, 2009, in the Observer.)
October 6, 2009
-- Edited by Troll on Wednesday 7th of October 2009 08:44:25 AM
The people of Fayetteville ove trains and the poor hapless trainmen who must try to protect them during the street running. Lots of phun. Oh, let's do it at rush hour. Yes, let's. You're going 5 mph and Amtrak blows into town at 80. Guess who they ove the most?
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I think LAMCo is done with the neo-nazi CSX rejects -- Pipes FC 8/5/23
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