If you wanted to increase travel efficiency between Raleigh and Charlotte, what is the better use of $520 million?
1. Upgrade a rail line (but not fully) that serves a few hundred people per day that could possibly grow to a couple of thousand people per day.
2. Replace the Yadkin River Bridge ($300M) and have $220 million left over to widen I-85 in Cabarrus, Rowan and Davidson Counties from 2 lanes to 4 which in some sections has a daily traffic count of 110,000 cars per day and is consistently the cause of traffic jams and accidents. (And as all you greenies out there know, traffic congestion leads to global warming global cooling climate change.)
Yep, trains win.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Or, perhaps, both?
The Yadkin River Bridge project (and the additional lanes) is already well underway.