North Carolina Requests $5 Billion for High Speed Rail

Some expect the first round of grants to be announced in late January or early February.

"North Carolina has asked for more than $5 billion of the money. The state is nearly finished with environmental study, as is Virginia.

Western North Carolina could get a sliver of that money, $3 million for engineering and environmental study on expansions of rail, to be split between a planned Salisbury-to-Asheville route and one from Raleigh to Wilmington.

States have asked for $57 billion to build high-speed rail networks, said Rob Kulat, a spokesman for the Federal Railroad Administration, even though less than one-seventh of that is available."