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The N.C. Department of Transportation will receive $300 million from the federal government to close railroad crossings in Durham and Guilford counties and make other upgrades along the N.C. Railroad corridor.
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The grants are part of $5.3 billion in rail spending the U.S. Department of Transportation announced Friday. It includes more than $2 billion to acquire new railcars and locomotives for Amtrak routes, including the state-subsidized Piedmont and Carolinian.
At least some of those railcars could be made at a factory that Siemens Mobility opened last year in Lexington, North Carolina.
NCDOT will use the federal money to close three railroad crossings in Durham County at Wrenn and Glover roads and the eastern end of Ellis Road and to build bridges to carry Glover and Ellis over the tracks. NCDOT also plans to close six crossings and construct two new bridges in Greensboro and surrounding Guilford County.
“The projects we announced today will help make our nation’s rail network much safer because now state DOT’s across America will have the funds they need to eliminate dangerous grade crossings,” David Fink, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, said in a statement. “FRA also collaborated with Amtrak over a two-year period to determine how best to distribute these funds so passenger trains can run on time and freight isn’t delayed.”
The federal grant will also allow NCDOT to build a second set of tracks along sections of the N.C. Railroad corridor between Durham and Research Triangle Park and in downtown Cary to reduce delays. The state will also work with the N.C. Railroad and Norfolk Southern on new fencing and other strategies to try to keep people from crossing tracks on foot, said Jason Orthner, head of NCDOT’s Rail Division.
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“We’re going to be looking at trespassing much more comprehensively,” Orthner said in an interview. “Because we’re continuing to have challenges with folks using tracks as paths, cut-throughs or other activity that just does not belong on them.”
NCDOT has been working to eliminate railroad crossings for years, often with help from federal grants. The state built bridges to carry the tracks over Hopson Road in RTP and Morrisville Parkway and is working on new grade separations in Raleigh at Blue Ridge, New Hope Church and Durant roads.
Nationwide, USDOT says the money announced Friday will close more than 30 crossings and upgrade more than 1,000 others. It says the Federal Railroad Administration aimed to close “high risk” crossings, those with three or more crashes or two or more fatal crashes in the last five years.
More than 2,000 crashes and other incidents occur at railroad crossings nationwide each year, resulting in about 200 deaths, according to data collected by the agency.
The funding announced Friday was competitive. The Federal Railroad Administration says it received more than 100 application requesting nearly $11.7 billion, more than twice what it was able to award.
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This story was originally published August 14, 2026 at 11:29 AM.