2022. A fantastic year for rail in the Southeast

2022 was an incredible year for rail in the Southeast. In our inaugural year we have seen new routes approved, new train sets announced to run on Southeastern rails and new stations coming online. Since so many things that were accomplished, we want to give our supporters a quick summary of this year.

Brightline has opened two new stations along its South Florida route in Aventura and Boca Raton.

North Carolina and Virginia finalized purchase of the S Line Corridor while three communities along the corridor have received grant funding to design and build new stations.

The first passenger train rolled into Charlotte's (uncompleted) gateway station on a test run.

Freight operators, Amtrak and the Alabama Port Authority finally have an agreement to start a twice a day service connecting Mobile and New Orleans.

In June, Texas Central won a major court victory allowing them to acquire land and move forward on a high speed line between Dallas and Houston.

The cities of Baton Rouge and Gonzales received $20 million in federal grants to purchase real-estate, design and construction of the Baton Rouge and Gonzales train stations.

Marta showed off their new Stadler train sets. These cars have a sleek new design, open gangways and modern amenities, such as digital way-finding and charge points.

As for the SEPRI, we also had a fantastic year. Over 100,000 people have seen our content, and we have launched two successful petitions on our site and we have gained so many amazing supporters and friends.

This is only the beginning and there are many things we would be excited to see in 2023 both for passenger rail and the SEPRI. We cannot wait to see Brightline finally launch their Orlando extension, becoming the first modern train to go 100+mph within the Southeast! North Carolina is set to expand the Piedmont service from three trips a day to five. And Amtrak should be starting the service between Mobile and New Orleans just to name a few.

In all, 2022 marked a historic year and we hope to see this momentum continue. Work has only just begun. Will will continue to advocate for high quality passenger rail. With education and support we can make the Southeast #readyforrail in 2023.