That progress is certainly welcome. According to
Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor > Project Description, they should get the final EIS done by next year, and start construction about then.
The route will use the CSX S-line between Richmond and Raleigh, but with restoration of the tracks between Richmond and Norlina NC. This restoration will be single-track, though with several 5-mile passing sidings spaced 8 - 9 miles apart. Thus, it will be 1/3 double-tracked. I got that info from the preliminary track charts at the
Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor's home page.
Here is a nice article:
Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia It shows the S-line's route, including the Richmond - Norlina gap. The S-line continues through Columbia SC, Savannah GA, and Jacksonville, FL, though with removed track between Savannah and Jacksonville.
South Carolina politicians are also getting into the act:
Charleston, DOT look at passenger rail for eastern S.C. | Charleston Regional Business Journal | Charleston, SC
I'd earlier posted on
Georgia Gets Into the HSR Act, about a conference of the Southeast High-Speed Rail Coalition of some southeastern states.
South Carolina and Georgia are rather late in this game, but it's better late than never, I suppose.
I also checked on Washington - Richmond to see how much is triple-tracked. I used maps.google.com, though it may be some months out of date. There were triple-tracked sections in Alexandria and Fredericksburg, but that was about it.
A section between Arkendale (Widewater) and Powell's Creek (Dumfries) is due to be triple-tracked, and it has gotten an ARRA grant, but I haven't been able to find out its progress. That section goes through Quantico, VA. I tried to check on
http://drpt.virginia.gov for more details, but it was down.