Raleigh S-Line Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) and Rail Corridor Planning

Working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) and consulting partners, and funded by a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) grant, Cambridge Econometrics acted as a senior advisor to NCDOT on all elements of this 18-month TOD planning project.

Cambridge Econometrics worked directly with the consultant team to guide their work, contribute to the TOD market analysis and finance plans, and review all interim and final deliverables for NCDOT. This project would be a first-of-its-kind passenger rail service for NC in the Raleigh region, with the study identifying the market and funding opportunities to establish TOD districts in a wide-range of urban, suburban and exurban communities. Cambridge Econometrics supported analysis about potential station locations and mobility hubs, ridership projections, rail service scenarios and other elements of rail corridor planning. The results of this work included customized TOD visions for each community and TOD study area (Sanford, Apex, Raleigh, Wake Forest, Franklinton, Henderson and Norlina). The team also compiled detailed playbooks to implement TOD including potential changes to zoning, policy and regulations to encourage walkable, mixed use development with enhanced multimodal connections.

As a follow-up project help advance this work, Cambridge Econometrics is conducting additional economic development analysis of the gap between TOD visions and market realities, supporting ridership projections that account for TOD, and advising on multimodal mobility hub feasibility studies with NCDOT.

Dan Hodge Executive Vice President [email protected]