Raleigh transit hub gets federal grant

The U.S. Department of Transportation has awarded Raleigh a $10 million grant for its planned regional transit hub.

City officials want to transform the old Dillon Viaduct Building warehouse on West Martin Street into a 34,000-square-foot Union Station, which would replace the cramped 62-year-old Amtrak station on Cabarrus Street – the second busiest rail terminal in the Southeast.

The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grant will help make up for the loss of $15 million that the state Department of Transportation was supposed to provide to the Union Station project. State officials said rail upgrades between Raleigh and Charlotte had already exhausted all available funds the state received in 2010 for high-speed rail projects.

The $60 million Union Station, which is expected to open in 2017, will handle Amtrak, freight trains, high-speed regional service and commuter rail, as well as Triangle Transit and Capital Area Transit buses. The station also will be a major stop on the Southeast high-speed rail corridor from Washington, D.C., to Atlanta.