124-5.1. The Freight Rail & Rail Crossing Safety Improvement Fund.
The Freight Rail & Rail Crossing Safety Improvement Fund is a fund within the Highway Fund and administered by the Rail Division of the Department of Transportation. The Fund shall be used for the enhancement of freight rail service, short-line railroad assistance, and railroad-roadway crossing safety, which may include the following project types:
(1) Track and associated infrastructure improvements for freight service.
(2) Grade crossing protection, elimination, and hazard removal.
(3) Signalization improvements.
(4) Assistance for projects to improve rail access to industrial, port, and military facilities and for freight intermodal facility improvements, provided that funding assistance under this subdivision shall be subject to the same limits as that for short-line railroads under G.S. 136-44.39.
(5) Corridor protection and reactivation.
(6) Subject to federal or other state law, improvements to rail lines and corridors in this State and through portions of a bordering state for the purpose of connecting with the national railroad system.
(7) Other short-line railroad projects.
The Fund may also be used to supplement funds allocated for freight rail or railroad-roadway crossing safety projects approved as part of the Transportation Improvement Program.