Your Feb. 17 story "Rail Plan Breeds Skeptics" reported that council members expressed frustration that the process of providing rail improvements did not include the town's input. The N. C. Department of Transportation has worked with Cary since 1995 to design and develop the Cary Depot, which also housed the Division of Motor Vehicles office that provided licensing services to the community. In 2008, when DMV moved to a larger space, we again worked with Cary to develop plans to double the size of the station, add two additional daily trains and expand parking.

The town approved these plans to lease the facility for this purpose. We are excited by the recent news that a portion of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds we have received were approved for this use.

There were also concerns voiced about the impact of rail on local traffic and downtown redevelopment. NCDOT has extended an offer, which the town is considering, to conduct a complete traffic separation study that will balance safety and community development goals.

As we modernize the rail and highway components of our transportation network, we focus first on safety. NCDOT developed a "Sealed Corridor" approach, an engineering diagnostic process that determines the level of safety improvements needed to decrease or eliminate violations at railroad-highway crossings. The U.S. Department of Transportation has adopted that process as the national standard. After the lessons learned from the tragic auto-train accidents this past December, we are even more aware of the need to separate rail and highway traffic.

Since 1992, NCDOT has worked with communities in North Carolina to develop the Southeast High Speed Rail corridor. We are proud that those efforts were recognized when North Carolina received $545 million under the federal stimulus program to improve passenger rail transportation for our citizens. That was among the most received by any state, and it is a testament to this state's commitment to providing safe, reliable alternatives to highway transportation - relieving congestion, saving fuel, reducing greenhouse gases and making our infrastructure last longer.

The Cary Depot is used daily. The full-service station will benefit residents by creating more options for frequent, reliable and travel time competitive intercity transportation connections across the state and nationally. Cary recently was recognized by the federal government for its implementation of smart growth principles. High speed rail certainly advances these initiatives.