NORTH CAROLINA, USA — North Carolina is on track to connecting more cities by train across the state. This comes at a time when Amtrak is seeing record ridership numbers in North Carolina. In Charlotte, more than 260,000 people have ridden the train so far this year. That's up 30% from last year.
More people are choosing to travel by train across the state, and transportation leaders are taking note, working towards improving and expanding routes.
“I believe rail is a part of our future,” Senator Thom Tillis said. “It has to be sustaining. It has to make sense.”
The state is getting $3.5 million in grant funding to get the ball rolling.
“This $3.5 million in grant funding to identify and develop potential rail lines across North Carolina could be transformational in how North Carolinians travel,” Tillis said. “I’m proud these investments were made possible by the bipartisan infrastructure law that I helped negotiate, write, and pass into law.”
The North Carolina Department of Transportation submitted 12 proposals for federal funding, 7 of the corridors were awarded $500,000 each. This includes improvement and added stops to the Charlotte -Washington, D.C. route. A new service between Charlotte and Atlanta is also part of the approved proposals, along with a route from Charlotte to Kings Mountain a new service from Salisbury to Asheville.
“As our country grows and our networks of roads have become more constricted because of the number of travelers, we're going to need all kinds of modes of travel,” Salisbury Mayor Karen Alexander said.
She added this is also an opportunity to turn the Salisbury station stop into a hub.
“The connection that would be part of Salisbury and the Asheville line would create 100,000 more passengers per year than currently,” Alexander said.
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The grant money will be used for the development stage, cost estimates, and studies to determine if the projects are feasible.
“You want to show the likelihood of the populations that are in each of those potential stops,” Alexander said. “How many people would be potentially riding that line, that would be very important for Amtrak and for the other North Carolina railroad companies.”
Kings Mountain Mayor Scott Neisler is excited about the possibilities that come with a new service between his town and Charlotte.
“It's really a low-bearing fruit kind of a situation where we're using existing infrastructure,” Mayor Scott Neisler said.
He said more routes mean relief to the already congested roads.
“If you've been trying to get from Gastonia to Charlotte and Charlotte back to Gastonia in the Gaston County area, then you know what gridlock is in the afternoons,” Neisler said.
It essentially provides people with more options to get around.
“I think the benefit really is a way to the Charlotte metro area and to get to the airport,” Neisler said. “This rail from downtown Charlotte, which is where the North Carolina train ends, connects to the Bank of America Stadium, Truist [Field], the airport, and then all of Gastonia, and then finally into Kings Mountain.”
It’s an investment that state and local leaders said is on the right track to keep up with growth.
"We're happy to see investments from the bipartisan infrastructure law that will potentially impact and enhance rail travel for our residents and people across North Carolina," Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said.
Don’t make your travel plans just yet; the development and studies could take several years. So, it will take time to get from here to full operational service.
The following corridors were awarded $500,000 for identification and development:
- Charlotte to Washington, D.C. Corridor - The proposed Corridor would provide improvements to the existing state-supported Carolinian service between Charlotte, NC and Washington, DC (with existing service continuing north to New York, NY) by improving/adding services in Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, Raleigh, Durham, Salisbury, and Burlington NC and Petersburg, Richmond, Fredericksburg and Alexandria, Virginia by addressing infrastructure capacity constraints. Improvements include constructing/rehabilitating a partially abandoned alignment between Raleigh, NC and Petersburg, VA that is more direct than the existing routing through Rocky Mount, NC, potentially shaving more than an hour off the end-to-end travel time.
- Charlotte to Atlanta, Georgia Corridor - The proposed Corridor would provide new service on a new high speed rail alignment between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA, with potential intermediate stops including Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport in South Carolina and Augusta and Athens, GA, then serving a downtown Atlanta station and terminating at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest airport.
- Charlotte to Kings Mountain Corridor - The proposed Corridor would connect Kings Mountain, North Carolina to Charlotte, North Carolina. The proposed Corridor would provide new service on existing alignment with capacity improvements west of the Charlotte Gateway Station and likely extending service to Kings Mountain, in addition to track, crossover, or signal improvements.
- Winston-Salem to Raleigh Corridor - The proposed Corridor would connect Winston-Salem, NC with Raleigh, NC, with intermediate stops at Greensboro, Burlington, Durham, and Cary, complementing the existing state-supported Piedmont and Carolinian services. The proposed Corridor would also include new frequencies, improvements to reliability, and new stations.
- Fayetteville to Raleigh Corridor - The proposed Corridor would provide a new service connecting Fayetteville, NC with Raleigh, NC, with intermediate stops at Lillington, and Fuquay-Varina, NC, using an existing alignment.
- Wilmington to Raleigh Corridor - The proposed Corridor would connect Raleigh, NC to Wilmington, NC. The proposed Corridor would provide new service on an existing alignment, part of which has been abandoned and would need to be reconstructed, to include new stations.
- Asheville to Salisbury Corridor -The proposed Corridor would provide new service on an existing alignment between Asheville and Salisbury in western North Carolina, following a line that last hosted passenger trains in 1975.
Contact Jesse Pierre at jpierrepet@wcnc.com or follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.