Gribblenation

North Carolina continues to see growth in their passenger rail service.  ( I'm now one of them .)  2024 was another record year - over 720,000 passengers took to the rails in the Tar Heel State, 12% more than the year before.  Meanwhile, feasibility studies on two additional corridors point the way to further expansion. 2024 Ridership Gains: For the third consecutive year, North Carolina's Rail Division has seen a record number of passengers.  The over 720,000 passenger ridership is also up 55% from pre-COVID levels.   NC's Rail Division is also being creative to attract passengers.  In addition to additional stops for key events - the North Carolina State Fair and the Lexington Barbecue Festival - special train runs, for example, the 2024 U.S. Open in Pinehurst, drove growth.  Limited edition runs for special events continued in 2025 with the " Rockingham Special ," a one-day round-trip service to Rockingham for the NASCAR race at Rockingham Spe...

Finally, I took the train here in North Carolina. After many years of following developments and writing about them, I boarded the #74 Piedmont train in Kannapolis on my way to Durham. My experience made me wonder why I hadn't taken the train more often, yet it also made me see where there are even more opportunities for the service to reach its full potential. The Ride: My wife and kids dropped me off at the Kannapolis station about an hour before departure.  The station is one block from the heart of Downtown Kannapolis, including Atrium Health Ballpark (Home of the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers), the recently restored Gem Theatre, and a thriving social district. Kannapolis's Train Station is both quaint and modern. Unfortunately, the rain prevented me from strolling through Kannapolis (fortunately, we visit here often).  The Kannapolis Train Station has plenty of parking, shares space with meeting rooms (I have early voted here a few times), and is within walking dist...

2023 and the first half of 2024 have seen continued growth in North Carolina's passenger rail system.  From increased daily trains from Raleigh to Charlotte, federal funds for studying additional corridors, and receiving a historic grant to begin the construction of high-speed rail between Raleigh and Richmond, the last 18 months have been a flurry of activity at NCDOT's Rail Division.  And that's just the tip of the iceberg. As ridership and routes increase - the engine of North Carolina passenger rail trains will become a more common sight. (Adam Prince) Increased Passenger Train Service: On July 10, 2023, a fourth Piedmont round-trip rail service between Raleigh and Charlotte commenced.  The four Piedmont trains plus the daily Carolinian (to Washington, DC, and New York) bring the total of trains serving the two cities daily to five. The current daily Piedmont and Carolinian schedule between Charlotte and Raleigh (NCDOT) The result was over 641,000 passengers utilized ...

North Carolina's push to expand its intercity passenger rail system continues to move forward with the completion of a recent feasibility study on a westward expansion from Salisbury to Asheville. The study paints a more specific picture of how the new service will run.  The study proposes three daily round trips from Salisbury to Asheville.  The study projects 100,000 annual riders.  The 3 hours and 25 minutes ride from Salisbury would include stops at Statesville, Hickory, Morganton, and Marion.  The estimated cost to get the route up and running is $665 million. (1) The targeted date for train service to begin to Asheville is 2035. The study is the first step in North Carolina's aggressive plan to expand its Amtrak service west and east. With the study completed, there are still several questions about the service.  The first question is: will any of the three round trips include a direct Raleigh-to-Asheville run?  Or will all passengers need to change t...

North Carolina's passenger rail system had a record year in 2022.  Quickly bouncing back from the drastic drop in ridership during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Raleigh-to-Charlotte service saw a record of over 522,000 riders in 2022.  The four-times daily route (three on the Piedmont service and one on the Carolinian that continues to New York City) also had a record-breaking month of 55,493 travelers in October.  The overall ridership numbers within the state do not include passengers that utilized stations on other intercity lines that run through the state. (Silver Star, Crescent, Palmetto, and Silver Meteor) A Southbound Piedmont Train approaches the Durham Train Station.  More riders used the NCDOT-sponsored Piedmont service in 2022 than any other year prior. NC by Train celebrated the completion of the first phase of Charlotte's Gateway Station.  The first test runs to the Uptown Charlotte station occurred in November.  The new station will not be ready...

The Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor received a significant boost last week with NCDOT being awarded a $57.9 million grant towards the Raleigh-to-Richmond leg of the corridor.   The money will go towards preliminary design for the entire route, preliminary engineering for returning missing tracks north of Ridgeway to the Virginia State Line, and funding for removing at-grade crossings in Wake County. The high-speed rail corridor between Raleigh and Richmond is along CSX's S-Line.  The line is currently used in some areas for freight traffic.  10 miles of the line are abandoned in North Carolina and another 65 in Virginia.  Both states used prior grant money to negotiate a purchase of the abandoned right-of-way in 2019. When complete the corridor will allow for trains that can go at speeds up to 110 mph.  It would also cut the rail travel time between Raleigh and Richmond by two hours. NCDOT has stated that the tracks could be fully active anywhere between...

With the hopeful prospects of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passing, Amtrak has its sights on a major network expansion - and North Carolina is poised to see a significant expansion in service and cities served. In addition to the already planned Raleigh-to-Richmond segment of the Southeast High-Speed Rail Corridor , expansion from Raleigh southeast to Wilmington and westwards from Salisbury to Asheville are being looked at for new service.  These two plans are not anything new, NCDOT began studying these corridors in the early-2000s , but this is the first time a serious funding mechanism could put these two in place. The 2021 Infrastructure Bill commits $66 billion to Amtrak for expansion and infrastructure improvements and over $911 million to North Carolina for public transportation.  While this amount is not solely directed to or will cover the entirety of these projects, they will be a massive step forward. So let's take a look at the two proposed rout...