With a ten-ride multipass, it is $18 round trip Raleigh to Burlington, and cheaper for closer stations. There are plenty of discounts too, such as military, gov’t employee, some businesses, etc. I am hoping that Elon U. will start subsidizing tickets, too, as it will encourage non-car transit and allow them to call themselves a “green” campus.
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Given gas, wear and tear, & parking, that’s really reasonable! With a typical car, that’s about $10-12 in gas alone. Well worth the ticket!!!
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I’ve been wondering about getting a multipass to Durham for my wife and I just to hang out but I was unclear if they were round trip passes or not. I’m going to definitely sign up now. Thx.
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It would be useful if there was a late night train from Durham to Raleigh but the last train is at 9:30 from Downtown Durham. I’m sure the future Commuter Rail might solve this issue.
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Because the train comes from points farther west, you’re also at the mercy of the weather out that way. My husband and I got stuck in Durham for 3 hours waiting for a train that was delayed because of flooded tracks west of Greensboro. They couldn’t give us an estimation of the delay under the circumstances. This was before Uber was an option. It sucked.
That experience won’t keep us from taking the train to Durham again, but we’ll definitely be more aware of the weather forecast! I also think future commuter rail will help in these cases.
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When I gotta be up at 5 the next morning 930 is late enough for me 
but the commuter rail would be much better.
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Would be pretty cool if GoTriangle could partner up with Amtrak and allow short trip riders to use Amtrak between Durham and Raleigh on commuter rail fares. That’d increase the number of trips between the two downtown areas and Cary.
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$15 round trip isn’t bad, but yeah if it were $6 per trip that would be a no brainier vs. driving
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There are plans to introduce another Piedmont trip, which would take the daily trips between Raleigh-Charlotte from 4 two-way trips to 5 two-way trips. Plus, they double-tracked the route between Charlotte and Greensboro. The biggest hurdle now is the intransigence of the freight lines, who simply do not care about anyone else. So, NCDOT is taking them to court in order to gain more sway over the use of the tracks. According to a Burlington station agent, NCDOT won part of a case and is apparently going back to court with the freight lines in August, in order to gain more right-of-way. Aside from the rare weather emergencies, the only real delays are from the freights. But if they freights area forced to at least compromise with Amtrak, then rail could be even better. And signs are this will happen soon! Most of all, NCDOT and the state and federal representatives are often responsive to messages demonstrating interest in more and better rail service in NC. I highly recommend writing to governmental representatives and to NC by Train:
https://apps.ncdot.gov/dot/directory/authenticated/UnitPage.aspx?id=3408
Tim McHugh has been very helpful for promoting the NC by Train and for expanding and improving service.
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Hope I live to see rail to Asheville as well.
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That would be so rad!
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It makes economical sense that it will attract tourism into North Carolina. Right now if you’re an international tourist that comes to the US you’re limited to the West Coast and Northeast due to more options of travel. Especially since many international youth do not have a license to drive.
If you create a train route that goes from the mountains to the sea that connects to Raleigh (therefore connects to the Northeast) you can expect visitors to start considering the South more in their travels.
Plus the drive to Asheville is brutal, 3+ hours of dealing with terrible drivers and road conditions. I would rather take a nap on a train and wake up in Asheville relaxed.
I host a lot of couchsurfers in Raleigh and they’re basically on their way somewhere else because you can’t do much in North Carolina without a car.
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I was about to hop on here and say how a train to Asheville will never work because of the slow, steep, “Andrews Geyser” loops would make travel times unreasonable, but then I checked old timetables for the Carolina Special and it isn’t as bad as I thought. Driving on I-40 from Old Fort to Black Mountain is about 12 minutes, while the timetable has trains covering the distance in 36 minutes eastbound (downhill) and 38 minutes westbound (uphill). So it is 25 minutes extra there, but the rest of the route is more reasonable. Overall travel time including stops from Asheville to Salisbury might be 3:15. Not lightning fast but not insanely slow either (driving nonstop is 2:15.)
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You can open the line using the existing infrastructure and very slowly make improvements. If the line is all NC then NC can have two separate levels of tickets for residents and tourist. Use the extra you get from tourist prices to fund rail straightening, grade separation, bridges, and tunneling projects.
As I recall, 3:15 run times would be attainable with no curve adjustments beyond banking the curves a bit more, but would require fully upgrading to class 4 track and deploying Positive Train Control.
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If I could take a train directly to Asheville, I’d be out there every other month for a few days. I love that city but hate that drive
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I recently asked my friend, who follows the railway industry closely, about the possibility of passenger rail service to Salisbury, and he stated that NCDOT still owns and maintains stations along the route between Salisbury and Asheville in the hopes of returning service to places between the two cities such as Statesville and Hickory.
I really hope this comes to fruition one day. Compared to most most states NC has a pretty decent passenger rail network, and I’d love to see it expand.
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Here in Alabama the Southern Crescent comes through 2x a day. Even Mississippi has 2 trains! (Crescent, and the City of NO). So yes, NC has great service compared to a lot of places.
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Apparently GoTriangle has voted unanimously to end the Durham Orange light rail. Maybe now we can finally get a comprehensive plan together for the whole region.
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