You and I have a lot of similar thoughts here. Growing up in this area and seeing a lot of classmates going to UNCW, I feel that would definitely get some use. Big time agree on the lack of parking down there, seems that has always (and probably always be) an issue at a place like Wrightsville.
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I was amazed at how extensive and architecturally pretty downtown Goldsboro is. Obviously quite rundown these days, but there’s so much potential.
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Also curious about the increased service shown SW of Raleigh (Seaboard / US1 south to Southern Pines and Hamlet) and SE of Raleigh (US70 to Selma). Haven’t seen that on previous maps.
The Silver Star currently runs on these tracks – northbound in the morning, southbound in the late evening. An overlay service could offer more frequencies. As an added bonus, it would add another Raleigh-Cary roundtrip, and maybe add service to Apex or Clayton if those towns wanted to build stations.
Alternately, just Selma could be an add-on to a Piedmont that’s currently turning in Raleigh. Selfishly, the Piedmont train I’d extend from Raleigh to Selma would be 78 eastbound and 73 westbound – to allow connection to the Silver Meteor, which bypasses Raleigh during the night between New York and Florida. (The Meteor would also have to add a stop there, too.) That would allow me to sleep through Virginia.
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I agree! As slow as it would be, I think Asheville would have its own draw: folks who like taking the scenic route. Despite how slow and remote they are, the Amtrak routes through places like the Rockies and Glacier National Park are apparently packed full most days. It’s a rare and unique experience that people from all over the world seek after.
It’s not going to be practical for a quick weekend trip from Central NC, but I don’t really think that’d be the target audience anyway. That said, I do imagine it being super useful to folks in the foothills. Hickory in particular should get some solid ridership; downtown is super walkable from what I can tell. Plus UNC Asheville students who live in those towns will likely take advantage as well.
Wrightsville was my first thought. It’s a pretty good beach that’s such a nightmare to get to. I parked on Harbor Island and walked across the bridge multiple times in college.
Goldsboro is on my to-do list! It gets a bad rep, but it looks like they’ve been putting a lot of work into downtown lately. Rail service could really do wonders for their tourism efforts.
Yeah, those surprised me as well, as did that new Winston-Salem to Charlotte segment. I’d love to take the train to Southern Pines someday (simply because I’ve never visited), but the current arrival and departure times don’t make a daytrip feasible. Plus I know there are folks who commute into the Triangle from Sanford, so that route could definitely do well.
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I wonder if the new routes from DC/Richmond and Raleigh/Fayetteville would mean service from Raleigh to Charleston/Savannah. It’s currently a total pain in the ass to drive out to Selma
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I’m curious where a station in Morehead City would go… The tracks end at the Port and run single track in the median of US70 for a few miles before that. Seems like it would have to go somewhere more on edge of town, which doesn’t seem too convenient or attractive.
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I was on the Piedmont today and it was packed!
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I was on both the Piedmont and Carolinian today and can confirm, they were packed. Love to see it.
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Wednesday’s upcoming CAMPO meeting includes a staff report that indicates that North Carolina is planning to submit as many as twelve rail corridors into the FRA’s Corridor ID Program.
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Twelve??? Wow. I hope this bodes well for NCDOT Rail getting a little beefed up.
I was honestly expecting, like, four corridors at most. I’m going to get some popcorn for this upcoming meeting. Any guesses as to what they’re considering? We’re already aware of, at minimum:
- Raleigh → Wilmington
- Raleigh → Fayetteville
- Salisbury → Asheville
- Raleigh → Greenville
- Raleigh → Richmond (? Not sure if the S-Line is relevant to CIDP)
- Raleigh → Morehead City (?)
- …?
Way to go, NCDOT!
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**This is the part that usually leads to my disappointment: “for up to 12 corridors” 
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The memo says 9 out of the 12 run through CAMPO. And because this is supposed to be a $500k-per-corridor planning grant (since, in the FRA’s words, it’s supposed to identify corridors to “create a pipeline of intercity passenger rail projects ready for implementation”), I think it makes sense to also use this money to beef up prep work for the Southeast Corridor.
Given that, if I had to guess, I’d think the corridors would be:
- Raleigh-Wilmington
- Raleigh-Fayetteville
- Raleigh-Greenville
- Raleigh-Richmond
- Raleigh-Morehead City
- Raleigh-Sanford (and maybe to Southern Pines and even Hamlet?)
- Raleigh-Durham-Hillsborough-Greensboro (they could always use extra planning money to map out more grade separations or double-tracking)
- Apex-Durham (for CSX since, again, grade separation and things would be nice)
- Raleigh-Henderson-Roanoke Rapids (using the CSX SA-line; also an excuse to bring more funding to planning for the S-line)
…on top of the non-CAMPO-involving corridors:
- Salisbury-Asheville
- Greensboro-Danville?
- Greensboro-Winston Salem
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Guessing it’s everything on this map. Kind of assumed a lot of these were just “maybe we could do this some day in the future” ideas, but perhaps not.
I’m assuming (somebody correct me I’m wrong) that submitting these to Corridor ID just gets them federal designation and not necessarily funding. For context, SEHSR was first federally designated in the 90’s.
That said, I also assume that their goal in submitting this many simultaneously is to improve their odds of at least getting a couple new corridors funded and into planning stages in the near future. Says to me that NCDOT actually does envision rail as being a key element of our transportation future and not just an afterthought. I’m willing to bet the consistent broken records on existing services are turning heads at the top.
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Speaking of which, read an article over the weekend regarding a renewed effort to get rail service back into Winston-Salem. Turns out NCGA senators representing Guilford and Forsyth counties submitted a bill earlier this month requesting a study for commuter rail into Winston-Salem. Considering the rapid growth of towns like Kernersville (which would likely be a stop on the route) and growing congestion along the various highway corridors connecting Forsyth and Guilford, I think this would be a popular service. I’d imagine they’d look into extending into Alamance as well.
Personally, I think many North Carolinians are still sleeping on the Triad. Greensboro and Winston-Salem both have fun, walkable downtown areas that have seen a lot of revitalization in the past decade, yet housing near both downtowns is still relatively affordable. If prices continue to rise in Raleigh, Charlotte, Asheville, and Wilmington, I expect the Triad is going to become a pretty desirable alternative.
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I think their biggest issue in terms of public perception is that they don’t have a Thing.
My mom, who’s very well traveled around the US, drove through the Triad and asked in all seriousness “what do they do there?”
There’s no singular industry, they’re close to the mountains but not in them, their major university is a relatively small private school (named after a Raleigh suburb).
Very pleasant place to spend a weekend, though, and probably a nice place to live if you don’t mind having less going on than Charlotte or the Triangle.
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You’re not wrong. But it is a good alternative if you’re wanting to move to a nice but still affordable North Carolina city. And it’s pretty close to Hanging Rock, Pilot Mountain, and Yadkin Valley (North Carolina’s “wine country”).
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Commuter rail in the triad is a no-brainer (just like in the Triangle). I was hoping to see some R cosponsors to increase the likelihood of the bill passing; hopefully it doesn’t get stuck in committee purgatory forever.
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Hadn’t noticed that the NCDOT’s corridor map includes a stub east of Norlina but falling short of Roanoke Rapids. Where would that terminate - Littleton? Why not continue through Roanoke Rapids? There are two big industrial users there (a paper mill and a power plant) in town but at least the line is still there.
The lines from Norlina both north (to Richmond) and east (to Roanoke Rapids) have both been abandoned.
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Yeah, that and the little “hop” between Charlotte and Gastonia are the two weirdest things on the map. Guessing the latter is supposed to run through Mount Holly? Who knows.
As for the “Littleton Stub” (officially known as the Roanoke Rapids Subdivision), I believe that segment was included in the CSX transaction, and I think I’ve figured out why they’re not planning on getting service all the way to Roanoke Rapids. OpenRailwayMap labels the line as abandoned, but Google Maps satellite view seems to indicate a perfectly clear right-of-way straight from Norlina until, you guessed it, Littleton. The light red line I added in the second picture marks where the tracks used to run.
I’m guessing those downtown businesses are going to fight tooth and nail to keep that alley clear. It’s shame, because Roanoke Rapids would probably benefit greatly from a downtown station and a more direct shot to Raleigh, especially from a small-town tourism perspective. NCDOT appears to be planning a station in Weldon, so that’s a plus, but A-Line service is slowwwwwww, and downtown Weldon… well, it seems to leave a lot to be desired (plenty of potential though, I’m sure).
My pipedream for this project, which is highly unlikely due to the cost of additional ROW acquisition, is that they not only extend service to downtown Roanoke Rapids but also find a way to connect the route to the A-Line northbound (orange on the map below) as a temporary bypass while Virginia reconstructs their portion of the S-Line. That alone would probably chop close to an hour off Raleigh-Richmond trips, plus it would go a long way toward reducing delays in light of how congested the A-Line is. There’s a lot of undeveloped land to play with west of downtown Weldon.
That said, the planning and land acquisition efforts would likely take the same amount of time that Virginia is going to take to finish their build-out, so it’s probably not worth the effort. One can dream, though.
Sidenote: I’m acutely aware that I write a lot of run-on sentences on this site. I tend to be very stream-of-consciousness… my bad lol.
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