Regarding Winston, it has a top 30 D-1 University, the highly regarded UNCSA( city of arts and innovation),WSSU, the oldest women’s college in the Southern US…It includes some of the nicest visually appealing in-town neighborhoods in the state, good healthcare, wonderful restaurants,an evolving organic and lively downtown, great access to outdoors for all kinds of leisure, good bbq, great wineries nearby. Tobacco, banking, panties (Hanesbrands), healthcare, and education.
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And delicious whiskey.
Winston’s a winner.
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Yeah Winston-Salem is cool. I also like Greensboro. I just don’t go to Winston much because there’s no easy train connection to Raleigh the way Greensboro is. Honestly, last time we went there (W-S) a few months ago, we wanted to take a weekend road trip to explore it more. It’s got a lot of new, fun things to check out.
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I couldn’t make it in time to watch the meeting live, but looking at the slideshow presentation, it lists the following 12 corridors as having been submitted:
• Charlotte to Washington, DC
• Wilmington to Raleigh
• Charlotte to Kings Mountain
• Greenville to Raleigh
• Winston-Salem to Raleigh
• Hamlet to Raleigh
• Morehead City to Raleigh
• Fayetteville to Raleigh
• Winston-Salem to Charlotte
• Weldon to Raleigh
• Atlanta, GA to Charlotte
• Salisbury to Asheville
When the recording is available, I may go back and watch to see if Jason provided any other tidbits.
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Love how often Raleigh is mentioned! A rr hub is such an awesome attraction and benefit, imho.
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Beat me to it! Here’s the slide (source):
Slideshow also indicates that the FRA should announce their selections late this summer, so we should know which of these twelve are selected in a few months.
Good stuff!
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Excited to hear the selections! I wonder how much being selected increases the likelihood of passenger service being implemented, and if so, what the timeline would be.
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A bit more news today. I have not been able to find an official source for this information, but SE Passenger Rail Initiative posted on Instagram today that NCDOT confirmed to them that they are going to order new Siemens equipment for the Piedmont, although the exact types and quantity are still unknown. This makes sense though, especially following the announcement for a new manufacturing facility in Lexington.
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Yeah, the Siemens announcement pretty much solidified that in my mind, but I’m still really happy to have confirmation! The Airo sets look really nice.
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I hope they have a business class like in the video. I want to feel fancy while returning from day drinking in Greensboro.
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100%, I wouldn’t mind a real cafe car as well! I always appreciate a quick cocktail on the Carolinian when I head into Durham in the evening.
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I have read complaints about the seats on the Siemens trains they bought for the midwest. Hopefully they can do better for NC.
Also really hoping they have some solution integrated into the trains to enable corridor-wide level boarding.
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The N&O is reporting that NCRail will add additional trip between Raleigh and Charlotte starting July 1. The additional train will leave RUS at 1 pm. The rest of the southbound schedule remains the same. The northbound schedule will change “But the northbound schedule will be significantly different, with Piedmont trains leaving Charlotte at 2:20, 5:30 and 7:45 p.m., all new times.” The story also mentions that April saw 53,300 riders.
Read more at: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article275554766.html#storylink=cpy
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A selfishly hope that 2:20 p.m. northbound train comes through downtown Cary at 5:00 p.m.
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And with this comes the first “express” Piedmont train! 2h58m from RGH-CLT, 4 stops instead of 7.
The Piedmont departing at 5:30pm in Charlotte is the same way.
The 3:15PM train from Raleigh also will skip only Kannapolis and shave off 4 minutes of the usual 3h10m time.
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5:22 PM close enough? It also leaves Durham at 5:01 PM, so could be useful for someone with a daytime meeting in Durham – faster than the DRX bus.
Too bad there’s no good morning commute option (either 6:30 or 10AM).
Could also do a night out in Durham – train out at 3:15 PM or 5:30 PM, return at 7:53 or 10:17 PM (after a 7:30 show at DPAC).
And yes, apparently Amtrak 10-rides are available on the Piedmont, though not on the Carolinian.
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5:30 PM feels a great chance to make it the “Panthers” train for 1 PM starts. Don’t have to hang around after a panthers loss till 7:45 PM to get home.
Maybe when they build the station in uptown we can get a special 8 times a year train that gets in leaves at 9 and gets in at noon.
Love the express train, I feel like the best way to cut time would’ve been to cut Kannapolis and Cary since those aren’t really going to be people walking to the station so those people could commute to Salisbury/Raleigh if they REALLY need the train. Would we be talking about closer to 2.5 hours without those?
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By the visual, it’s sure looks like Raleigh’s the real rail winner in this full scenario. With service to DC, Raleigh becomes the hub for spokes in the 4 cardinal directions.
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