One thing I am concerned about is the number of stations between Asheville and Salisbury.
Ok, Statesville, Hickory, and Morganton I definitely get. Marion and Black Mountain kind of make sense but even that’s a little bit of a stretch. Old Fort is a further stretch. But Conover and Valdese? That’s 4 stops in like 28 miles. That’s too much. That’s averaging the distance between Raleigh and Cary (the closest spaced stops on the Piedmont) for four consecutive stops: Conover, Hickory, Valdese, Morganton.
I’d take that service idea with a grain of salt, though.
Plus, it seems like Old Fort’s mostly in the picture because it’s a logical stopping point to deal with any operation challenges without being stuck in the middle of Pisgah National Forest:
I think a train that runs from Wilmington to Asheville via Raleigh that is marketed to tourist as “See NC from ocean to Mountains” would be a good Idea. I bet where would be a lot of summer beach trips on that line from Raleigh and westward as well
For the low low price of six miles of tunnel, you too can be the proud owner of a base tunnel across the eastern continental divide, and shave up to 30 minutes off the travel time by train to Asheville.
Drawing that up was a fun thought experiment a couple years ago. Actual implementation would be very challenging. Modern life safety requirements for ventilation and emergency egress would make this a tremendously difficult and costly project, a great deal more complicated than simply drilling a hole through rock. Given the prohibitive depth (would be >1000ft underground for a distance of roughly 2 miles) you would likely need either a narrow-diameter parallel service tunnel or alternatively a second full-diameter bore, even though a single track tunnel would be perfectly adequate for any traffic this line is likely to carry.
I do not think such an investment in this corridor is worth it now nor in the near future. I honestly doubt it will ever be worth it, because while 5-mile base tunnels make sense on routes of national-scale importance, there is no conceivable nationally important high speed rail route that passes through Asheville on the way from anywhere to anywhere else. There is a reason that Corridor K is the bastard stepchild of the Appalachian Development Highway System, that neither Virginia nor Kentucky has shown any interest in extending Interstate 26, and that when I-40 through the Smokies gets shut down by a rock slide seemingly every few years, that life… just goes on like normal. This is the most forbidding and rugged part of the Appalachians, building literally anywhere else would be easier.
But, what if the train kept going to the Cherokee Casino, then Gatlinburg and Dollywood? Who could quantify the ROI of getting to those nationally important destination? Essentially priceless?
May be a few more mountains in the way for extending like that, but nothing major .
Going to Asheville would make since if it head eventually to Nashville.
If Tennessee would build a train system between Nashville and Knoxville and NC a train from the Piedmont to Asheville then there’s an 80 mile gap to connect the systems.
My fantasy would be to have “local” trains that run between Charlotte/Salisbury and Asheville and between Raleigh and Wilmington that would serve all stations along the route, as well as an express train (“Mountains-to-Sea”? “Tarheel”? Steal the Carolinian name?) between Asheville and Wilmington via the Piedmont corridor that only stops at major cities or transfer points.
Yes. This makes a lot of sense. I mean if you live in a smaller town and want to take a trip to Asheville or whatever just drive to the nearest stop and park your car.
I din’t think Tenn has any trains, other than the Chicago/NO Amtrack. It’d be interesting of NCRR expand out of state, becoming a regional carrier. Goodness knows Knxville/D’wood/Gat"brg are big tourist traps. Sorry, I mean draws.
The smokies are (maybe is?) the most visited national park in the US, so some solid trip numbers there.
Edit: I lived in Fairbanks Alaska until I was 7, and I have a really fond memory of taking the train to Denali National Park. The train had great views and was a really cool experience, and it is interesting that there is no version of that for getting into the Smokies or Blue Ridge the more I think about it.
There is a passenger train in the smokies, the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad. It only marginally counts as transportation though, because it’s mostly just out-and-back excursions, plus a few one-way trips where the return is on a whitewater raft.
They mostly operate out of Bryson City, but I have long thought that there would probably be a market for excursions that originate in Asheville. With the closure of the coal power plant a few years ago,n and the paper mill in Canton closing earlier this year, freight traffic to and through Asheville, and especially on this line, will have really dried up, making passenger trains more feasible. However, like the route between Asheville and Salisbury, the line to the west would need a lot of upgrades before it would be suitable.
In the pre-Amtrak days the Seaboard Ran a Charlotte-Wilmington train via Pembroke, Hamlet, and Monroe on a seven hour schedule. Running a train Raleigh-Asheville direct takes away a Piedmont slot on the GRO-CLT mainline. Of course that could be mostly solved routing Raleigh-Greensboro-Winston Salem-Statesville-Asheville. That was the routing of the Southern Railway Asheville special, the other trains went via Salisbury, at least per my 1952 timetable.
This brings back some smelly memories. I used to go to scout camp near there growing up, and every summer we drove right by that paper mill on the way. That stench was awful. One year I remember touring the paper mill as a camp activity one day. The entire ton stunk to high heaven.
I can’t verify this at the moment, but supposedly the park is only the most visited because of the number of “visitors” they get who have to drive through the park to get to Gatlinburg or elsewhere in TN
That is also the reason it’s one of the few “free entry” National Parks, but in turn also why it’s highly visited - in addition to the fact that it’s one of the bigger/more accessible NPs on the East coast. Lots of things in its favor!
If anyone needs an excuse to hop on the train, this is a great time to do it as fares are half price through the end of July: NC By Train New Services Celebration Sale
As a reminder, here is the new timetable for Piedmont and Carolinian trains, effective tomorrow:
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