I’m guessing the mountains and complete void of any real population centers between them and Charlotte/Winston are the issue. If they get anything going, I’ll probably be retired by the time they do. But my dream is to retire to Asheville or somewhere nearby, so I guess it works out.
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Agreed, I would even take a quick flight there if there was a direct
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Yeah I just looked that up after this thread, and it’s averaging like 600 bucks for 2 people roundtrip. Nevermind, I’ll just suck it up with the car. Meanwhile the train to Charlotte is a steal.
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It’s been/being studied but nothing concrete yet. The Amtrak ConnectUS plan had the Piedmont branching off at Salisbury towards Asheville (and also a connection from Raleigh to Wilmington). Really really hope that we get some positive updates on these soon.
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I have been working in Mooresville and have an apartment there. I catch the train on Fridays home from Kannapolis and it is great. I can work and not have to worry about traffic.
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There’s a surprising number of decent size towns along the route. Hickory’s metro area in particular is the same population as Asheville.
What kills it is
- The condition of the tracks is not great, it would need quite a bit of work to get it up to a 79mph standard even where the tracks are straight and flat.
- Compared with the NCRR, the line is generally not built to that high of a standard, with many of the curves being fairly sharp and slow, even where it is not in the mountains.
- The loops from Old Fort to Black Mountain are scenic, but extremely slow, and nothing short of a multi-billion dollar tunnel could improve the situation
All in all, short of some major investments, you’re probably looking at a ~4 hour trip time from Salisbury to Asheville, on top of ~2.5 hours from Raleigh to Salisbury, plus another half hour for the transfer… and we’re looking at a 7 hour trip time. Yeah, not really practical.
Short term, they’ve been talking for years about a bus connecting from Salisbury to Asheville but for whatever reason it just isn’t happening.
Even riding Greyhound to Asheville used to be okay, back when the Asheville greyhound station was just on the far side of the tunnel from downtown. If I recall, it was a reasonable 5.5 hour ride. (Driving is 4). Was walking through the tunnel pleasant? Not really, but it was safe: there is even a jersey barrier separating the sidewalk from traffic. But then they moved the bus station to a really sketchy gas station on the outskirts of town, and as a result taking the Greyhound to Asheville is basically no longer an option.
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Wouldn’t an Uber from the gas station be kind of the same inconvenience as walking down the tunnel?
Thank you for the informational heavy-lift. 
Any chance that you would know of a comparable city that was able to pull this type of thing off?
i lived in asheville for 3 years…once past hickory the i-40 drive seemed to go rather quickly
As long as there wasn’t crappy/inclement weather or some sort of traffic accident because I feel once past Hickory it (I-40) is two lanes, albeit 70 mph speed limit, through to Asheville. Speaking from experience, I remember one trip on the way up to Asheville there was a pretty serious accident somewhere past Hickory and no one was moving for a looong time.
The Ashville option is probably not in NC by Railroad 
plans. However, it makes me wonder if their are any remaining tracks/land left over from when the Biltmore Estate was built that are just sitting there growing weeds?
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The vanderbilts and their descendents have been parcelling out Biltmore bit by bit for generations. First Pisgah National Forest, then Biltmore Forest (a swank suburb of Asheville), then Biltmore Square Mall (now Asheville Outlets), then Biltmore Park… their latest sell-off is for a big Pratt & Whitney turbine factory, and so on.
But this has nothing to do with getting to Asheville by train.
NCDOT has studied the possibility for years and I actually believe there is another such study in progress right now. That does not mean it will ever actually happen.
I grew up in Asheville and my parents still live there so I visit all the time. I am bonkers about trains and would seem to be a great target for such service. However, what I’ve seen so far hasn’t been very compelling: a transfer in Salisbury and then a slow crawl up the mountain. Yeah, sorry, not very practical. Do it once for the scenery and experience perhaps, and then it’s back to I-40.
High speed rail between Charlotte and Raleigh and on to Richmond or DC is at least an order of magnitude more compelling.
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The studiers gotta get paid somehow.
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there was a train station in Biltmore Village (the area around entrance) but seems last time I saw it had be converted to retail.
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Per Wikipedia, that was the main train station in Asheville from 1968-1975. Before then, there was a large station on Depot Street (duh), and 1975 was the last passenger train into town.
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Do they still have the train tracks?
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According to Google Maps satellite view, yes
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Using Gmaps this is my best guess as to location of 1905 station and the later one from 1965. Guess of the 1905 location is based on end of Depot ST close to CBD and looks like tracks a building were removed at some time in past.
May be can get a new station in 1900’s style, like all the new building on the Biltmore Estate, near the 1965 station. Then get the Biltmore to extend their on estate buses to the station and into Asheville’s CBD to boost the tourist trade. The track from Old Fort to Asheville could be marketed as a scenic route. Also help boost riders from Raleigh or even make it Wilmington to Asheville and market it as a national or even international vacationer/tourist attraction for the whole state.
Sorry just bored this afternoon watching the freezing rain and snow stick to windows 
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On this map below, green is where the old Asheville depot was:
On the below map, yellow is Biltmore depot, which is in Biltmore Village, and became Asheville’s main station after the larger one was demolished in the 1960s. This building is now a restaurant. Blue is the spot where NCDOT owns land that has been set aside for a future depot. It’s a bit further from the core of Biltmore Village, but it is fairly large and has good potential for TOD if/when it is ever built. The challenge is that nearly all of Biltmore Village - including this spot - is a flood zone as bad as, or worse than, Crabtree Valley.
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Thank you for posting! 
With all the seemingly positive increases in ridership on the Raleigh to Charlotte side, maybe this will help make it to NCDOT’s forefront. 
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