Choo choo! Amtrak CEO discusses passenger rail expansion across NC

[jayboogieman]

Quote

SALISBURY, N.C. (WBTV) - A wide expansion of passenger rail service across North Carolina could be on track soon if local leaders have their way.

The North Carolina Mayors Coalition is asking the federal government for millions of transportation dollars to create 12 new passenger train routes, including one from Salisbury to Asheville that would link up with the existing Charlotte to Raleigh route.

The CEO of Amtrak was in Salisbury on Wednesday to meet with local leaders from across the region. Stephen Gardner arrived by train at the Salisbury Depot, along with officials from the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Source

NCDOT Railroad Map

 

[travisura]

If we're serious about fighting climate change, trains need to be the future. So many 1-6 hour trips currently made by car can be replaced with trips by trains if there is consistent service. Fewer trips by car = fewer emissions.

[LinvilleGorge]

That would be pretty sweet. I'd assume probably stops in Statesville, Hickory, Morganton, Marion, and Black Mountain along the way. Maybe Old Fort and Conover too depending on how many they wanted.

[LinvilleGorge]

1 hour ago, travisura said:

If we're serious about fighting climate change

We're not. If we were we'd be going nuclear.

[travisura]

2 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

We're not. If we were we'd be going nuclear.

Agree.

[jayboogieman]

1 hour ago, LinvilleGorge said:

That would be pretty sweet. I'd assume probably stops in Statesville, Hickory, Morganton, Marion, and Black Mountain along the way. Maybe Old Fort and Conover too depending on how many they wanted.

Here's the proposed routes:

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• Asheville to Salisbury

• Atlanta, GA to Charlotte

• Charlotte to Kings Mountain

• Charlotte to Washington, DC

• Charlotte to Winston-Salem

• Fayetteville to Raleigh

• Greenville to Raleigh

• Hamlet to Raleigh

• Morehead City to Raleigh

• Weldon to Raleigh

• Wilmington to Raleigh

• Winston-Salem to Raleigh

Source

I'm not sure how many stops they would be willing to make along those routes. For example: On the Morehead City to Raleigh route stops at New Bern and Goldsboro make a lot of sense. Kinston would also want a stop. But I don't see that happening anytime soon since Kinston really only has the CSS Neuse historic site and the Wood Ducks minor league baseball team, which is leaving the city, to attract tourists.

[LinvilleGorge]

I could honestly just see them doing Statesville, Hickory, Morganton, and Marion. Hickory at minimum seems an absolute definite. 

[rayzor]

i would love this. it's always been my favorite way to travel. used it a lot when i lived outside of philly and when i spent a summer in the UK i used my britrail pass everywhere. 

i'd love at some point to take a train ride from the east coast to the west coast. would be a very long trip but i couldn't imagine a better way to do it.

[Cullenator]

They need commuter rail between Charlotte - Gboro/HP/W-S - RDU/RTP

I looked this morning and there is no practical way to grab a train in Gboro in the morning to go to RTP and work for the day.

[Paa Langfart]

I'd love for them to open a route from ILM to Raleigh and with the way the SE part of the state is growing it is needed.

[toldozer]

The problem is once you get there.  When we went to England we took trains to like 6 different cities. Train was 10 minutes from 1 house a mile walk from another and in the city the rest.  Everything is sooooo spread out in the US compared to European cities that have super efficient rail travel 

[jayboogieman]

On 10/14/2023 at 3:32 PM, toldozer said:

Everything is sooooo spread out in the US compared to European cities that have super efficient rail travel 

We have the automobile and oil industries to thank for that. They really pushed for our sprawl so people needed their products.

[toldozer]

1 hour ago, jayboogieman said:

We have the automobile and oil industries to thank for that. They really pushed for our sprawl so people needed their products.

For sure, we can't go back though.  It was really cool to see the rail set up in england

[Brooklyn 3.0]

Amtrak is HUGE up here ... but by god it's one of the worst run things I've ever seen. Every train runs late, constant delays, dirty cars, dirty bathrooms, expensive tickets, long lines. It's brutal. Customer Service is actually good though. I took a trip from here to Rhode Island and back and both trains were delayed by hours ... and they were very cool in giving me vouchers for future rides. Amtrak is basically a really nice Greyhound.