With record ridership, North Carolina looks to expand passenger rail system
Gov. Roy Cooper and leaders of the N.C. Department of Transportation took a train trip on Friday to highlight the state’s growing passenger rail system and their ambitions to expand it further.
NCDOT’s passenger trains, operated by Amtrak, are on pace to set another record for ridership this year. Nearly 66,000 people rode the Piedmont and Carolinian trains in October, surpassing the previous monthly record set in July.
Meanwhile, Amtrak said that in the year that ended Sept. 30, more than 1,178,000 people boarded passenger trains in North Carolina, including the Carolinian, Piedmont and four long-distance trains that pass through the state each day. That’s up 34% from the previous year.
To draw attention to the state’s rail program, called NCByTrain, Cooper boarded the mid-morning Piedmont at Raleigh Union Station on his way to Greensboro. He said a growing number of people are discovering how comfortable and convenient riding the train can be.
”When you think about being on our interstates, as hard as we work to keep them going — the driving and the tension of driving and the wanting to get some work done and the wanting to talk on the phone,” he said. “On the train, you don’t have to worry about it.”
More than 522,500 people rode the Piedmont and Carolinian last year, the most since NCDOT began subsidizing Amtrak service in the state. Through the first three quarters of 2023, ridership is up 23% over last year.
“Every time you turn around, it seems like we are breaking records from the previous month,” Joey Hopkins, the secretary of Transportation, said before boarding the train with Cooper.
The increase was helped by the addition of a fourth daily round trip of the Piedmont between Raleigh and Charlotte, starting July 10, and a new schedule that shaves a few minutes off some of those trips. Including the Carolinian, which runs daily between Charlotte and New York City, people can choose from five daily round trips between the state’s two largest metro areas.
Hopkins and Cooper highlighted some of the ways NCDOT hopes to expand passenger rail in the state. They include:
▪ Working with the state of Virginia to rebuild the so-called S-line between Raleigh and Richmond for trains capable of going more than 110 mph. Virginia has purchased its portion of the rail corridor from freight railroad CSX, and NCDOT is in the final stages of negotiations to buy its part.
▪ Seeking $1.2 billion in federal money to help begin building the S-line, starting with the segment between downtown Raleigh and Wake Forest. The state would use that section to extend the Piedmont while the rest of the corridor north of Wake Forest is developed.
▪ Seeking grants from the Federal Railroad Administration to plan for new rail connections to cities such as Wilmington and Asheville. States nationwide expect to learn by the end of the year which rail corridors the federal government considers promising for future passenger service.
▪ Building a new train station near the heart of uptown Charlotte, the busiest city for Amtrak trains in the state. It would replace a station built in 1962 on the edge of a freight rail yard about two miles from the center of the city.
Charlotte resident Montravias King is looking forward to the new station. King, who rides the state’s trains about three times a month, loves the convenience and not having to deal with traffic. He’s also impressed with Raleigh Union Station, a cavernous space created in an old steel warehouse on the edge of downtown.
“This what we should be looking like,” he said of Charlotte, before heading down the walkway toward to the platform.
For schedules and ticketing information, go to www.ncbytrain.org/.
This story was originally published November 17, 2023 at 2:53 PM with the headline "With record ridership, North Carolina looks to expand passenger rail system."
