NC By Train


NC By Train is a brand name used by the Rail Division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation for two state-supported Amtrak routes operating in the U.S. state of North Carolina–the Carolinian and the Piedmont.

History

Amtrak took over most intercity rail service in the United States in 1971. At the outset, service through North Carolina was mostly limited to long-distance routes that were not well-suited for regional travel. This remained unchanged when Southern Railway, one of the larger railroads that initially opted to keep its passenger services, handed its routes to Amtrak in 1979.
By 1984, Amtrak service in North Carolina was limited to four trains: the New Orleans–New York Crescent, which passed through Charlotte and the Piedmont Triad; the New York–Miami Silver Meteor and New York–Savannah Palmetto, which both passed through the Sandhills; and the New York–Miami Silver Star, which passed through Raleigh. The only daylight service came from the Palmetto and northbound Silver Star.
In that year, Governor Jim Hunt created a Public Transportation Division within NCDOT. Partly due to Hunt's efforts, Amtrak introduced the Carolinian on October 28, 1984, as a Charlotte-New York service, supported with a yearly $436,000 state subsidy. It operated as a section of the Palmetto, running from Charlotte through Greensboro and Raleigh along the state-owned North Carolina Railroad before joining the Palmetto at Richmond, Virginia for the journey to New York. It was the first direct service between Charlotte and Raleigh in 30 years, and the first North Carolina-focused service in 20 years.
Amtrak intended the Carolinian to be a one-year pilot project, and strongly considered making it a permanent fixture in its schedule. However, due to poor marketing, many passengers did not know that the train offered much of the state a one-seat ride to New York. As a result, while ridership far exceeded projections, the Carolinian lost over $800,000 as most passengers opted to travel within North Carolina and not continue north of the Virginia border. When North Carolina declined to increase its subsidy, Amtrak withdrew the Carolinian on September 3, 1985.
Hunt's successor, Jim Martin, was also committed to the development of passenger rail. He created a Passenger Rail Task Force that recommended preserving rail corridors for both freight and passengers. It also recommended additional passenger service along the I-85 Corridor from Charlotte to Raleigh. In 1990, Amtrak and the state introduced a second incarnation of the Carolinian. It ran along the same route as its 1984-85 predecessor, but joined the Palmetto at Rocky Mount. This incarnation was successful enough that within a year, Amtrak not only made the Carolinian permanent, but made it a full-fledged day train running independently from Charlotte to New York.
Building on this success, NCDOT formed a Rail Unit, which was expanded to a full-fledged division in 1995. During this time, state officials pressed for additional service along the fast-growing I-85 Corridor. However, Amtrak initially balked, claiming that it did not have enough rolling stock to spare. NCDOT decided to buy its own equipment. In the fall of 1990, NCDOT bought five repurposed coaches and leased two locomotives for the planned Charlotte-Raleigh service, named the Piedmont, which began service on May 25, 1995.
It would have begun service sooner, but Norfolk Southern Railway, which operates the North Carolina Railroad under a longstanding lease with the state, insisted that the state build a wye in Charlotte to turn the trains around. Previously, the southbound Carolinian had to make a time-consuming deadhead trip to the nearest wye in Pineville, North Carolina. A second round trip was added in 2010, followed by a third in 2018. A fourth was planned for 2021, but COVID-19 issues pushed it back to 2023.

Marketing and operations

Unlike many states that subsidize Amtrak routes within their borders, North Carolina handles much of the marketing and operations for its state-subsidized services itself. It continued to distribute printed timetables for the Carolinian and Piedmont after Amtrak discontinued printed timetables. It operates a toll-free information line, 800-BY-TRAIN, which is staffed by North Carolinians. NCDOT also sets the schedules for the Piedmont and owns the equipment, though it is operated by Amtrak train crews.

Routes

''Carolinian''

The Carolinian, operating since 1990 and in its current form since 1991, is a route from Charlotte to New York, running once daily in each direction. It serves Charlotte, Kannapolis, Salisbury, High Point, Greensboro, Burlington, Durham, Cary, Raleigh, Selma, Wilson and Rocky Mount before continuing to the Northeast Corridor via Richmond. Seasonally, it also serves the North Carolina State Fair and Lexington Barbecue Festival. North Carolina subsidizes the train from Charlotte to the Virginia border.
It is augmented by three Amtrak Thruway routes, two connecting Wilson to large swaths of eastern North Carolina and one connecting Winston-Salem and High Point.
Volunteers from the North Carolina Train Host Association are on hand between Charlotte and Selma to provide information about points of interest in North Carolina. Station hosts are also on hand at the state's three busiest stations–Charlotte, Greensboro and Raleigh.
The Kannapolis, Salisbury, High Point, Burlington and Selma stations are served by NC Station Attendants who meet all trains and answer travel questions. The other stations along the route are staffed with Amtrak personnel with full ticketing and baggage service.

''Piedmont''

The Piedmont, operating since 1995, is a route from Charlotte to Raleigh with four daily round trips. It travels along the far southern leg of the Carolinian route, largely paralleling Interstate 85. While the Carolinian uses Amtrak rolling stock painted in Amtrak's national red-white-blue scheme, the Piedmont uses state-owned locomotives and coaches painted in a blue-silver-red palette echoing the North Carolina state flag. Its introduction enabled same-day business travel between Charlotte and Raleigh.

Proposed expansion

Corridor Identification Program routes

In May 2023, the NCDOT Rail Division submitted twelve routes to the Federal Railroad Administration's Corridor Identification and Development Program, a mechanism for developing new train routes under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. In December 2023, seven of these routes were accepted into the program:
Each of these corridors are granted $500,000 toward engineering and feasibility studies and are prioritized for future federal funding.

Asheville–Salisbury

had been served by passenger trains following the construction of the Western North Carolina Railroad in the 1850s. Service was inherited by the Southern Railway in 1894, and discontinued in August 1975.
In January 1997, NCDOT's Rail Division first studied the possibility of restoring service to the region. Based on projected costs, revenue, and ridership, the best option was determined to be a route between Salisbury and Asheville along of Norfolk Southern's S-Line. Intermediate stations would be located in Statesville, Hickory, Morganton, Marion, Old Fort, and Black Mountain. Passengers could transfer to the Piedmont or Carolinian at Salisbury station. In 1999, local stakeholders formed the Western North Carolina Rail Corridor Committee to promote enactment of the route. In March 2001, NCDOT published an updated study with a timetable of phases for the project, along with a cost estimate for each phase. During the first phase, Amtrak would trial the route with Amtrak Thruway service along US 70 to Asheville, the region's first connection of any sort to the national rail system in the Amtrak era. The report also recommended an additional station in Valdese. In April 2002, an NCDOT report proposed a schedule of two daily round trips on the route: one morning and one evening departure in each direction. The report estimated that the station, track, signal, and bridge projects required to start the route would cost $134.7 million.
In August 2015, the Comprehensive State Rail Plan continued to recommend the rail route with an interim Thruway Bus service. The plan estimated a cost of $405.3 million and ridership of 24,000 in the first year. Noting the age of the original studies, NCDOT prescribes an updated study. In March 2021, Amtrak included the route in its "Amtrak Connects Us" 15-year expansion vision ahead of the Biden administration's push to pass the American Jobs Plan. In December 2023, an updated feasibility study was completed by NCDOT, which estimated the cost at $665 million. The study assumed three round trips per day, with conceptional travel times of 3 hours and 25 minutes to 3 hours and 48 minutes, ridership modeling of up to 100,000 annual local trips by 2045, and ridership modeling of up to 290,000 additional Western North Carolina trips from connections via the Carolinian and Piedmont trains. In the appendix, Norfolk Southern noted that they cannot validate the various conclusion in the report, but does support the expansion of passenger rail and looks forward in those discussions. Also, that same month, the Federal Railroad Administration selected the Asheville–Salisbury route as part of the Corridor Identification and Development Program. It was granted up to $500,000 toward engineering and feasibility studies and is prioritized for future federal funding.