I want to apologize for such a lengthy comment to this thread, but I have felt that personal experience and other related history might help shed light on the reasoning for restoring Asheville to the passenger-rail network.
Just as with all other private carriers, the former Southern Ry’s passenger runs had been whittled down to rumps and remnants by the late 1960s ─ precipitated in part by the mass cancellation of mail contracts by the Post Office Department (now USPS) in September 1967. Service into and out of Asheville, which had been formerly known by the marketing names “Carolina Special” and “Asheville Special” had lost their names to mere numbers ─ a numbering convention which basically turned convoluted as more trains were consolidated and others discontinued.
Long before 1968, the “Carolina Special” had been a popular route serving Asheville. It provided direct service between Cincinnati and the Carolinas. with through-service to Spartanburg, and Columbia, SC. That had been the primary (southern) leg of this former named train, which at one time terminated as far as Charleston (along today’s Norfolk Southern W-Line). This ran along the famous (or “infamous”, in terms of grade steepness) “Saluda Grade” between Tryon and Saluda NC in rugged Western NC, southeast of Asheville. The Saluda Grade portion of this line probably never will see any trains again, as it currently is impassable and is deemed of no prospective value for freight service, much less for passenger. Basically the section between East Flat Rock NC and Landrum remains out of service (including the Saluda Grade itself), so there’s virtually no potential to restore this once primary passenger line. Beyond the scope of this discussion, likely the only value of the Saluda Grade (which is not officially abandoned) would be to convert it to a rail trail, if NS ever does decide to sell that portion (as it reportedly did with the portion between Asheville and East Flat Rock).
I used to regularly observe the daily nameless passenger run between Greensboro and Eastern NC via Durham, Raleigh, and Goldboro, as well as a separate connecting run from Greensboro to Western NC. These two “end-to-end” rumps had been all that remained of the northern leg of the former “Carolina Special”. The eastern run out of Greensboro to Raleigh and Goldboro, was unceremoniously and quietly cancelled by April 1964. The Greensboro- Asheville connection, via Winston-Salem and Barber, NC, survived into 1968. The train from Eastern NC to Greensboro in conjunction with the train from Greensboro to Asheville had been intended as feeders to points west to Knoxville, and to Chattanooga and beyond to points into the deep central South, to Northern Alabama and on to Memphis, and to Cincinnati for yet more connections.
Asheville had a main passenger depot situated near the French Broad River, southwest of downtown. It had been located across from what is now the Glen Rock Apartments (site of the old Glenrock Hotel). But after December 1968, when both the remaining northern portion (by then terminating in Greensboro with no service east to Raleigh and Goldsboro), and the southern leg were dropped, the main station in Asheville was razed (probably during 1969-’71). The Biltmore station then became the only stop in that city. In turn, that left only the nameless rump of the former “Asheville Special”, the run between Asheville and Salisbury, NC ─ trains 3 and 4. Since Southern opted to not join Amtrak (partly in fear that Amtrak would reduce the flagship “Crescent” to a sorry excuse of a train), the Asheville-Salisbury run remained until August 1975.
The “Carolina Special”, along with its much shorter companion “Asheville Special” had been constituent of the grand interlacing of passenger rail service and connecting points, which collectively prevailed as the primary infrastructure for personal transport, at least throughout the first decade of the post WW-II era. For many alive today, it might be difficult to envision the role Asheville once held within the vast network of transfer points. During my early years, several of my own family members used to travel between Middle Tennessee and the Carolinas via Asheville.
I used to ride the rump between Asheville and Salisbury, with a layover between what then remained of the former “Piedmont Limited”, by then a mixed-train with TOFC (trailer on flatcar) “pigs” tacked on the rear (“piggyback”). It was an interesting and virtually obscure train, usually assigned a single EMD FP7 locomotive unit with an ex-CofG (Central of Georgia) combine (Budd coach-baggage from the former “Man-o-War”) and an ex-Wabash RR dome coach (from the former jointly owned UP-WAB “City of St. Louis”). During peak periods, it often carried a 3rd (or 4th coach) during its final years). As at least one other already has been stated, NCDOT has considered restoring service to Asheville for quite a number of years ─ at least since 2001, so this is nothing really of any “new” news. In addition to a possible reconnection of an Asheville link at Salisbury, North Carolina also has discussed restoration of service between Greensboro and Winston-Salem, although I have not heard any mention of extending that westward beyond Winston to perhaps Barber Junction, Statesville, Old Fort, and on to Asheville (in favor of the proposed Salisbury-Barber-Asheville route). The proposed route of the service ─ either Asheville – Barber Junction – Salisbury; or Asheville – Barber Junction – Greensboro could connect to the existing service Raleigh – Charlotte ─ either at Salisbury or at Greensboro. An Asheville – Greensboro route could serve now-congested Winston-Salem and the “bedroom” village of Clemmons, neither of which have had passenger rail since 1968. But the Asheville-Salisbury route would provide a more direct path to Greater Charlotte ─ the states’ largest population center ─ while it would render a circuitous and inconvenient route between Raleigh and Greensboro/Winston-Salem, unless direct service to the latter is extended at least to Barber, to connect with Asheville-Salisbury.
Yes, one could drive the distance, Asheville – Greensboro or to Salisbury in a fraction of the time a train could do it along the existing terrain ─ particularly between Ridgecrest and Old Fort via the Burgin Tunnel and the mountain. But the long-range mission of NCDOT has been to connect by passenger rail the populated areas of all the state’s regions. Many either choose not to drive and to be bothered with a car, and many either choose not to fly or have accessibility impediments to air travel, which does entail more than merely boarding a plane. Or they don’t have the resources of private transport. NCDOT’s intent is to provide options beyond just intercity bus. Unlike with other more recently proposed Amtrak corridors, this would not be a candidate for HrSR (highER speed rail), and I don’t believe the state really had that in mind for implementing this mountainous extension.
schedules scanned from personal timetables.
[photo - © William Franklin Clodfelter]