Morganton Is All Aboard Restoring Passenger Rail to the Foothills Region
Waiting for the Train makes a strong showing as support gains steam for returning passenger rail to western North Carolina.
MORGANTON, North Carolina—A wintry late November evening couldn’t derail these train enthusiasts’ evening.
With temperatures in the 30s on Tuesday night, a few hundred people gathered in and around the historic Morganton Train Depot to generate enthusiasm for the potential return of passenger rail to western North Carolina.
Organized by the nascent grassroots group Waiting for the Train, the event featured libations provided by Sidetracked, the Olive, and Fonta Flora, and food donated by Food Matters and Nest Realty. Other sponsors included the Downtown Development Association, Morganton Mainstreet, Burke Development, Morganton Savings Bank, and Burke Arts Council.
(The evening was even accompanied by a guitar player, it a wonder his frosted fingers could find their proper position on the fretboard in nearly freezing temperatures.)
By all accounts, the evening chugged along with no hiccups, fueled by an abundance of optimism surrounding the chances of reviving passenger rail in Morganton. This includes a westward route up the mountain to Asheville.
Several key elected officials were present to hear directly from their energized constituents, invited by Waiting for the Train founders Mimi Phifer and Barbara Lynam. This included State Rep. Hugh Blackwell, State Senator Warren Daniel, Burke County Board of Commissioners Chairman Scott Mulwee, and other influential stakeholders and business leaders from Burke County.
Both Martin Wheeler of Carolina’s Association for Passenger Train and Ray Rapp of the Western North Carolina Rail Committee were also in attendance.
Local governing boards, including the Morganton City Council, Valdese Town Council, and the Burke County Board of Commissioners, have already approved resolutions signaling their support for restoring passenger rail to the area.
Young people are stepping up, as well, with an adjacent grassroots group, Teens for the Train, also present, recently forged by Henry Beale of Freedom High School.
Attendees were given a brief update on the current proposal, which aims to take advantage of the unprecedented funding provided by the massive 2021 Infrastructure Deal, which promises to invest “$66 billion in additional rail funding to eliminate the Amtrak maintenance backlog, modernize the Northeast Corridor, and bring world-class rail service to areas outside the northeast and mid-Atlantic.”
This bipartisan piece of legislation has been touted as “the largest investment in passenger rail since Amtrak’s creation, 50 years ago.”
According to Lynam, 80% of the costs for a rail line between Asheville and Salisbury would be covered by the federal government, conditioned upon the corridor proposal’s approval.
The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) has submitted a total of 12 proposals to the federal government’s Corridor ID Program, buttressed by letters of recommendation from local leaders throughout the entire state. While NCDOT remains hopeful about the prospects of rejuvenated passenger rail throughout the Tar Heel State, it’s unlikely all 12 projects would be approved, at least initially.
Still, an NCDOT representative told the huddled crowd, warmed by space heaters and generous amounts of wine and beer, that “the Salisbury to Asheville line is probably one of the ones that is most likely to be funded,” in part, because of a recent feasibility study that has already been conducted.
We should know by “the end of the year or early January” which corridors will receive federal funding, the NCDOT representative told attendees, with the remaining 20% having to come from a combination of state, county, municipal, and private monies.
Furthermore, NCDOT reports that the existing services have grown by “leaps and bounds” in 2022, with ridership expected to record even higher numbers by the end of 2023. The hope is to bring that growth to more and more communities throughout the state.
In fact, word has it that North Carolina has expressed more interest than any other state in expanding its passenger rail services.
The Morganton Train Depot has been an extension of the History Museum of Burke County since it was renovated in 2004 and dubbed the Morganton Depot Museum.
Judge Claude Sitton, who retired from the bench in 2003, spoke in his capacity as the current executive director of the History Museum of Burke County.
“I am interested now, not in keeping this as a satellite for the Museum, but as a passenger station so that we can travel,” he said, which was met by thunderous applause from the age-diverse gathering eager to experience the many benefits of passenger rail, once again.
In 2004, the depot was restored to its 1916 appearance. It is owned by the City of Morganton and operated by the History Museum of Burke County.
According to Waiting for the Train’s website, this rail line is expected to boost the local economy, provide transit for folks without vehicles, create more tourism, enable people to work while commuting, and reduce the carbon footprint by roughly 80% per mile compared to cars.
“It would be good for the environment, it would be so good for Morganton’s economy,” Phifer recently told the News Herald. “People without a driver’s license could take the train back and forth to Asheville, for instance. People could go up to Asheville and have dinner and drink wine and take the train back home. Students from the (North Carolina School of Science and Math) and the Deaf school and Western Piedmont could take the train from home up here.”
The stationary nature of railroad tracks, making trains a permanent fixture of the landscape, certainly reinforces a sense of place in a way that vehicular traffic can’t, as well.
Passenger rail should be taking a front seat in the discussions surrounding Imagine Morganton 2040, the city’s new master plan currently being developed, with strong input from residents.
And, the return of passenger rail would also be mutually beneficial for the Industrial Commons’ Innovation Campus, another project that’s recently benefitted from federal funding, which is expected to be built a stone’s throw from the Morganton Train Depot.
To further fuel momentum for the rail line, community members are encouraged to share with Waiting for the Train meaningful stories of their personal train experiences. And, of course, to reach out to their elected officials to express why passenger rail is so vital to the future of the Foothills region.
The next event Waiting for the Train hopes to hold will be more of a town hall format, possibly at the Morganton Community House, detailing what the next steps are for the Corridor Program and what local citizens can do to add further steam to the endeavor.
This is going to be trains-formational for our region.
There's no better way to travel than by train.