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On the station platform in Selma, a dozen passengers line up to board the 1:11 p.m. Palmetto, the daily northbound train that runs from Savannah, Georgia, to New York City.
As it whistles into the station, passengers gather at the entrances for the coach and business class cars. The stop is quick–passengers unload, and new riders file on board, heading off to graduations or vacations on this rainy June day.
It seems almost like the old days, when railways connected many more cities across the country. Those days could be coming back in North Carolina as the Federal Railroad Administration evaluates new routes in the region, including high-speed rail between Richmond, Virginia, and Raleigh, and lines connecting the eastern and western ends of the state. It’s part of a national effort looking at potential routes on 69 corridors in 44 states.
In North Carolina, seven potential routes received $500,000 grants for an initial scoping phase:
- Charlotte to Atlanta.
- Charlotte to Kings Mountain.
- Charlotte to Washington, D.C.
- Fayetteville to Raleigh.
- Asheville to Salisbury.
- Wilmington to Raleigh.
- Winston-Salem to Raleigh.
The next step will be developing an implementation and service plan, with local governments expected to provide 10 percent of the funding for that phase. (On the federal side, the program appears to have to survive recent cuts.) The last step is an engineering and environmental assessment–though not every route under consideration will make it that far. Even for those that do, it’s expected to take at least five years just to get started on construction.
If it all comes to fruition, one could hop a train in Raleigh and get to the coast in Wilmington for less than $30, said Steve Unger of Eastern Carolina Rail, a group that advocates for passenger rail.
Unger notes that while the costs of passenger rail projects are high, they compare favorably with other types of transit. The North Carolina Department of Transportation estimates a Wilmington-Raleigh route would cost $810 million, while Asheville to Salisbury is estimated to cost $665 million. Unger believes those costs compare favorably with building roads: Just 10 miles of a proposed I-74 extension connecting North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Shallotte, North Carolina, will cost $552 million.
Unger sees myriad benefits from passenger rail service: tourism, reduced traffic, an alternative for people without cars. And although there have been many changes under the Trump administration, the first phase of the corridor identification project has run smoothly, he said.
Jason Orthner, the rail division director for the state Department of Transportation, is hopeful that funding for the second phase is on track for late 2025 or early 2026.
Tracks Across NC
Passenger rail has already proven to be a good investment in other parts of North Carolina.
Amtrak’s Piedmont line, which travels between Raleigh and Charlotte, is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, while the Carolinian, which runs from Charlotte to New York, turns 35.
“We have a deep history in North Carolina passenger rail service,” said Orthner, noting that the state’s intercity passenger rail carried more than 720,000 passengers in 2024–a 55 percent increase compared with 2019.
Still, much of the state remains unserved.
Funding has always been a challenge. Amtrak, a federally chartered corporation created by the Rail Passenger Service Act in 1970, got more than $2.4 billion in subsidies in 2024. Even as it set a record in 2024 with 32.8 million customers and $2.5 billion in ticket revenue, it’s still not profitable–a concern that has often put it in conservatives’ crosshairs. (Trump’s big budget bill kept funding flat for Amtrak, compared with the previous two years.)
But there seems to be renewed interest, which may be partly due to population shifts. The number of people in the U.S. has nearly doubled since 1960, and 10 percent of them now rarely or never drive a car–a ratio that doubles among urban dwellers. Passenger rail makes transit between metropolitan areas more accessible.
Remote work has also raised the appeal: If you can work anywhere, why not from a train car?
Linton Williams is a regular on the Carolinian, traveling between Selma and his home in Washington, D.C., to care for his 94-year-old father. The train has become a lifeline for Williams as glaucoma has reduced his vision.
“We have a deep history in North Carolina passenger rail service.”
Jason Orthner, rail division director NCDOT
After boarding the northbound train, he stopped in the cafe car for his usual order: a veggie burger, ginger ale, and fruit cup. Before glaucoma took much of his vision, Williams said he would do a lot of work en route.
”I’m retired, but I still have a little business on the side,” he said. “I get a lot of reading done. I just finished a program that I had to study for, and luckily, on the train I can get hours worth of studying done without being distracted.”
He’s also excited about the proposed high-speed passenger line between Richmond and Raleigh that could reach up to 110 mph. That would save an hour of travel time between the two cities, making the journey to D.C. “competitive with driving times,” according to NCDOT.
Taking the train is more economical over short distances than longer rides–riding from Raleigh to Washington, D.C., would be just under $50 and take five to six hours, while a one-way Delta flight on that route costs $89 and takes just over an hour. If you want to get from Wilmington to Raleigh, flying isn’t even an option.
There have been a few recent high-profile instances of passenger rail projects getting their federal funding cut. In July, the Trump administration cancelled funds for California High Speed Rail amid delays, permitting reviews, and rising costs. Another high-speed rail project in Maryland just lost $26 million in grant money.
The projects that have struggled the most required purchasing new land and building new rail lines. But routes that follow existing tracks can avoid the painful, expensive, and lengthy process of property acquisition, eminent domain, and fresh railroad construction. (However, some modifications are needed to make tracks appropriate for passengers.)
The railroad company CSX owns the tracks that would connect Raleigh to Wilmington and already has agreements with Amtrak on many routes in North Carolina. NCDOT has indicated the company will work with it on these seven new routes as well.
There are drawbacks to operating on shared rails–25 percent of Amtrak’s trips operated with some kind of delay in 2024, and the host railroad was the most common cause. Freight often takes priority, which can lead to lengthy delays and make rail appear to be a less reliable method of getting from one place to another.
The Wilmington-Weldon Line
In Wilmington, reviving rail would be a salve on old wounds. The former railroad town is still scarred by the remnants of a rail depot long since abandoned. The ghosts of rail infrastructure can still be seen throughout the north side of town: An old rail line marks where the trains used to stop, and acres of vacant land pock the places old warehouses once served the line.
The Cape Fear Community College campus and the new city hall now occupy some of that land, with the college’s Union Station Conference Center modeled after the facade of the old Wilmington train hall.
Once the wealthiest and largest city in North Carolina, Wilmington was also the terminus of the world’s longest rail line. The Wilmington-Weldon line opened in 1840 and covered 161 miles from the southeastern corner of the state almost to the Virginia state line.
As passenger rail grew, the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad merged with others in 1869 to become the Atlantic Coast Line Rail, with Wilmington as its headquarters.
The railroad was the heart of Wilmington’s economy for decades, said Holli Saperstein, executive director of the Wilmington Railroad Museum. The museum occupies an old railroad warehouse along the Cape Fear River in the heart of downtown–one of the few historic railroad buildings that remain in the city.
“Rail travel was the biggest change in transportation in 5,000 years,” she said. “Prior to that, it didn’t matter where you were in the world: You were either walking, riding an animal, or on a cart pulled by an animal or a person.” The railroad turned a seven-day trip on foot into a five-hour ride. Suddenly, folks could transport perishables, too: fruits, vegetables, and dairy, said Saperstein. It completely modernized the region’s economy and opened it to tourism and business travel.
Built by enslaved people and used largely to transport cotton, the Wilmington-Weldon line was also essential to the Confederacy during the Civil War. “General Lee called the Wilmington-Weldon the lifeline of the South,” Saperstein said. “It was the premier way that they got troops, artillery, food, goods, uniforms, everything that was needed to continue the battle.”
That also made it a Union target. Photographs in the museum show Black Union troops pulling up rail lines and twisting them into what they called Sherman’s Necktie.
“Once the Wilmington-Weldon fell, you saw a drastic change in how the Confederacy was handling things,” said Saperstein. “And shortly after, they surrendered.”
The company eventually rebuilt and continued to be a powerful force in Wilmington for the next century. At times, it even limited economic growth, said current Mayor Bill Saffo. “The city fathers in those days also wanted to recruit other industries and businesses to this community,” he explained. “The railroad, because of its power, because of the amount of people that it employed, always kind of threatened them not to do that because they were concerned about rising labor costs.”
Still, the railroad wasn’t going to stay forever: Wilmington’s location on the coast wasn’t central enough for the rail company, sitting on a spur to the Atlantic coast. The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad headquarters moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1960, taking 3,500 jobs with it–nearly 10 percent of the city’s population at the time.
Passenger service died with a whimper less than a decade later. The last passenger train left Wilmington’s Union Station in 1968. By that point, there wasn’t enough demand. “It got to the point that they were losing tons of money on passenger service,” Saperstein said. “There were probably less than a dozen people riding on that train every day, so it just economically could not continue.”
Trains couldn’t compete with the rise of personal vehicles and passenger planes, and railroad companies increasingly focused on freight. But after more than a half-century without passenger rail, residents and local leaders are hungry for the opportunity to bring back a Wilmington-Raleigh line.
Train Town, USA
Passenger rail may be gone in Wilmington, but it isn’t gone from the state. On the route between Selma and Wilson, riders were working, eating, relaxing, and napping–letting the world go by outside. The train is surprisingly quiet, with spacious seats and plenty of room for luggage.
As Saperstein put it, there’s something romantic about taking the train. “I think there’s some nostalgia in riding the rails,” she said. “I think it’s also a lot more relaxing.”
Selma came into existence due to the establishment of a railroad stop in 1867, and it shows. The 7,000-person town’s seal depicts a train, and its website offers a live rail cam focused on the diamond crossing. Even the local cafe, Coffee on Raiford, has a logo where the curling steam over a cup of coffee looks like railroad tracks.
This fall, the town will mark the 50th annual Railroad Days Festival from September 29 to October 5, a weeklong celebration that includes a pageant, parade, carnival, and 5K race.
Mayor Byron McAllister said the town’s identity as a waypoint has helped boost its reputation. Adding a connection to Wilmington would enhance that. “The folks that are moving from the north into North Carolina can have every mode of transportation you could imagine that they’re used to in some of those other areas that they’re coming from,” he said, “while keeping our rural character.”
The town’s small rail station, built in 1924 and restored in the early 2000s, is shaped like a wide V, serving trains on two separate routes. On a June morning, Connie Warner of Goldsboro stood waiting on the front platform for the northbound Carolinian, heading to a wedding in Philadelphia. “I’ve never ridden the train, and it’s on my bucket list to do,” she said. “I’m excited.” That trip would take her about seven hours–a smidge faster than driving the I-95 corridor, if there aren’t delays.
Last year–the 100th anniversary of the Selma stop–17,770 passengers boarded or disembarked here.
McAllister thinks the passenger rail stop has made Selma a destination: He believes people might look out the window at their adorable train station and decide to stop in Selma the next time they ride. The station certainly draws residents from the surrounding areas, he said. But the mayor says another route will help put it on the map. “They’ll come past Selma, North Carolina, and then they’ll get curious, and occasionally have people that will say, ‘Hey, let’s stop in this little town every once in a while as well,’” he said. The railroad festival drew 13,000 people last year, and he expects it’ll be even bigger this year.
Other small towns like Burgaw, Hickory, and Goldsboro are looking at Selma’s example–perhaps someday soon train passengers will come through their towns, stopping for lunch or a cup of coffee on the way.
Aligning Political Support
Warner’s hometown of Goldsboro is along the proposed rail line from Wilmington. The town’s derelict Union Station has a mission-eclectic architecture that gives it a frontier feel. The interior has vaulted ceilings with some of the original plaster, though much of it is cracking off the wall, and the main floor has room for dozens of waiting passengers.
Even as rain drips through the damaged roof, it’s easy to see how beautiful it could be.
Doug McGrath is a founding member of a group trying to find funding to save the historic building. In 2019, they were able to put new clay tiles in the center of the roof but couldn’t repair the sides because the foundation was not strong enough, he explained. The station sits at an important intersection in Goldsboro, and the town’s leadership yearns to put it at the center of transportation, too. A bus station opened next door in 2014, with a route that carries travelers to Selma’s rail station.
Charlie Gaylor III, a retired local judge, said locals started working on getting passenger rail here more than two decades ago, uniting their efforts with other small towns on the way to Wilmington. “We started meeting with all of the elected officials and started meeting with all the mayors and the town,” he said. “And we darn near did make it work.”
It was an ad hoc group at first, lobbying NCDOT to reconsider a study from 1998 that would have run a rail line through Fayetteville instead of Goldsboro. Eventually, that group became the Goldsboro Railroad Task Force, with Gaylor as a co-chair. They spent five years working with a lobbyist to redo the study, and that’s likely the reason the proposed route now goes through Goldsboro.
The task force believed everything was steaming ahead for Congress and the state to bankroll new passenger rail–that is, until the 2010 election, when Republicans gained the majority in the House in D.C. and took over both chambers in North Carolina. “It was not a priority for the new crowd there,” Gaylor recalled. He blamed it on a partisan hesitation to invest in passenger rail, but his contemporaries on the task force say it was more complicated than that.
The country was dealing with the Great Recession, said Julie Metz, a former Goldsboro city employee and member of the task force, and while then-President Barack Obama marshalled $8 billion in infrastructure grants for high-speed rail, most of what came to North Carolina went to expanding passenger rail between Raleigh and Charlotte. Regional rail fell further down the priority list, said former task force member John Peacock. “It’s nice to have a pipe dream,” he said, “but if things get tight, we’ve seen already that that federal money for rail has always been one of the first things to get cut.”
This time around, he’s more hopeful. He says the passenger rail projects will also be a boon for the military and for the ports, which makes them more broadly appealing for economic development. Both sectors would benefit from smoother, faster, more resilient rail lines connecting to major cities and military bases.
Metz agrees: “I’m more hopeful than I have been in a long time–I can tell you that.” She believes passenger rail has a lot of bipartisan support in Congress and expects that will be the case in Raleigh, too, particularly with the available federal funding. “Anytime that the federal government is willing to give 90 cents, and I only have to give 10 cents, the city has always found a way to make it work,” she said. “And the state, too.”
The federal grants will require a local and state match, and the seven proposed routes cut through dozens of state House and Senate districts, represented by both Republicans and Democrats.
Gaylor’s son, Charles Gaylor IV, is Goldsboro’s current mayor. He believes state-level support is just a matter of telling the right story.
“Everyone wants to see good things happen in their districts,” he said. “It may not be this cycle, it may not be the next cycle, but you stay in the game.”
His father passed away on July 1 at age 75, soon after talking for this story. Now city officials say they’ll continue trying to restore the train station and bring rail service to the city in his honor.
Wilmington Mayor Saffo agrees it’s a long game: Presidential administrations come and go, but local organizations can push for good things in the long term. But he’s glad the scoping work is progressing. “It’s ready; we just have to then, as they say, light the match and go,” he said.
“It’s nice to have a pipe dream, but if things get tight, we’ve seen already that that federal money for rail has always been one of the first things to get cut.”
John Peacock, former task force member
With potential corridors under study in 44 states, advocates hope there’s a broad enough appeal to maintain the program amid the Trump administration’s budget cuts. Several members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation have proudly announced passenger rail funding they’ve helped secure, including Sen. Thom Tillis, who joined eight other members of the N.C. Congressional delegation in a bipartisan letter to the U.S. Department of Transportation last year seeking grants for a project “supporting equity, safety, network, and supply-chain resiliency in the freight and passenger rail networks between Greensboro and Raleigh.”
U.S. Rep. Don Davis, who represents Goldsboro, also signed the letter and has shown up at local rail-related events. He said the FRA should continue its investments in passenger rail. “A rail investment connecting Wilmington and Raleigh with a vital stop in Goldsboro would significantly enhance eastern North Carolina’s connectivity, elevate transportation efficiency, and drive economic development,” he said in an email to the Assembly.
Neither N.C. senator responded to a request for comment for this story.
Unger, the passenger rail advocate, says proponents have had a positive reception in Raleigh as well. But to get rail actually built in North Carolina, lawmakers and local officials will eventually need to pony up tens of millions of dollars in local matching funds for phases two and three of the process. “We’d love to have passenger rail in Goldsboro,” said state Rep. John Bell, a Republican who represents Goldsboro. “It’s going to take a partnership between city, county, state, and federal, and more federal than anything, but we’d love to see it happen.”
It’s hard to predict whether the state legislature will bankroll the local match for the federal grants, or if local governments will step in if they don’t. But a lot of local governments want it badly.
“A lot of people are moving to the mountains, and a lot of people are moving to the coast,” said Saffo. “They’re coming here for the natural beauty of our area, the natural geography, the ocean. … People are gravitating to those places.”
Unger hopes the mayors, council members, and advocates in towns all along the proposed routes will help state and federal representatives see not just the value of passenger rail, but the vision.
Kelly Kenoyer is a reporter and host at WHQR Public Media in Wilmington, where she covers transportation, urban planning, politics, and the environment. Contact her on Twitter @Kelly_Kenoyer or by email: KKenoyer@whqr.org.