ASHEVILLE - Rail advocates and local leaders continue to push for the development of the passenger rail project from Salisbury to Asheville, North Carolina, undeterred by the damage done by Hurricane Helene or political changes at the federal level this year.

​

​Last year, the Federal Railroad Administration tapped the route as one of seven in the state to receive $500,000 each for corridor identification and development, totaling to $3.5 million. However, development was paused due to severe weather damage done by Hurricane Helene last September. 

​

" I have personally, myself, been in touch with some of the officials of Norfolk Southern to ask them what is their timetable for what they plan to do," said Steve Little, the Mayor of Marion, North Carolina and Vice Chair of the Western Carolina Rail Committee, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. "And the response I've gotten is that their timetable essentially ... somewhat vague, but they are going to ... finish restoring the line from Newport, Tennessee to Asheville before they even focus on whether they think it's feasible to restore this line between Old Fort and Ridgecrest that climbs up the Blue Ridge Escarpment."

​

Currently, Norfolk Southern, the rail operator who owns and operates the tracks from Salisbury to Asheville and onward into Tennessee, estimates damage assessment and repair for the Asheville to Newport tracks to finish in March of this year. Despite this delay, organizers are still optimistic about the project's future.

 

Massachusetts transit planner and transit YouTuber Miles Taylor said Norfolk Southern's  March deadline was surprisingly soon to hear, "given how glacially slow these companies feel like they operate."

​

"If North Carolina wants to expedite the construction, it's the kind of thing where they should probably just purchase it themselves," he said. "I think that recent history has shown that if a State wants to get something done on a on a rail line and and make it better for passenger service, the best thing is just to buy it themselves." 

​

Changes in federal politics may further hold back these developments with the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who is not as publicly enthusiastic about rail travel as his predecessor, Joe Biden. However, the biggest concern about the Trump administration's position towards projects such as the Asheville-Salisbury line may have more to do with how little information there currently is to go off of.

​

" Yes, that would be fair to say that that would be a concern. And it's because it's an unknown and we don't know the answer," said Mayor Little. " But it's not It's not a feeling of we're doomed. It's nothing like that. It's just, um, we have to make sure that we tell our story."

​

"It's probably not going to have a significant impact on the the timing of the project," said Paul Ballard, a public transportation executive and the former interim Transportation Director for the City of Asheville. "Because we're at the point now where you know we're raising, we're working at raising the local money to match the Federal money, you know, with the State and and we're getting, I think, pretty good responses."

​

​Looking at previous rail projects he worked on, Ballard mentioned the TexRail line from Dallas Fort Worth International Airport to downtown Fort Worth. Through the raising of local funds for the project, Ballard's team was able to raise half a billion dollars without federal assistance. His experiences make him confident federal bucking of the Asheville-Salisbury line could be mitigated through state and local support.

 

"My passion is unmitigated. It is not harmed," said Mayor Little. "I am still as excited about this as I have been in the past."