The return of passenger rail to Wilmington is 'not a done deal,' but it's in the cards
On March 2, 1968, passenger rail service in Wilmington reached the end of the line.
That's when the old Seaboard Coast Line, the successor to the massive Atlantic Coast Line railroad, which had announced its economically devastating departure from Wilmington back in 1955 and left for good in 1960, ran its last passenger train in town. It's hard to blame the company, as the SCL was only averaging about 10 customers per ride at the time.
Now, more than 55 years later, a there's a slow-building move afoot to bring passenger rail service back to Wilmington.
Even so, don't expect to be able to hop on a train in Wilmington anytime in, say, the next decade or so.
"This isn't a project that's going to happen overnight," said Mike Kozlowsky, director of the Wilmington Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, or WMPO, a federally-funded group that helps plan and coordinate transportation projects.
Various entities have been exploring the idea of bringing passenger rail service back to Wilmington since at least the 1990s, Kozlowsky said: "It's been part of our long-range plan for decades."
A site for the Wilmington Multimodal Transportation Center was identified in 2005, he said, at Third Street between Campbell and Hanover streets, where the Padgett Station bus terminal opened in 2020. Any future passenger rail lines could run from that area, and the idea has picked up steam since the passage of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Joe Biden, which provides billions of dollars to states for infrastructure projects, including public transportation.
In November, the U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration is expected to annouce millions of dollars in grants for state railroad projects. Those with an interest in bringing back rail to Wilmington are pinning their hopes on the North Carolina Department of Transporation (NCDOT) getting grant funding that would kick-start the process of establishing rail service between Wilmington and Raleigh.
Kozlowsky said the NCDOT submitted 12 potential routes for funding by the federal government through the Corridor Identification and Development Program, which is "designed to create a pipeline of projects for future passenger rail service."
"It's not a done deal," Kozlowsky said. "But I'm optimistic" of NCDOT securing the Raleigh-to-Wilmington grant.
"There's a big push for the establisment of passenger rail at the state, local and even federal level," he said. "This would be the first step in seeing this happen."
Last month, Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo met with federal transportation officials and others to discuss the possibility of bringing passenger rail service back to Wilmington.
"There's a strong commitment from the federal government to make these (rail) extensions and to make these investments, but there also has to be support from the state government," Saffo said. "So part of this is education, part of it is also to see what kind of support there is within the community needed to bring (rail) back."
Asked whether people in Wilmington want passenger rail service, Saffo said, "Personally, I do. I hear it quite often that people say, 'When is rail going to come back?'"
Saffo said getting the federal grant is not quite make or break, but "it's important that we get on that list. If we can make that cut, it's basically trying to get support from the state to support the initiative and to support the investment that the federal government would help make."
Like Interstate 40, which connected Wilmington to the Triangle in 1990 and is generally credited as helping fuel growth locally, the feds help build it, but the state maintains it. Passenger rail would be the same.
The NCDOT's Southeastern North Carolina Passenger Rail Study from 2005 said the cost of the project, if it goes through Goldsboro, "could approach $184 million." Safe to say those 18-year-old numbers would be significantly higher today. Kozlowsky said he's waiting on updated numbers for the project.
That same study identifies travel times to Raleigh of more than three hours if the line goes through Fayetteville, which would be about 187 miles, but if through Goldsboro it would be about 131 miles, with travel times likely well under three hours.
The study said a route through Goldsboro would probably attract more riders because of shorter travel times to Raleigh, with the added benefit of providing connections to cities in the Northeast.
Whether there's a strong desire for rail from the population at large, much of which has grown quite comfortable with making day trips via car to the Triangle via I-40, remains to be seen.
Saffo points to the popularity of the Amtrak train line that runs between Raleigh and Charlotte. A ticket for a randomly selected day this month was about $27.
"I would definitely say that another mode of transportation, like all of the other major cities have, from Charlotte to Raleigh, would be a great thing for us to have," Saffo said. "Not everybody is able to fly and some people don't want to drive."
Kozlowsky said the re-establishment of passenger rail would have "a number of benefits. It would help to support and improve safety of travel and connectivity to Raleigh," he said, and would "help enhance economic development, and help support the growth of the region."
Train riders could use their phones or laptops, enjoy the scenery and not have to worry about traffic (or wrecks) on I-40. A train could bring day trippers and weekenders into Wilmington, while locals could head to Raleigh for sporting events, business or entertainment.
The push to re-establish passenger rail is going forward alongside at least two other rail-related projects: the so-called "rail realignment" of freight train lines, and the turning of a former passenger line into a "rail trail" for bikers, joggers and pedestrians that would connect downtown to the Love Grove neighborhood and the scenic Archie Blue Park.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Will passenger rail service return to Wilmington NC?
