Come July, it will be easier to catch a train between Raleigh and Charlotte
With record numbers of people riding state-sponsored Amtrak trains, the N.C. Department of Transportation is adding another daily round trip of the Piedmont between Raleigh and Charlotte.
NCDOT has overhauled its passenger train schedule to add a 1 p.m. departure of the Piedmont from Raleigh headed south and an additional afternoon northbound train leaving Charlotte.
When the new schedule goes into effect July 10, the Piedmont will make four round trips a day between Raleigh and Charlotte, with stops in Cary, Durham, Burlington, Greensboro, High Point, Salisbury and Kannapolis.
Including the Carolinian, a state-subsidized Amtrak train that runs between Charlotte and New York City, people will be able to choose from five daily round trips between the state’s two largest metro areas.
The Piedmont and Carolinian carried 522,550 people last year, the most since NC By Train, the state’s intercity rail program, began in 1990. The trend has continued this year; April was the second busiest month in the system’s history, with more than 53,300 passengers.
“The service is doing as well as it’s ever done in its entire history,” said Jason Orthner, director of NCDOT’s Rail Division. ”This is an opportunity for us to give riders more options during the day.”
By adding more trains and making them more convenient, Orthner said, NCDOT expects ridership to grow even more.
“We find that as you provide more frequencies for folks, more opportunities for them to travel back and forth, that becomes part of their decision making,” he said.
Riders heading southbound will find the new schedule very similar to the existing one, except for the 1 p.m. departure from Raleigh. But the northbound schedule will be significantly different, with Piedmont trains leaving Charlotte at 2:20, 5:30 and 7:45 p.m., all new times.
The Carolinian schedule will remain unchanged.
Two trips of the Piedmont — the 6:30 a.m. from Raleigh and the 5:30 p.m. from Charlotte — will take just under three hours, if all goes well. Most of the other Piedmont trips are a bit longer, up to three hours and 16 minutes. The faster travel times come from skipping some intervening stops; for a complete schedule, go to www.ncbytrain.org/schedules/Pages/new-train-service.aspx.
The state has received $157 million in federal grants to buy new locomotives and 26 new passenger cars, but doesn’t expect to receive them for another few years. In the meantime, NCDOT will be able to increase service on the Piedmont with the equipment it has, Orthner said.
The Piedmont made its inaugural run from Raleigh to Charlotte in May 1995. By then, the Carolinian had been making daily round trips between Charlotte and New York for five years. NCDOT added a second daily round trip of the Piedmont in 2010 and a third in 2018.
Travelers can get more information and reserve tickets on the new trains at www.ncbytrain.org.
This story was originally published May 18, 2023 at 3:56 PM.
