Story and audio by: Ashley Mills
One of America’s oldest modes of transportation is making a comeback: trains. Amtrak is working to improve the rail system to make it more convenient for riders. Ashley Mills tells us more.
At the Durham, North Carolina train station, Joe Veasey boards the train to Burlington, North Carolina.
He doesn’t have a suitcase… or a backpack.. as the rest of the travelers climbing on the Piedmont do.
He’s not carrying anything.
Veasey is just going down to Burlington for the afternoon…
An hour, really, until the train chugs back to return him to Durham.
VEASEY: “It’s just a hobby. Just something to do.”
He’s ridden an Amtrak train every week for ten years, simply because he loves trains.
He is part of the increasing number of North Carolinians getting on Amtrak trains every day.
North Carolina is served by six inter-city passenger routes with stops in 16 cities and towns.
And… more than 70% of North Carolinians live within 30 miles of a train station.
In 2018, North Carolina had nearly eight hundred seventy nine thousand Amtrak riders, up almost 20,000 from 2017.
Jason Orthner, Rail Division Director of the NCDOT, says that ridership is only improving.
ORTHNER: “We introduced, in 2018, additional passenger train service from Raleigh to Charlotte. And just in 2018, we saw a 30% increase in ridership between those points.”
Many of those people who ride are tourists, but a growing number of people are taking trains to get to work.
And Veasey has seen the changing trends of the railway ridership firsthand.
VEASEY: “I know several ladies that live in Cary. They go to Burlington every day. There’s a meteorologist who rides from Cary to Greensboro every day. So they use it for traveling. They use it like the average person uses the car.”
It’s not just commuters using Amtrak, either. More young people are riding the rails too.
VEASEY: “It’s quite a few students. The ridership has really picked up through the years.”
Students like UNC junior Taylor Cooleen.
Cooleen, who was raised in New York, grew up riding trains.
And… as an environmental science major, she appreciates trains for the environmental impact they have.
COOLEEN: “Well, cars. like most of the emissions that are put in by like, obviously, producing energy… like transportation and energy are two the biggest sectors of emissions for carbon. They help get like tons of people off the roads and reduce the need for cars and just make it way more accessible for everyone to get around places.”
And accessibility is important, says Volunteer Train Host Sarah Urruti.
URRUTI: “It’s beneficial certainly for people who don’t have a driver’s license. Like, if I had a seizure, if I had epilepsy, I’d lose my license. What am I gonna do?”
The NCDOT has plans to expand the rail system, taking the train as far west as Asheville, and as far east as Wilmington.
ORTHNER: “Through those improvements, which will probably happen over the next 10 years, we’ll start to see significantly improved, faster train service.”
For people like Cooleen, that would make even more of a difference on deciding whether to get on a train.
COOLEEN: “If North Carolina had a more robust Amtrak network, I would probably be interested in that.”
And though Joe Veasey will continue to ride the train no matter what, more travel options would make a difference to him too.
He has a son who lives in Wilmington.
VEASEY: “Wilmington would be ideal for me. It really would.”
Hopefully, one day, for Veasey… and others… that will become a reality.
In Durham, North Carolina, I’m Ashley Mills.
