Norfolk Southern takes a major step this week in rebuilding a Helene-damaged rail line that traverses the mountainous terrain between Western North Carolina and East Tennessee.
The company will install new bridge spans on Wednesday to replace a section of rail in Newport, Tenn., that collapsed weeks after the historic storm. The damaged section crosses the Pigeon River and is part of Norfolk Southern’s AS Line, which runs from Morristown, Tenn., through Asheville to Salisbury, N.C.
Crews have been working since immediately after the disaster to restore damaged freight lines, which are a lifeline for many businesses in the area.
Norfolk Southern spokesperson Heather Garcia said in a statement that the company is “marking a key milestone in that restoration effort this week when we install the new bridge spans for the replacement bridge over the Pigeon River in Newport.”
The two outermost sections of the AS Line — one from Morristown to Newport, the other from Old Fort to Salisbury — have already been restored.
That leaves two sections still inoperable.
The first runs from Newport along the French Broad River, through Hot Springs and Marshall into Asheville, then along Interstate 40 to Swannanoa.
That section is expected to be completed on March 31, Garcia said, although trains will not immediately start running again due to the need for safety inspections along the repaired stretch of track. Once service is restored, freight trains will once again rumble through Asheville’s River Arts District and Biltmore Village.
The second section of the AS Line that remains unrepaired is a scenic but treacherous 13-mile stretch between Swannanoa and Old Fort, known as the Old Fort Loops. The historic rail passage connects the Piedmont to the Blue Ridge Mountains, winding through tunnels, across bridges and along steep mountain ridges.
No timeline has been set for its repair. According to the Asheville Citizen-Times, the director of the N.C. Department of Transportation’s rail division told local rail advocates last week Norfolk Southern has pledged to rebuild the loops.
Norfolk Southern on Monday declined to say whether a decision has been made. “That portion of the line is still under assessment at this time,” Garcia told BPR.
NCDOT declined to comment on the future of Old Fort Loops and referred questions to Norfolk Southern.
Rail advocates see the Old Fort Loops as a crucial section to repair given their long-term goal of passenger rail service returning to Western North Carolina.
Asheville has not had passenger rail service since 1975, when the final passenger train departed for Salisbury, 130 miles to the east.
The Asheville-to-Salisbury line is one of seven potential new passenger rail corridors or improvements to existing routes that are being studied by state and federal officials. Efforts are also underway on other passenger rail lines, including the S-Line from Raleigh to Richmond, Va.
The total cost of the Asheville-to-Salisbury line is estimated at $665 million, according to a feasibility study released by the N.C. Department of Transportation in December 2023. If the project moves forward, federal funding is expected to cover 80% of the cost, while state and local funding would cover the remaining 20%.
Damage from Hurricane Helene isn’t the only obstacle to the prospective passenger rail line, however. Federal funding freezes under the new Trump administration have also thrown the project into uncertainty.
During a trip to Western North Carolina last month to mark progress on Interstate 40 repairs, N.C. Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins said he remains optimistic about the Asheville-to-Salisbury line’s future.
“Right now, all of our grants are kind of on pause with the new administration, the ones we don’t have grant agreements with,” Hopkins said. “And so, we’re hopeful that that can get restarted and we can continue studying that corridor as well as the nine others to grow the inter-city passenger rail here in the state.”
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was also present at the I-40 visit. In response to a question from BPR, he said the urgent need to repair roads and highways doesn’t necessarily mean long-term passenger rail projects will fall by the wayside.
“No, listen, we can walk and chew gum,” Duffy said. “There’s a lot of focus that we have at the Department. We have a lot of modes of transportation, and we have a big team that can focus on more than one thing at the same time.”
Liz Macam, a spokesperson for NCDOT’s Rail and Integrated Mobility Divisions, said the federal grants for studying the Asheville-to-Salisbury line and other routes have already been obligated and the department plans on moving ahead.
“The Asheville to Salisbury route is in the first stage of Corridor Identification and Development and we are actively working on planning activities for this route,” Macam said in an email Wednesday.
