More than 55 years have passed since the last passenger train left Winston-Salem. Now, a proposed rail line connecting WS to Raleigh is progressing through federal processes, raising a question: Could we see trains return to the Twin City?

What’s at play?

Amid the highest ridership numbers in 35 years, NCDOT is in the middle of some major pushes to bring more passenger rail to North Carolina, with several proposed routes sitting for evaluation by the Federal Railroad Administration's Corridor Identification and Development Program + $1.9 billion slated for projects statewide by 2030.

One of the routes in question — already accepted into the federal development program — is a line from Winston-Salem to Raleigh. It's cleared an important hurdle, but it's not in the end zone yet: the corridor would still require several stages of planning and funding before becoming a reality.

What could this look like in WS?

Long-time Winstonians might remember that Winston-Salem once had a major passenger rail stop, operating out of the historic Union Station.

The station opened in 1926 (see historic photos here) and operated 20 daily passenger trains on four tracks. By 1963, that was down to four trains per day; by 1970, it was zero. That year, the last passenger train out of Winston-Salem left on the Asheville-to-Greensboro route with more than 100 people onboard and crowds of picnickers and observers to see it off.

Although Union Station has undergone substantial changes since then — including losing its concourse and loading platforms to become a vehicle-repair garage — it was restored in 2019 with the long-term goal of seeing passengers board trains once again someday.