Meeting held to discuss bringing passenger rail service back to Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The city of Wilmington hosted a meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss whether to bring passenger rail service back to the “Port City.”

More than 50 years after the last passenger train left Wilmington, discussions were held about a proposed Wilmington to Raleigh rail corridor, as well as 11 other proposed corridors in North Carolina.

Most of the funding for the rail corridors would come from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Joe Biden.

It includes $ 66  billion in funding available for rail improvement across the country.

Wilmington mayor Bill Saffo said the rail corridor would benefit more than just tourism for the region.

“We all know that we have a tremendous amount of traffic and people that visit our area from, Wake County, from the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area, the RTP, Saffo said. “That is also going to give those people who want to visit our community another mode of transportation to get to Wilmington besides having to use a car, which of course, creates a lot of congestion for us here in the summer months and in the spring months.”

Nicole Bucich is the vice president of network development for Amtrak, which would be the primary operator on the proposed Wilmington corridor.

She said bringing rail back to Wilmington will bring the state and the rest of the rail network closer together.

“Bringing people to places that we don’t serve, under-served communities, and to be able to connect the nodes, Bucich said. “So the benefits are tremendous, its mobility benefits, um, providing connections in that network.”

Amit Bose, the administrator for the Federal Railroad Administration, spoke at the meeting.

He said the corridor grants will be given out around  November of 2023.