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 weeks after the historic storm. The damaged section crosses the Pigeon River and is part of Norfolk Southern鈥檚 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 .
Norfolk Southern spokesperson Heather Garcia said in a statement that the company is 鈥渕arking 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.鈥�
The two outermost sections of the AS Line 鈥� one from Morristown to Newport, the other from Old Fort to Salisbury 鈥� .
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鈥檚 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 . The 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 , the director of the N.C. Department of Transportation鈥檚 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. 鈥淭hat portion of the line is still under assessment at this time,鈥� Garcia told BPR.
NCDOT did not respond to a request for comment.
Rail advocates see the Old Fort Loops as a crucial section to repair given their long-term goal of .
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 that are being studied by state and federal officials. Efforts are also underway on other passenger rail lines, including .
The total cost of the Asheville-to-Salisbury line is estimated at $665 million, according to 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鈥檛 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 to mark progress on Interstate 40 repairs, N.C. Transportation Secretary Joey Hopkins said he remains optimistic about the Asheville-to-Salisbury line鈥檚 future.
鈥淩ight now, all of our grants are kind of on pause with the new administration, the ones we don鈥檛 have grant agreements with,鈥� Hopkins said. 鈥淎nd so, we鈥檙e 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.鈥�
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鈥檛 necessarily mean long-term passenger rail projects will fall by the wayside.
鈥淣o, listen, we can walk and chew gum,鈥� Duffy said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 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.鈥�
