The North Carolina Department of Transportation recently noted that North Carolina’s intercity passenger rail service between Raleigh, Charlotte, and the Northeast – known as “NC by Train” – experienced its highest total ridership in 2022.
[Above photo by NCDOT]
At a time when travel patterns have experienced great disruption and faced significant uncertainty, intercity train travel in North Carolina is experiencing record ridership.
Between January and December of 2022, more than 522,000 passengers rode NC by Train, which offers four daily roundtrips between Raleigh and Charlotte and service to the Northeast.
That’s more people than have ridden the train in its 32-year history, the agency noted.
“North Carolina’s passenger rail is critical to connecting our communities, and it’s great to see a record number of people taking advantage of it,” said Governor Roy Cooper (D) in a statement. “We’re going to continue to invest in public transportation across our state.”
“We’re pleased to see that so many North Carolinians are taking advantage of everything train travel has to offer,” added NCDOT Secretary Eric Boyette. “It’s an easy way to get to your destination without all the stress of driving.”
While October 2022 set a record for the highest number of monthly riders, with 55,493 traveling, December also set a record as the third best monthly level ridership of all time for NC by Train.
The rail provider’s services – which include The Piedmont (Charlotte to Raleigh) and Carolinian (Charlotte to New York) trains – carried over 48,600 riders in December, beating the previous ridership record by over 10 percent.
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