Changes to North Carolina trains

With the new timetables taking effect on October 27, 2002, the Carolinian and Piedmont will each be shedding 11-13 minutes from their schedules for runs between the two major cities served in the state: Charlotte and Raleigh. This speed-up of the trains is thanks to a state track improvement project between Durham and Greensboro that allowed speed limits to be raised from 25-55 mph to a steady 59 mph.

More improvements, to be completed in the spring of 2003, will result even higher speeds, with another 20 minutes to be removed from the schedule then.

Train 73/74, the Piedmont, runs solely within North Carolina between Charlotte and Raleigh. Train 79/80, the Carolinian, runs the same route on an opposite schedule from 73/74, and also continues to Richmond, Washington, and New York.

That is good to hear. Every little improvement helps. Thanks for letting us

know. By the way, do you know if the Pierdmont still uses rebuilt equipment from the Kansas City Southern Railroad?

Bill

I looked at some web site and here is a link to one of the web site which show which passenger equipment NC have.

http://communities.prodigy.net/trains/arst...trcar.htm#NCDOT

Guy

Yes, the Piedmont does use unique equipment not found on any other intercity train. It's worth taking a trip between Raleigh & Charlotte, or vice versa, if you happen to be in NC. During the summers and during selected special events, they also run a dome car, and the premium charge to use it is only $8 even for the full run between the above two cities!

As to the equipment's heritage, I am not sure if all of it came from the KCS.