Amtrak moves to new Greensboro station 10/1/05

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Superliner Diner

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The J. Douglas Gaylon Depot (an intermodal station in downtown Greensboro, NC) will start receiving Amtrak service on Saturday, October 1, 2005. The station is already open and serving intercity and local buses. Amtrak will be moving about three miles north of its current Greensboro stop, which will be eliminated.

The station once functioned as a rail station. The last train to stop there was the northbound CRESCENT 26 years ago. The first train to stop there will be the southbound CRESCENT that departs from New York and Washington on Friday, 9/30. The CRESCENTS in both directions will utilize a 1250-foot platform close to the station building. The PIEDMONT and the CAROLINIAN will use a shorter 850-foot platform that is connected to the depot via a tunnel. (The latter two trains turn off the NS mainline onto NS's "H" line on their way to Raleigh.)
 
I was recently at the new station arriving on a 'Local' Greyhound bus from Salisbury. The exterior is quite pretty and the building nice and large, and the intermodal facility extensive, but the interior was a bit plain with several vending machines and seating benches.. Overall though a HUGE improvment from the existing station!
 
This is another in a series of extensive remodeling/rebuilding efforts on the part of the North Carolina Department of Transportation Rail Committee. They are very aggressive with their station renovation and are actively working on the stations in Western North Carolina (Asheville as a destination); however it is unknown when new service will be started. They are also working on extending service to Wilmington, NC through Fayetteville, NC.
 
Asheville? Wonderful!! Is that the line that runs east through Black Mountain (they even still have the old depot there)? We've attended the church music conferences at Montreat, NC several times, and having the ability to get there by Amtrak would be great! Two years ago we took P098 WPK-CHS and rented a car to drive the rest of the way. Of course from the Orlando area I guess it would be a circuitous path to get there, unless they revise routes to give us a way to get there from down here without going all the way west to NOL or up to Raleigh or some such.
 
AmtrakWPK said:
Asheville?  Wonderful!!  Is that the line that runs east through Black Mountain (they even still have the old depot there)?  We've attended the church music conferences at Montreat, NC  several times, and having the ability to get there by Amtrak would be great! Two years ago we took P098 WPK-CHS and rented a car to drive the rest of the way.   Of course from the Orlando area I guess it would be a circuitous path to get there, unless they revise routes to give us a way to get there from down here without going all the way west to NOL or up to Raleigh or some such.
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Too bad I don't have an old Southern RR timetable at work with me!! I can recall at least three approaches to Asheville.

1. An overnight train from Jacksonville to Asheville, called the Skyland Special, I think. It may have gone via Greensboro.

2.A branch off from NY and WAS on the Crescent's current route--it split off the mainline possibly at Greensboro, en route to Ashevile. Can't recall for sure.

3. A line from Cincinnati and Knoxville, to Asheville and Carolina cities beyond, among them, no doubt, Greensboro. i

I will look this up tonight, see how Greensboro figures into it, and let you know tomorrow, unless somebody beats me to the draw.

The above mentioned operations were well before Amtrak. But in more recent years (late 70's) , Southern did run a train with a dome car from somewhere to Asheville. Others may recall that better than I, but I will look that up that tonight, also.
 
Thanks MrFSS, the material you provided verified my speculation that a Greensboro connection to Asheville was made from trains going from NY-WAS to ATL,NOL. Your material also confirmed that the Carolina Special from Cincinnati to Asheville went further to Greensboro.

I had speculated whether the Skyland Special, from Jacksonville to Asheville went through Greensboro, and I found it did not. Wrong about that. Interesting, though, that in 1954 (the date of the timetable I used) you could travel by rail from Orlando to Asheville with just one change in JAX.

The train with a dome car in later years, the 70's, went from Salisbury,again connecting with the main from NY-WAS, to Asheville. And it actually stopped at Black Mountain, 13 miles from Asheville.
 
From Greensboro, NC News-Record, 10/8/05:

Old station looks like new again
It was as if the big clock in the concourse of Greensboro's old train station had been turned back to 1945.

A black cab, made to look like an old-fashioned London taxi and owned by the O. Henry Hotel, pulled up Friday in front of the columned station entrance on East Washington Street to deposit New York lawyer Martha Verscaj.
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Read this story here.
 
Is the new station in Greensboro staffed 24 hours a day 7 days a week like the old one?
 

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