The NCDOT Rail Division

Inside NCDOT's Rail Division and the Piedmont Fleet

The joint Amtrak-North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Piedmont and Carolinian train routes recorded the highest monthly ridership in October of 2022.

NCOT’s F59PHI named the “City of Asheville” and an F59PH named the “City of Burlington” sit at Capital Yard in Raleigh, which is the base of operations for the NCDOT Rail Division. Credit: Joseph Navin.

In October of 2022, a total of 55,493 people rode both the Carolinian and Piedmont. This beats the ridership numbers from September by over 14 percent. September was also a record month for ridership prior to October.

The ridership milestone comes as NCDOT’s Rail Division is eyeing further updates to their Piedmont service, along with updates on their Piedmont fleet and rolling stock.

“We're tremendously excited by the ridership that we've seen on both the Piedmont and the Carolinian this year,” said Matthew Simmons, Deputy Director of the NCDOT Rail Division.

A total of five train routes serve North Carolina, these include the Silver Meteor, Palmetto, Crescent, Carolinian and Piedmont routes. Of these train routes, two of them connect the Tar Heel state’s three major cities, which is Amtrak’s Carolinian and the joint NCDOT-Amtrak Piedmont service.

“We are seeing just really good demand. When we look at that, we think that means we're providing a good service to the citizens of the state. And that we are getting people where they want to go at a reasonable price and providing essential connectivity and transportation,” said Simmons.

Both two routes begin in Charlotte, with them traveling through cities such as Greensboro and Raleigh. While the Piedmont terminates in Raleigh, the Carolinian continues north to Washington, D.C., and New York City.

The record ridership comes in sharp contrast to 2020 when passenger rail routes nationwide suffered from the impact of COVID-19.

“Our ridership dropped significantly during the peak of the pandemic. We were down to one train each way a day. At one point that was the Piedmont just running between Raleigh and Charlotte. And then we were providing just one logistic Carolinian,” said Simmons. “So that was a challenge for the program. However, we came through that and started turning back on the services when people started traveling again.”

This increase in ridership has affected logistics with the Piedmont rail fleet to facilitate more passengers. Based on the number of passengers scheduled to ride on the Piedmont a given day, NCDOT determines how many coaches to put on a given train the night prior.

NCOT coach 400008 named "Grey Squirrel" sits next to the repair shop at Capital Yard in Raleigh, N.C. The coach was built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1964 and served on the Union Pacific Railroad. Credit: Joseph Navin.

“We have the ability to add additional coaches whenever we see we have a high ridership day,” said Simmons. “We typically run three [coaches] on each train. That’s not standard these days because we have higher ridership than that, but that would be sort of the default minimum.”

Earlier this year, it was announced that NCDOT had received a grant for preliminary engineering for the S-Line project. “The S Line is a project that the Department of Transportation has been working on for 20 years. So, we are just really excited by the progress we're seeing with that,” said Simmons.”

The S-Line will connect Raleigh with Richmond. According to Simmons, the project is planned to be completed by around 2030. The line is currently a freight rail line that is owned by CSX and was formerly part of the Seaboard Air Railroad mainline.

“So really what that does is that it really creates a connected regional service, all the way from Charlotte, up to Washington, D.C., and then on to New York and Boston. So right now, we have one round trip a day between Charlotte and Washington, D.C., and New York. In the future, we're hoping we'll see six to eight round trips a day between Charlotte and New York,” said Simmons.

In addition to the increased ridership, NCDOT is working on building another station to facilitate both Piedmont and Carolinian trains for Hillsborough, N.C.

“We are working on a future station in Hillsborough that will cut the distance between Durham and Burlington such that there will be one more station within that length,” Simmons said.

The Piedmont fleet of rolling stock makes up an all-Electro Motive Diesel locomotive fleet. This includes two F59PHIs, six F59PHs, and five F59PH Cab Control Units (CCUs). Most of the F59PH fleet was previously operated by Go Transit in Ontario, Canada. This includes the CCUs which were originally standard F59PH locomotives but were rebuilt and had the engine removed prior to entering service with NCDOT.

The F59PH locomotives and CCUs are unique because they feature a Canadian-style crew cab at the front unlike other locomotives in operation across the U.S. There are no plans for any immediate replacements in locomotives in the near future.

“All of them [locomotives and CCUs] will be in service for, you know, approximately the next seven to 10 years until we get replacement equipment for the entire Piedmont fleet,” said Simmons. “We will probably do some level of midlife rebuild on all of them coming up within that time frame.”

One of NCDOT's EMD F59PHs, RNCX 1984, named the "City of Kannapolis" sits at Capital Yard. The locomotive is named after engineer Bud Marling. Credit: Joseph Navin.

In addition to planned rebuilds, NCDOT provides required maintenance on its Piedmont fleet.

When each train returns to Capital Yard in Raleigh at night after operating on the Piedmont, NCDOT carries out a daily inspection of the trains. This is required before the department can send a Piedmont train out of the yard and onto the railroad the next day.

“That daily inspection, you know, checks essentially, all of the standard running equipment...including brakes, you know, glass, wipers, lights,” said Simmons.

The NCDOT Rail Division rolling stock also includes 14 coaches. These consist of two different types such as 56-seaters and 66-seaters.

Multiple EMD F59PH Cab Control Units including CCU 103 sit at Capital Yard in Raleigh, N.C. on Nov. 4. Credit: Joseph Navin.

The testing and introduction of the CCUs took longer than NCDOT had anticipated. This was partly due to the impact of social distancing issues surrounding COVID-19 and the differences between Amtrak’s NPCUs and NCDOTs CCUs.

“One of the primary reasons why it took so long to get them [the CCUs] into service was we had to get Amtrak to do the Positive Train Control type testing for it. And that with the pandemic actually created a problem because they were limiting...having that many people in one small space for a period of time. It was pretty extensive testing,” said Simmons.

Since the former F59PHs were altered to become CCUs, further testing and modifications had to be made to them by NCDOT to make sure that the characteristics of the units did not change.

“We also did mechanical lien testing, you know, suspension testing and other things to confirm that the characteristics that you wouldn't expect to change didn't change,” said Simmons. “We did actually have to ballast down the CCUs in order to avoid them riding too high on their suspension.”

The Cab Control Units were built to facilitate further growth with the Piedmont service.

“The primary reason and I think the most important is that in the future, we have aims to grow the service so today we run two consists daily. That allows us to run three round trips between Raleigh and Charlotte of the Piedmont for a total of four once you count the Carolinian,” said Simmons. “Next year probably we expect to start another round trip of Piedmont that will require us to start a third consist daily.”

NCDOT did not believe that the existing fleet of locomotives could reliably handle the expected growth. In addition, the use of Cab Control Units saves fuel since there is only a one-engined locomotive when a CCU is in use.

“We really didn't think that with eight locomotives, that provided enough ability to have a reliable fleet. Also, if we send something out to get a turbo repair or a rebuild, that takes out so basically the thought was the five extra control units would be a comparatively, you know, not costly way to provide more control units for the trains,” said Simmons.

NCDOT’s default service plan for the CCUs is to use them on weekdays, which specifically includes Monday through Thursday. This is due to the fact NCDOT use three coaches during those days, with a third train car being the baggage and meal car. But this changes depending on demand.

When a CCU is used, either a standard F59PHI or F59PH sits at one end of the train consist, while the CCU runs at the other end. The F59PHI or F59PH then provides the locomotive power.

“We generally try not to run a CCU and instead run two locomotives if there are three or more coaches. When it's three, it can vary,” said Simmons. “We have run a CCU successfully, you know with up to five coaches, so that would be six trailers total. But that obviously results in slower service because there's only one locomotive pulling that much weight rather than two.”