Vital North Carolina rail service is back on track after $5.5M post-Helene repairs

By Rex Hodge

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    HAYWOOD COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — The Blue Ridge Southern Railway has been a vital supply line to industries west of Asheville, but Hurricane Helene significantly damaged the train tracks used to carry freight to Haywood County and beyond. Now, repairs have been made, which is helping businesses get back on track.

The Blue Ridge Southern Railway carries freight from Asheville all the way out to Dillsboro.

The railway’s general manager, Kyle Ogle, says the line is now fully operational after post-Helene repairs.

“We’re not quite up to the 25-mile-an-hour track speed on all the line that was 25 miles an hour before,” he said.

Ogle says the storm caused damage across the line.

“We didn’t lose any bridges, but there was damage to a lot of our bridges from the zero-mile post in Asheville to the 47-mile post,” he said. “We were actually washed out right at the derail where we interchange with the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad.”

The train cars carry freight to Haywood County businesses like Premier Magnesia, which produces items like Epsom salt, and Suzano, which does paper manufacturing. The rail line also services Enterprise Propane and Jackson Paper in Jackson County, which are businesses that took an economic toll while the train wasn’t running.

“During that time, a lot of our businesses had to start trucking things in, which is a lot more expensive,” said Haywood County Board of Commissioners Chairman Kevin Ensley.

Ensley said having this freight line running again is an economic engine that will be vital for new businesses that will occupy the site of the now-shuttered Canton paper mill.

“Now that we have the rail there, that’ll be another feather in the cap, if you will, for that site because you have interstate, you have natural gas, and now you have rail,” Ensley said.

Ogle said Hurricane Helene caused $5.5 million in damage to the line.

He said a $1.5 million grant from the North Carolina Railroad Company, as well as a $4 million NCDOT matching grant.

Now, he says, it is a matter of building back business.

“The more traffic that we can get, the more regularly Norfolk Southern will deliver cars through Asheville for us to serve the customers with,” Ogle said.

The objective is to get more train cars on the tracks instead of trucks on highways.

“We all know that four trucks off the road for every rail car is pretty significant in this region with the way our traffic is,” said Ogle.

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