(rshsdepot) Statesville, NC

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Links:
http://www.downtownstatesvillenc.org/tour01.htm  (old photo and history of
station)
http://www.riverwoodhall.com/Gallery/david_shoemaker/shoemaker_2.htm  (depot
painting)
http://www.visitstatesville.org/images/Depot2.jpg  (recent picture of depot)

Statesville to accept grant for depot improvements

CASEY JACOBUS
Special Correspondent

STATESVILLE - The train will stop at Statesville after all.

The Statesville City Council on Monday night reversed a decision it made in
February and accepted a $614,700 grant from the N.C. Department of
Transportation. The money will go to improving Statesville's Historic Depot
to accommodate future passenger service between Salisbury and Asheville. The
town must match 10 percent of the grant, or $61,470.

The council heard new information Monday from Frank Johnson, a state
Transportation Board member from Statesville, and from Pat Simmons, the
state's rail division director. The information updated some of the facts
council members had based their earlier decision on.

The two most significant changes were:

. The proposed Salisbury-to-Asheville line is expected to carry about five
times as many passengers as originally thought.

. The train will travel faster, at about 79 miles an hour, than the
originally estimated 59 mph.

Johnson urged the council to reconsider its earlier decision and to work
with N.C. DOT to complete the western corridor project plan by 2004. He said
that would ensure Statesville a stop on the route that will be increasingly
important when a high-speed passenger rail route from Charlotte to
Washington is completed in 2010.

"Folks will be able to get on a train in Statesville at 7:45 a.m., transfer
to a high-speed train in Salisbury and be in Washington for lunch," Johnson
told the council. "Rail is not a far off vision for North Carolina. It is
here now, and more is coming."

Mayor John Marshall said the council had heard from many people since
February who expressed displeasure with the council's stand on the train
issue. While not permitting public comment at Monday's meeting, he did ask
the audience of about 40 to stand if they favored rail. Virtually everyone
did.

The project was then approved by 6-to-2.

"It's up to us to take a leap of faith," said council member Ray Raymer, who
supported the measure. "Then, if the passengers want it, they'll ride it."

Councilmen Jim Lawton and Jap Johnson voted against the project.

Johnson said he believed the Iredell Board of County Commissioners was the
appropriate agency for funding the rail project, as it would benefit
residents across the county, not just Statesville.

Lawton estimated the project would lose $1 million a year, and he didn't
think people would ride the train.

"The reason we don't have rail today is we found a better alternative, the
car," Lawton said. "If they told me it was free, I still wouldn't vote for
it."

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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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