This part of the map has had fleeting railroad traffic for over a decade now and some of the biggest cuts have occurred just this year alone. Blue Ridge Southern slowly strolls out of the yard in Asheville, paralleling the River Arts District. In June of this year BLU’s biggest customer in Canton shut down operations. The only other traffic out on this end of the railroad was NS sending a Knoxville-Asheville train one way each day I believe.
Unfortunately things have gotten significantly more dire in just the past 5 days. Unimaginable flooding was brought to parts of Western NC and eastern Tennessee. Large parts of the Southern has been ripped away off the roadbed from Newport, TN to Old Fort, NC. The photos of the disaster zone is hard to wrap your head around. Recovery will take months and I have doubts that some of the rail infrastructure will even be rebuilt. To think that things are bad enough that rescue personnel have not even been able to reach some area this many days after the event tells you all you need to know.
I’ve enjoyed my two trips the past 4 years towards WNC. It wasn’t all railroad focused and rightfully so. There is a lot to see, eat and drink out here. I hope life gets back to normal soon enough. It’s gonna be a tall task.
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