SALISBURY — At Tuesday’s meeting, the Salisbury City Council adopted a resolution of support to endorse passenger train service from the Cabarrus-Rowan Metropolitan Planning Organization that will connect Asheville and Salisbury with multiple stops in between.

A similar service used to exist, but it ended in the mid 1970s. In the late 1990s, the North Carolina Department of Transportation started to examine re-establishing it with several plans being considered. The proposed rail service would cover roughly 139 miles. The estimated cost is $665 million and the annual operating cost would be between $7.3 million and $10.9 million.

“In 2045, the anticipation would be there’s 100,000 local trips and then an additional 290,000 western North Carolina trips that are coming to Salisbury as the hub to connect to the Piedmont and the Carolinian to travel other places,” City Engineer Wendy Brindle said.

The evaluation process does not allow the state or NCDOT to submit the project; a local planning organization needs to instead. Phil Conrad, transportation planner at the Cabarrus-Rowan MPO, advised that this train service is a “unicorn project” that goes beyond the county and affects other municipalities. Even though highways are their priority, Conrad mentioned that this is a “unique” undertaking.

“The bigger picture is to get the project into the steps so it can qualify for federal grants,” Conrad said.

The application for the resolution of support will soon be submitted to Conrad so that it can be reviewed at a later time.

“It is very exciting to see this and Salisbury will benefit. It will be many years in advance, but that’s what we do as planners. Think about the future, vision for the future,” Mayor Karen Alexander said.