Saluda Grade Trail from Inman, SC, to Tryon advances with major railroad purchase

A local nonprofit finalized the purchase on June 17 of a 31.5-mile stretch of freight railroad, which it aims to convert into a mixed-use biking and walking trail, according to a statement made by the Saluda Grade Trail conservancy.

The planned trail would pass through Inman, Campobello and Landrum, South Carolina, before crossing into North Carolina to go through Tryon, Saluda and Zirconia, in Henderson and Polk counties, the statement said.

The Conservancy bought the corridor from the freight rail company Norfolk Southern for $28.5 million, it announced in a June 24 news release.

Jeff Michael, N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources deputy secretary, said in the release the purchase is "wonderful news for Western North Carolina and the state trails system.

There is no hard timeline set for the next steps of the project.

The biggest hurdle will be raising the money for the design and construction, which will be a major factor in how quickly the plan moves ahead, said Kieran Roe, executive director of Conserving Carolina.

The majority of funding for the purchase came from public sources, including the state and a grant from the South Carolina Conservation Bank.

The North Carolina General Assembly appropriated $12 million and the South Carolina legislature $15 million, according to a 2023 news release from Conserving Carolina.

The Appalachian Regional Initiative for Stronger Economies awarded the trail project a $450,000 grant, according to a June 24 release from the Saluda Grade Trails Conservancy.

The Trails Conservancy is composed of the North Carolina group Conserving Carolina and the South Carolina groups PAL: Play, Advocate, Live Well and Upstate Forever.

Between 80% and 90% of Ecusta Trail construction costs were funded by state and federal grants, with the rest coming from private donors, Roe said.

Grant money for Ecusta Trail construction amounted to more than $45 million.

Roe said the Saluda Grade hadn’t seen any trains since 2001 and any commercial rail passengers since the 1960s.

A section of rail between Zirconia, where the Saluda Grade Trail is set to end, and Hendersonville, where the Ecusta Trail begins, is owned by another smaller rail company called Watco, Roe said.

If Trails Conservancy is able to purchase that 8-mile section, then the Saluda Grade and Ecusta trails could be joined together. “There is a lot of interest in the idea,” he said.

Those trails could form the basis of a hypothetical “Hellbender Trail network” throughout the area, according to the release.

Future rail service

Giving public comment at several County Board of Commissioners meetings before the purchase closed, Henderson County resident Clifford Meek criticized the decision to remove railroad tracks from the right-of-way.

“This rail line runs between … Spartanburg, which has Amtrak service, (and) Asheville, which is about to get Amtrak service,” Meek said, and removing the tracks “makes no sense” because it forecloses on the possibility of expanding passenger service to link the cities in the future.

He suggested following a model that has been promoted by the Federal Railroad and Highway administrations as "Rails-with-Trails," which calls for keeping train tracks in place and building walking and biking trails alongside them, which he called a “win-win situation.”

Both the Ecusta and Saluda trails are federally rail-banked, part of a federal program started in the 1970s to protect transportation rights-of-way, Roe said.

A rail-banked corridor is preserved, even when it’s used for another purpose in the interim, so that, “if rail service ever becomes feasible again,” it can be restored.

A celebration of the purchase of the Saluda Grade with music, refreshments, and speakers is scheduled for July 31 at the trail in downtown Tryon.