HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — The effort to turn the former Saluda Grade into a hiking and biking trail has received an additional boost with $12 million in funding from the state of North Carolina, the Spartanburg (S.C.) Herald-Journal reports.
The North Carolina state budget approved Sept. 22 includes that funding over a two-year period toward purchase of the 16-mile portion in that state of the former Southern Railway route, once the steepest mainline railroad in the U.S. That’s according to Conserving Carolina, one of the three nonprofit groups involved purchasing 31.5 miles in North and South Carolina from Norfolk Southern for conversion to a trail under a deal reached earlier this year [see “Norfolk Southern to sell Saluda Grade …,” Trains News Wire, March 16, 2023]. South Carolina has already set aside $15 million for the trail; the full cost has not been announced under a confidentiality agreement between the railroad and the three nonprofit groups.
The first meetings to solicit public comment on plans for the trail are coming up later this month, the Herald-Journal reports. The first will be Oct. 17 at the Inman, S.C., public library; the second will be Oct. 19 at Polk County High School in Columbus, N.C. Both meetings scheduled to run from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
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