Looking Forward to More Than a Burger at Hickory Station
The former train station in Hickory, North Carolina is currently a restaurant, but Aaron Kohrs hopes it will once again become a stop along the passenger rail route between Salisbury and Asheville.
Whether it was due to fond childhood memories of foothills-based Tweetsie Railroad or reading the high-intrigue Murder on the Orient Express, traveling by train, in my mind, is a method of transit where the journey could very well be more enjoyable than the destination.
Instead of being cramped in the middle seat of an airplane or stuck in traffic on an interstate, travelers are treated to the landscape unfolding before them with more legroom than a budget airline.
Growing up in Hickory, I had a fascination with train travel: my parents took me across western North Carolina in search of old train depots (passenger rail ceased to exist) and bought me toy train sets for at-home building.
Later, I studied abroad in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, where train travel is more common. It was a lived dream to transit without worrying about driving directions. Particularly in the UK, each small town had an active train station and connected to the rest of the country via rail.
All one had to do to adventure was purchase a ticket.
Aaron Kohrs with his father, Richard Kohrs, at Tweetsie Railroad in Watauga County circa 1990.
By the time I returned from school abroad, the formerly abandoned passenger rail station in downtown Hickory had been restored as a historic-themed restaurant, Olde Hickory Station, which I frequented, enamored by its local train travel past.
I hope, with the recently commissioned study and government plans to explore new passenger rail options in western North Carolina, this grassroots advocacy for train travel will result in a future where more people in rural communities can access rail transit.
Think of every community in America that has an Amtrak station: each person who disembarks at a train stop very likely contributes to the local economy by patronizing businesses. Entire retail and residential complexes spring up next to transit stations because of the walkable convenience that density offers.
Mass public transit has been successful in the Unifour region—just look at the many bus route services operated by Greenway Public Transportation in Hickory, Taylorsville, and Morganton.
Though I am residentially in the D.C. metro area for work, I am often home in the foothills of North Carolina. I look forward to the day when I can visit the Hickory Station and expect more than a burger (though delicious). I want full train service. I hear the whistle of the train in the (near) distance—and I am ready to buy my ticket!
Aaron Kohrs grew up in Hickory, North Carolina, but currently lives in Washington D.C.