ASHEVILLE – The winding historic rail loops and tunnels near Old Fort are close to reopening to rail traffic for the first time since Tropical Storm Helene.
Norfolk Southern confirmed that a geometry train, an engineering train that uses advanced sensors to gauge alignment, curvature and surface conditions as it travels over rail lines, traveled the 16 miles of rail headed toward Asheville from Old Fort on April 7. Since April 2025, freight rail has only been able to exit and enter Asheville from the north, winding through Marshall in Madison County and into Newport, Tennessee.
Norfolk Southern spokesperson Heather Garcia told the Citizen Times the first regular train is expected to pass through the loops later in April. It means that the area, which includes the Old Fort Loops and portions of rail line that were considered “completely destroyed” by Helene, have been repaired. Across its rail lines in Western North Carolina, Norfolk Southern suffered 21,000 feet of washed-out track, 50,000 feet of track damaged by scour and over 15,000 feet of fill failure, the company announced shortly after the storm. Repairs were privately funded, Garcia said…