mtuandrew wrote:SR, do you suppose that either of the cities I mentioned would be interested in lending a hand, especially since Amtrak would have to pick up operational costs and they'd just be responsible for station/yard improvements?
Greenville and Spartanburg would not, but Columbia might.
I-77 between Charlotte and Columbia has little traffic and it's easy to zip from one to the other, so I am not sure that rail would be viewed as a necessity or could attract enough ridership, though.
I-85 between Charlotte and Greenville is a mess, with rising traffic and heavy road construction, and fares from GSP (the local airport) are usually significantly higher than from Charlotte, so there is definitely a market for it, but with conservatives' hatred of passenger rail generally, and the Upstate's deeply conservative politics, there's no prospect there. (Not bashing conservatives--I am one, but I just don't get why conservatives constantly oppose rail on the grounds that they favor the "free market" but then try to block even private-sector passenger rail and favor increases in tax dollars being spent on highways.)
The business community and Clemson University might contribute some cash (although it would be hard to run the train to Clemson and have it end there, since the line through Clemson is single-track and there is no storage track anywhere nearby as far as I know).
The main issue I see is that based on the schedule posted above, which seems reasonable, the extended Carolinian would get to Greenville at around the same times as the Crescent currently does. Amtrak ridership in Greenville at least is far lower than ridership would usually be for a city of that size, due to those terrible times (and due to the bad location of the train station, in a derelict area).