A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to direct the department of transportation to study piedmont and northern railwAy line in gaston county to determine the  cost of bringing back into service the full line.
Whereas, the Piedmont and Northern Railway (the P&N) was proposed in 1909 by William States Lee, vice‑president of Southern Power Company; and
Whereas, in 1910 Piedmont Traction Company was incorporated to provide street railway service in and around Gastonia; and
Whereas, Southern Power Company capitalized the new P&N after merging Piedmont Traction and a South Carolina line, and by 1912 extended service from Gastonia to Charlotte with a heavy electric interurban railroad, providing passenger, freight, and mixed service; and
Whereas, the P&N was a heavy carrier of both freight and passengers; and
Whereas, passenger service on the P&N was discontinued in the early 1950s and the line dieselized in 1954; and
Whereas, the P&N was merged into the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (now CSX) in 1969; and
Whereas, CSX has abandoned much of the line in Gaston County, to the detriment of economic development in Gaston County; and
Whereas, the Rail Corridor Preservation Act, passed by the General Assembly in 1988, gave the Department of Transportation authority to purchase railroads and preserve rail corridors for "future rail use and interim compatible uses", and an amendment in 1989 declared it a public purpose for the Department of Transportation to reassemble critically important lost portions of rail corridors by condemnation; and
Whereas, the Department of Transportation in 1991 acquired 14.6 miles of the old P&N right‑of‑way from Mount Holly to Gastonia to Belmont, as well as .77 miles in Charlotte, across the Norfolk Southern mainline from Bank of America Stadium to preserve a Charlotte terminus; Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  The Department of Transportation is directed to study the P&N line in Gaston County to determine the cost to bring the full line back into operation.
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.