Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy hammered the spike on the head recently when she said the city needs rail service, even if it canít support the kind of local trains that started running Nov. 24 in Charlotte.

ìWe canít get a light rail in Asheville and be successful, but we can get passenger rail, because people want to come,î she told a subcommittee on mass transit of the 21st Century Transportation Committee on Nov. 26 in Raleigh.

Sadly, consistent rail service to Asheville ended in 1975. For a city whose growth has been stoked by tourism and the areaís mountain scenery, the colossal blunder of ending the passenger service should have been fought tooth and nail by city leaders. (Too bad Bellamy wasnít running things then.)

As for passenger rail, which would cost an estimated $136 million for an Asheville-to-Salisbury route, Norfolk Southern Corp. executives reportedly have said it would not attract enough passengers to make it feasible. Too much time in the executive suite seems to have derailed the enthusiasm of the leadership at NSC, one of the (formerly) great names in U.S. rail service.

In contrast, the March 2001 Western North Carolina Passenger Rail Study, citing a demand for passenger rail to Asheville, recommended a phased implementation for passenger service and outlined the costs associated with each phase, as well as criteria for measuring service performance.

However, with the state currently facing serious revenue shortfalls, the North Carolina Department of Transportation has recommended delaying the start of passenger train service to western North Carolina.

We encourage Mayor Bellamy to keep steaming along, promoting rail passenger service to Asheville. We also think she should push for a link between Asheville and Charleston, S.C., two regional tourist meccas.

To further enhance the charm of a city once called the ìParis of the South,î we ask Bellamy also to propose bringing back streetcars here, a la San Francisco. Alas, Ashevilleís once-snappy streetcar system was scrapped in 1934, replaced by clunky buses.