Asheville, North Carolina currently does not have an Amtrak station or Amtrak service. However, it is just over an hour drive from two South Carolina train stations on the Crescent route: Spartanburg and Greenville. Unfortunately, the train arrival times are not ideal and depending on your direction of travel, you’ll need to stay overnight in a hotel before picking up a rental car or connecting with another form of transportation.
Traveling to Charlotte on the Carolinian, Crescent or Piedmont routes is also an option. There are more hotels, rental car options and direct Greyhound bus service. Drive time is about two hours and the bus trip is about three hours. Note that the Carolinian and Piedmont are daytime trains and have good arrival times in Charlotte.
For more information, view station details below. Note that Amtrak’s expansion plans include train service to and from Asheville.
Spartanburg Station
The Spartanburg Station is near Wofford College, Enterprise and Hertz, but you’ll need to use a taxi or rideshare service to pick up a car. We recommend this station over Greenville because you can walk to the Spartanburg Marriott hotel and a 24-hour Krispy Kreme to kill time (or sleep). The alternate to a rental car is Greyhound bus, but a transfer is required and this trip takes about five hours.
Greenville Station
The Greenville, South Carolina Station is on the outskirts of downtown and is not in a walkable area. Enterprise and Hertz are also nearby, but like with Spartanburg, no pick-up service is available. For middle-of-the-night arrivals, you risk not being able to get a ride to a hotel if you travel to this station. However, you can connect with a Southeastern Stages bus to Asheville if routes are available. Greyhound buses are also an option, but travel time is over six hours from Greenville due to a required bus transfer (no non-stop trips to Asheville).
Amtrak Guide 