Southeast/Atlantic Spine

Wilmington, NC

Stop on the proposed 17,000-mile maglev network. Next stop: Fayetteville, NC (78.0 mi).

About Wilmington

Wilmington is a port city in New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. With a population of 115,451 as of the 2020 census, it is the eighth-most populous city in the state. The county seat of New Hanover County, it is the principal city of the Wilmington metropolitan area, which includes New Hanover, Brunswick, and Pender counties.

Source: Wikipedia summary (full article). Population and facts as published there.

Cost breakdown (proposal-scale estimates — see math)

⚠️ All figures below are parametric estimates scaled from the proposal's own budget ($8.5T ÷ 17,000 mi ≈ $500M per mile), not engineering quotes. Methodology is shown so you can check the math.

Item	Basis	Estimate
Terminal construction	Mid-size city — metro tier (range $1–2B)	$1.5B
Land acquisition	Regional factor 1.0× on $200M base	$200M
Track: Wilmington → Fayetteville	78.0 mi × $500M/mi	$39B
Annual operations (share)	Staffing, power, maintenance	$30M/yr
Stop total (excl. annual ops)		$40.7B

Best terminal location (proposed)

The downtown riverfront district near the railroad museum. Wilmington's downtown riverfront anchors the region's tourism and film economy, with the railroad museum marking the city's rail heritage. The terminal would serve UNCW and the port workforce, with the corridor west toward Fayetteville following US-74/76.

Before / after

Before and after aerial mock-up of the proposed maglev terminal at Wilmington, NC

Aerial mock-up (illustrative, not an engineering rendering). Left: the proposed site today. Right: with the maglev terminal.

🛤️ Infill stops toward Fayetteville: the proposal envisions more stops than cities — smaller stations between majors. Plausible infills on this leg:

Elizabethtown, NC — Bladen County seat on US-701.
Whiteville, NC — Columbus County seat.
Lumberton, NC — Robeson County seat on I-95.

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