Blue Ridge Train Schedule 2026–27: Is It Running on Your Date?

The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway runs from the depot in downtown Blue Ridge, Georgia on the dates its calendar shows, in four seasons that cover February 28, 2026 to February 28, 2027. Here is what the railway publishes about when it runs, as checked on October 17, 2026, and what it doesn’t publish as plain text.

The 2026 seasons

Source: the Blue Ridge Railway home page. The seasons are the windows; the railway’s calendar shows which days inside them have trains.

The departure pattern

The key on the railway’s 2026 operating calendar shows regular trips leaving at 10 a.m. (the 4-hour ride) and 3 p.m. (a 2-hour or 4-hour ride, depending on the day). The booking system for late October to early December 2026 fills in the return times:

For either ride, the railway asks you to arrive 45 minutes early, and boarding opens 30 minutes before departure. That early arrival is why a 3-hour Main Street parking space doesn’t cover the 4-hour ride; see parking.

What isn’t published as text

The railway doesn’t publish a day-by-day list of which trains run. The per-day calendar is a color-coded PDF, and the live answer for any date is the railway’s booking calendar, which shows each date’s departures and the seats left. We haven’t turned the PDF into a day-by-day list here, and we won’t guess at one. To check a date, open the booking calendar from the railway’s site, pick the ride and see whether your date shows a departure. If it does, book it: the railway says rides sell out weeks ahead and doesn’t recommend buying on the day. For more on reading the calendar, see the train calendar in plain text.

Special trains this fall and winter

• Trick or Treat Train, Saturday, October 31, 2026, 5 to 9 p.m.: it rides to McCaysville and Copperhill, where a two-hour layover lets families trick-or-treat in a vehicle-free downtown. The booking system priced seats from $59.99 to $76.99 before fees and taxes and showed no seats left on October 17.
• 1-Hour Holiday Express: the booking system lists departures on November 28 and 29 and December 5 and 6, 12 and 13, and 19 to 24, 2026, mostly at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m., plus 4 p.m. on November 28. The railway’s home page says select dates from November 27 to December 23, so go by the booking calendar. On October 17, almost every open-air departure showed zero seats left, and season passes don’t cover it.

Rail bikes

Blue Ridge Rail Bikes are four-person, motor-assisted bikes that leave the downtown depot for a 90-minute, 11-mile round trip. The railway says they run every day the train is in service. Arrive 45 minutes early and pick up pre-paid tickets at the rail bike office in the red caboose next to the depot. No pets, and no children under 4. The booking system priced seats at $62.99 to $69.99 in October 2026 and $59.99 to $66.99 from November 5, before fees and taxes.

Weather, weekends and the ticket office

Excursions run rain or shine. In winter, open-air coaches get vinyl windows for heat, but the railway still says to dress warm. Weekends are the railway’s busiest days, with heavy traffic and limited parking, so leave extra time on a Saturday. The ticket office is open 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, seven days a week, at (877) 413-8724.

For the downtown side of the day, including coaches, food on board, access and what’s near the depot, see a train day from downtown. To fit the ride into a day on foot, the day planner adds either departure, and the events calendar shows what else is on in town that weekend.

Questions people ask