In recent years, increasingly congested roads and airports have led Americans to seek new ways to travel. This parallels with a growing concern over environmental issues and increasing evidence that auto-oriented, large lot, suburban sprawl is not a sustainable lifestyle. An increasing number of people have begun to look forward to the possibilities presented by one of the oldest transportation modes--passenger rail. The United States once had a peerless national network of high-quality, fast, and frequent trains serving the nation's population. Passengers could travel most anywhere in the country on a train, whether the destination was a major city, a small town, or a wilderness resort. Passenger rail, however, declined as transportation priorities shifted after World War II in favor of automobiles and airlines to the point where currently passenger rail barely registers as a blip in national modal choice. Hillsborough, NC actually mirrors this national rail story quite well. Like the rest of the country, rail was instrumental to the early development and economic success of the Town. Further, rail provided the necessary linkages to national locations to keep the Town from being isolated. However, with the growth in importance of autos and roads, passenger rail ridership declined precipitously in Hillsborough and eventually disappeared in 1964. However, prompted by the continued presence of passenger trains on the rail corridor serving the town, economic and energy crises, and current residents who use passenger rail services (embarking from neighboring towns' stations), Hillsborough has begun a process to bring a rail station back to the Town. Prompted by community members, town leaders formed a Rail Station Task Force to study the feasibility of a rail station and then to select the site in town best-suited for rail service; the Task Force eventually selected the Collins Tract, a town-owned parcel near the historic downtown. A second Task-Force (still ongoing as of this writing) has neared completion of a conceptual land-use plan for the site. This paper seeks to analyze the process of bringing a rail station back to Hillsborough to determine whether it has been successful and, to the extent possible, what factors have contributed to that success. In general the process seems to have been a success, although it has been hampered by some problems, such as a lack of funding an occasional sluggishness in process. Factors that have contributed to this su...