Saw this in today’s News Wire. Does anyone have any more info on it? What sort of local freight service survives? Haven’t had time for any trainwatching since I’ve been in Tallahassee, and now looks like there’s not much reason to. Thanks.
Have seen a couple of news pieces on this but no real information on why and where. Apparently, the move is an effort to take the most direct line across the Florida panhandle area off the map as a major rail link. They are apparently trying to route future traffic away from the potential exposures to catastrophic hurricane damage ( a la Hurricane Katrina, and others that have caused havoc in that area.)
In the aftermath of Katrina there was a claim by CSX, and some other railroads to claim the millions of dollars in damages out of the coffers of the Federal Government. These damages and subsequent claims seem to be a direct result and constant in the aftermath of the Gulf Hurricanes and their impact on the Gulf Coastal areas. Yes there are insurance claims and Corporations are supposed to carry insurance and most do carry the insurance, but the claim efforts to the Fed’s seem to be efforts to mitigate the damage to the various Corporate treasuries.
That said, if the majority of the traffic could be routed farther north, the funds to maintain those lines out of the immediate cone of potential weather damage could mitigate the potential damage and expense of the process of continuously maintaining the exposed coastal lines at higher Track Classes, and the expenses of the emergency moves to move out equipment and the cargo contained there in would be less of a burden on the bottom line of the involved carriers.
The one line that would be in the most exposed position, and constantly exposed to the vagaries of the Atlantic and Gulf Hurricanes is the Florida East Coast RR. Pretty much theirentire plant is exposed due to its service area. CSC has much of its operations in Florida ans is also exposed, but its resources are of a much 'deeper pockets" due to the size of its plant which lays in the American interior, exposed mostly to tornadoes, wind, floods, and any natural event
I didn’t see the article, but could it be the start of consolidation of rail lines to reduce the required PTC mileage and costs?
It is more direct but::
Actually the detour route by way of Montgomery - LaGrange - Manchester is shorter in both time and distance. The reason more miles and time is the big bottleneck on the segment Flomaton - Pensacola (street running and edge of bay twisting track) - Crestview Fl. . That distance is about 45 miles as the crow flies vs rail miles of over 110. Takes 8 - 10 hrs for freights to traverse that segment. Anyone have an old AMTRAK schedule listing scheduled time?
Also the track is much closer to the gulf coast west of Mobile than east of Crestview. The track west is where the major demolition of the L&N - CSX tracks have occorred. So this route will not take the traffic out of harms way (Mobile - New Orleans). Remember Trent Lott wanted to relocate all track west of Mobile 10-30 miles north of the coast and out of those Mississippi towns after Katrina.
To stay away from the Mississippi coast would require realignment and rebuilding the old Western railway of Alabama (CSX) Montgomery - Selma; CSX/MBRR Selma - Meridian, Ms and trackage rights over NS to New Orleans.
NOT very likely.
And then if you rebuilt the old IC Baton Rouge - Hammond and the YMV on to Picayune then there would be a route completely away from the gulf coast.
Highly unlikely - not in my grandchildren’s lifetime.
Just checked the sunset proposed train times and it about 3 hours now between the two citys. vs 45 minutes as the crow flys. In addition there was a lot of trackwork to be done in the Pensacola area.
I believe you’ve hit upon something very important. By requiring PTC instalation the wise men and women of Washington, D.C. have decreed that it will be more expensive to operate rail lines.
This can produce only one result. There will be fewer rail lines. Or, at least, there will be fewer “main” lines that require the instalation of PTC. (If the cost is increased, the demand will decrease, all else being equal.)
Lower volume lines with alternatives are now at risk thanks to those wise men and women. PTC will have a negligible effect on rail safety and cause economic disruption. But hey, “The Public” got its “Say” and you really didn’t expect them to think this through did you?
In 1958, the Gulf Wind made it from Flomaton to Crestview in 2:18, including a ten minute stop in Pensacola. Westbound, the schedule shows 2:37, with ten minutes in Pensacola–and a ten minute connection to the Pan American in Pensacola Flomaton. (What a slip of the fingers!)
Johnny