Railex to open new Jax Facility

[spuwho]

Per Trains NewsWire:

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. â€" Railex will build a new southeast distribution center in Jacksonville, the Florida Times Union reports. The company operates dedicated refrigerated unit trains between Washington and northern California and Rotterdam, N.Y., in conjunction with CSX Transportation and Union Pacific.

The new 252,000-square-foot facility would be located on an 18-acre site on Phillips Highway, which parallels the Florida East Coast main line south of downtown Jacksonville. The new refrigerated warehouse is expected to employ up to 310 people. Railex is seeking more than $8 million in state and local financial assistance for the facility.

"Our hope is to create an I-95 corridor lane to connect Jacksonville to Rotterdam," Paul Esposito, Railex senior vice president, tells the Albany Times Union.

A $12 million expansion in Rotterdam would add 65,000-square-feet to the existing facility to handle the additional traffic there.

The company also recently opened a $20 million wine distribution center near Wallula, Wash., according to the Tri-City Herald. Wine producer Chateau Ste. Michelle will anchor the new facility. It expects to produce 8 million cases of wine this year and Railex expects to move 6 million of them.

[tufsu1]

the proposed location is midway between Butler Blvd and Baymeadows Rd

[thelakelander]

This project appears to be getting close to breaking ground.

Railex seeks reviews for $106M project

Railex LLC continues to take steps to develop a 250,000-square-foot cold-storage warehouse-distribution center in South Jacksonville that should employ 310 people by 2018.

The St. Johns River Water Management District is reviewing an application for a 23.6-acre site at 6140 Philips Highway.


A project summary filed with the city says Railex proposes to buy an 18-acre tract of undeveloped rail-spur property along Philips Highway adjacent to the Florida East Coast Railway marshaling yard.

Railex proposes to build a multimodal center to warehouse and distribute refrigerated freight. It would be served by spur rail and support yard rail to handle 40-85 car unit trains within a 24-hour period.

Full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=542289

[spuwho]

Railex to open new Florida facility in June
Published: May 8, 2014

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Railex open its temperature-controlled multimodal and logistics services in Jacksonville in June 2014. The opening of its Southeast services, along with its facilities in Delano, Calif.; Wallula, Wash.; and Schenectady, N.Y., gives the company greater reach. This offers West Coast shippers a year-round, uninterrupted expedited shipping solution into the once under-served Southeast. Likewise, growers and shippers from the Southeast can soon readily move product to the West Coast.

"Our goal is to change the landscape of perishables transport in the U.S." says Adrian Neuhauser, Railex president, "The launch of our Jacksonville services along with Railex's forward distribution options, greatly expands our national influence and gives our customers significant shipping advantages."

In June, Railex will begin offering expedited service over CSX Transportation to Jacksonville, with routes from California and Washington into Florida multiple times each week. The company is still working to develop service between its New York and Florida facilities.

[AuditoreEnterprise]

I quite like this. I can't wait to see how it progresses.

[mtraininjax]

Doesn't TTX have a large facility north of the Jax Terminal too? It's nice to be popular!

[cline]

TTX has a facility basically at the corner of Acorn and Beaver.

[thelakelander]

TTX is a owns rail cars and I believe the Acorn site is one of their railcar repair facilities. Railex is a rail-based cold storage distribution business.

[spuwho]

It appears the midwest facility Railex will build is in or near St Louis. (UP/BNSF/KCS/CSX/NS/CN all junction there) If anything to avoid Chicago and Cincinnati congestion.

This means that any perishable traffic out of Jax going west will go CSX the entire route to STL (after it leaves FEC here).

The eastbound trains typically keep their Union Pacific power, so if there are any train watchers around here, they will probably enjoy seeing all of the UP engines coming over the St John's River Bridge downtown and turning around at Bowden Yard.

I just found out that CSX has been running test trains in and out of St Louis and has been upgrading the Illinois Sub in preparation for the service. Trains headed to Jacksonville will cross Illinois, turn south at Vincennes, Indiana and follow the old L&N route to Chattanooga before taking the fast track south to Jax.

There were lots of questions marks on if CSX was going to abandon or sell the Illinois Sub (former B&O) since it couldn't support double stacks between Mitchell and Seymour, Indiana due to tunnels.

Now that Railex has arrived and needs uncongested transcon service between Jacksonville and the west coast, this is a reprieve for the route.

[mtraininjax]

to Chattanooga before taking the fast track south to Jax.

Is it faster taking a route through Georgia and especially Atlanta, Waycross or would it be faster to take the route south through Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee to Jax? If you have a Fast Freight on High Iron with Priority, is Georgia the best shot or would Alabama seem to be better, not knowing the CSX loads at the moment. Very busy rail in Georgia was my only point.

[spuwho]

CSX currently runs the Tropicana juice express on the same route to Queensgate Yard in Cincy. They have plans to run their new "Green Express" perishables service the same way through Cincy up to Kingsbury Indiana outside Chicago.

The only difference is that Railex will switch off near Chattanooga and route via Nashville and then north to Evansville before making the turn west at Vincennes.

The fact that CSX is going to route 3 express trains in both directions between Chattanooga and Jacksonville must mean they have adequate capacity and crew support with no blockages.

[James 82]

Ive been following the progress of the new railex jax also I was wondering if these trains would take the A line to jax and go through Folkston Georgia?  Also is the name beaver street where csx will hand over the trains to the FEC?  Thanks.

[spuwho]

Ive been following the progress of the new railex jax also I was wondering if these trains would take the A line to jax and go through Folkston Georgia?  Also is the name beaver street where csx will hand over the trains to the FEC?  Thanks.

The Railex shipments would originate and terminate in Jacksonville. They would use the FEC Bowden yard to stage the consist and then use the CSX line to Waycross and then route to Dalton, GA and switch out to the NW to Nashville.

The Tropicana juice trains originate in Bradenton and use the A line to go north. It would also route through Waycross then switch out at Dalton, GA but go north to Cincy.

The Green Express trains would originate at the Port of Tampa, use the A line to reach Waycross and then follow the same route to Dalton, GA and Cincy and on north to the massive Kingsbury, Indiana warehouse complex.

So the one thing they all have in common is between Waycross and Dalton GA. With 3 high profile shippers on this route, it is going to be extremely busy.

[thelakelander]

Railex moves ahead on Powers Avenue location

By Karen Brune Mathis, Managing Editor

Railex LLC has changed tracks for development of a proposed 310-job Southside distribution center, bypassing a Philips Highway location for a nearby Powers Avenue site owned by the Skinner family.
Railex, based in Riverhead, N.Y., was negotiating for a site at 6140 Philips Highway, but soil issues led it to consider the alternate location.

The Arthur Chester Skinner Jr. Trust, listed as the landowner, filed an application last week with the St. Johns River Water Management District for development of the West Bowden Rail Yard. The site is east of Powers Avenue, just south of its intersection with Toledo Road.

"The application is part of our plan to move forward on this site, subject to working out an entrance at or north of Toledo Road acceptable to the city," said Railex President Adrian Neuhauser in an email Thursday.

Neuhauser said the Philips site wasn't entirely off the table, "but financially very challenging given the site soil characteristics and costs of mitigating stormwater," he said.

"We believe this is a more viable solution," he said of the Powers site.

Full article: http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=543563

[thelakelander]

Well that was quick....

Breaking: Railex to close Jacksonville location

Railex, a rail company that specializes in cold storage, is shuttering its Jacksonville office.

The company, which opened in 2014, said it will end its Southeast operation for what is hoped to be a temporary closure.

"For various reasons beyond our control, we could not run a traditional unit train type service to Jacksonville," explained Paul Esposito, executive vice president of corporate affairs for Railex.

Esposito said that rail transit time was taking two days longer out of a small facility, located at 12740 Kenan Drive, making service time longer than what customers expected from the company.

Full article: http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2016/08/05/breakingrailex-to-close-jacksonville-location.html