Perishables Business in Jacksonville to grow

[spuwho]

Posted earlier last year on MJ was the effort by perishables shipper, Railex to open a new Jacksonville facility;

Current status (per Trains)

The new Railex Jacksonville facility along the Bowden Yard will have 19 unloading docks, multiple temperature zones. Railex is reported to still be going through the permitting process with COJ. Railex is optimistic that they can get the facility open in 2014.

Railex wants to use the Jacksonville "hub" for moving perishables north to their Rotterdam NY facility using the I-95 corridor and also to points west using CSX by way of St Louis (via the Illinois Sub)

CSX has announced a new express service called the "Green Express" which will move perishables from Tampa to Kingsbury, Indiana (Chicago) via Jacksonville. CSX also looks to start this express service in 2014. The pineapple industry is following this closely due to the cost savings and time to market opportunities.

Both Railex & CSX are attempting to leverage Florida's ports as an express gateway for the growing market of perishables from South America.

CSX is considering a "service triangle" in cooperation with Railex, where Jacksonville originated trains go to Kingsbury, exchange a Green Express shipment with Union Pacific for a Railex, express it to Rotterdam, take empty reefers back to Tampa/Jacksonville for reload and start over again.

[spuwho]

CSX announced last month that they have suspended service on the Illinois Sub.

This runs contrary to the Railex plan to ship west coast perishables to Jacksonville through this sub via East St Louis, Vincennes and Nashville.

CSX laid off all the signaling staff. Does this mean the Railex deal is dead? Or are they just routing the Jacksonville express differently?

Anyone from CSX or Railex know what is up?

[spuwho]

Hey Ock,

Here are some pictures that only you can appreciate.

How do you shut down a railroad line and still stay within the laws without a STB hearing?

By removing a rail section, re-bolting it to the ties,  the line now becomes a branch line

- No FRA mandates on maintenance
- Don't have to pay Illinois state taxes as a "through" line
- No PTC requirements
- Since the rail is still in place, it is not legally "abandoned", just suspended

[thelakelander]

Wow, very interesting. You learn something new everyday.

[spuwho]

CSX announced last month that they have suspended service on the Illinois Sub.

This runs contrary to the Railex plan to ship west coast perishables to Jacksonville through this sub via East St Louis, Vincennes and Nashville.

CSX laid off all the signaling staff. Does this mean the Railex deal is dead? Or are they just routing the Jacksonville express differently?

Anyone from CSX or Railex know what is up?

I checked with some people knowledgeable on CSX train schedules.

There is not enough business on Railex to Jacksonville to warrant an express exclusively for them.

So Union Pacific aggregates the Jacksonville destined reefers in Green River Wyoming, turns them over to CSX in Chicago where they are then hotshotted to Jacksonville.

The only problem with this is then it takes a full week for produce to reach the Railex facility in Jax. That does not compete well with trucks.

When California produce shippers start demanding 5 day (instead of 7 day) deliveries of perishables and they finally get out of their drought long enough to increase crop production, then Railex volume to Jax will increase.

A spotter for CSX trains out of Chicago noted a few weeks ago there were only 5 Railex reefers on the CHI-JAX hotshot.

So it seems this particular biz in Jacksonville still is in formation and not mature just yet.