ORLANDO RAIL DEAL HAD A HIDDEN BOMB IN IT!

[Ocklawaha]

Good ol' railroad industry, same old, same old, "THE PUBLIC BE DAMNED!" (Vanderbilt, CEO NYC RR)

How many of us had read in detail the whole CSX - Florida - JEB Bush/Crist - Deal? Turns out there was a hidden loop hole that would have destroyed our chances of EVER seeing an adventure into Commuter Rail. Ditto for Tampa, St. Pete, the Gold Coast, Treasure Coast, Sun Coast, etc... So giving credit where credit is due, looks like I had this one wrong. It wasn't the liability issue, or the Lakeland issue, it wasn't even the Dockery issue's, we were all dead on right about those. It was a simple line hidden in the text:

After the deal: CSX will have UNLIMITED access to all other trackage in the State of Florida.

Knowing railroad speak as I do, this means, there ain't a chance of a snowball in HELL of getting one more passenger train on the CSX. Now the offer is off the table completely, the railroad media is reporting CSX is telling every city to "Go to hell". Time for the sleeping tiger of FDOT to put a boot where it will do the most good. New taxes? Tax increases? Maybe tax the hell out of CEO's making 12 Million a year? HAVE AT IT FLORIDA.

As we said in the military, "Time for an attitude correction..." Somebody get a blanket.

OCKLAWAHA

[mtraininjax]

Well, CSX is just covering its "shareholders". I remember when CSX in the 90s told all excursion railroaders, that they needed to come up with a 200 million dollar insurance policy, just to be able to use its rails. One of the main reasons the steam programs died so quickly on the CSX. I still love the Southern the most, for keeping its steam program for so long under Claytor.

[tufsu1]

Ock...please show me that line in the legislation....I did not see it anywhere!