CSX shifts its freight traffic for growth

[thelakelander]

We've been talking about this side benefit of the Orlando deal for nearly two years and it now looks like everyone else (JTA and the TU) is finally taking note. 

By DAVID HUNT,
The Times-Union

CSX Transportation plans to move more than one-third of its freight traffic from a railway that could one day help unsnarl rush-hour gridlock between Orange Park and Jacksonville.

As part of a $491 million state contract signed last week, CSX will relocate seven to eight freight trains daily from the A line, which runs along U.S. 17, said company spokesman Gary Sease.

CSX agreed to shift the freight traffic to bypass a 61-mile commuter rail system expected to begin running in Central Florida in 2010.

Transportation planners here see the move as a potential catalyst to building a commuter rail system in Jacksonville. Jacksonville Transportation Authority planning and research Director Scott Clem said the A line is getting "prime consideration" as the agency studies the issue.

"One of our biggest challenges is we've got a lot of rail corridors but we also have a lot of traffic on these rail corridors," he said, adding that a growing list of shipping companies at Jacksonville's ports likely will be dispatching more cargo by rail in coming years.

JTA's commuter rail feasibility study is expected to take 12 months, Clem said.

Sease said CSX and JTA have talked about commuter rail, but no serious plans are on the table.

"We really have our hands full with the transaction in Central Florida," Sease said. "We've devoted all our resources to that."

Through the nearly half-billion-dollar contract, CSX sold a portion of the A line near Interstate 4 for $150 million and agreed to move daytime traffic to the S line, which runs along U.S. 301. The shift will send Jacksonville's southbound freight west before it rounds Baldwin.

Sease said CSX will continue to use the A line for night shipping.

Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Homan said CSX will pay $10 million in annual access and maintenance fees for the nighttime use.

Roughly $300 million of the $491 million state contract will be used to increase capacity on the S line and build overpasses in areas that will see higher train traffic.

Sease said an average of 20 trains travel on the S line every day, compared to 18 on the A line. Although the plan is to remove seven or eight trains from the A line, Sease said a one-for-one shift is not likely. Some of the cargo would be attached to S line trains already passing through, he said.

david.hunt@jacksonville.com,

(904) 359-4025

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/120407/bus_222530777.shtml

[thelakelander]

Letters from readers

By Special to the Times-Union

TRANSPORTATION
Time for commuter rail

The Nov. 23 editorial titled "Public Transit: Rail gains credibility" was right on target.

Having ridden the Charlotte LYNX line, I am convinced that commuter rail's day has come in the South.

Jacksonville is blessed with three healthy railroads that have maintained their facilities to a standard where a mere addition of capacity could give Jacksonville a first-class commuter system at a relatively low cost.

All three railroads have been able to maintain their systems due to the wise government decision to deregulate them in 1980.

This decision has enabled them to divert much freight traffic off our overcrowded roads.

With Amtrak ridership at an all-time high, it is logical that commuter rail would be a success, also.

We must resist all efforts to re-regulate the rail industry.

Such re-regulation that some are now proposing in Congress, if put into effect, would result in deferred maintenance, high freight rates and jeopardize the institution of commuter rail service in cities such as ours.

GEORGE BOLLINGER, Jacksonville

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/120407/opl_222490914.shtml