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The population in Florida has risen significantly in recent years, making it all the more critical for the state to expand commuter-rail service. More residents also means more demand for consumer products, which is straining the state’s freight-rail network. The state of Florida and CSX Transportation are teaming up to address both capacity issues.

In August, The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and CSXT reached an agreement in principle under which the department will purchase a 61-mile CSXT line that will be used for commuter-rail service, and help the Class I fund infrastructure improvements and capacity expansions.

“It’s certainly a win-win,” says CSXT Spokesman Gary Sease. “We can enhance freight capacity and help the state address its need for commuter rail.”

FDOT plans to purchase CSXT’s line between DeLand and Ponciana for $150 million. The department proposes to provide commuter-rail service on the line during peak morning and evening periods, as well as during some off-peak hours. Scheduled to open in 2009, the initial segment would run form DeBarry to the Orlando Amtrak station.

In need of a new route But operating commuter-rail trains on the line means the Class I will have to find an alternate route for most of its through trains. Currently, the railroad’s Jacksonville-to-Orlando Atlantic Coast Line (or A Line) is the primary north/south corridor. Before commuter-rail operations begin on a portion of that line, CSXT will need to upgrade its Seaboard Line (or S Line), another north/south corridor located further inland from the A Line.

“We’ll have to build additional capacity by adding sidings and enhancing signalization to the point that the S Line can become our primary north/south line in Florida,” says Sease. “Commuter operations are scheduled to begin in 2009, so that would give us time to shift some through trains to the S Line.”

In partnership with FDOT, CSXT will spend $318 million to upgrade the S Line, build five overpasses on the corridor and improve other CSXT lines throughout the state. The department also will help build access roads to a new Integrated Logistics Center (ILC) CSXT is building in Winter Haven. The 125,000-acre site would include a rail, truck and warehousing terminal designed to transfer and store containerized consumer goods.

“We’re still in the property acquisition stage, but it will be very necessary that ILC is online so we can shift automotive and intermodal operations from Orlando to Winter Haven before commuter operations begin,” says Sease.

The state still needs to obtain “significant federal funding” for the agreement, but does have “key congressional support,” says Sease.

Shifting responsibilities The agreement in principle also calls for CSXT to transfer operational control of an 81-mile rail corridor, used by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) to operate Tri-Rail commuter-rail service, to the state.

FDOT and SFRTA would assume control of maintenance, and passenger- and freight-train dispatching along the West Palm Beach-to-Miami line. CSXT currently operates six to eight freight trains along the corridor daily, and would continue to do so if the state took over operational control.

The agreement also would open the door for SFRTA to extend service near Miami International Airport southwest to Homestead.

The concept isn’t new. When CSXT sold the south Florida corridor to the state in 1998 to operate commuter service, “both parties agreed that if we both benefited, we could shift dispatching to the state,” says Sease. “We are just continuing to negotiate and follow up on that.”