TAMPA, Fla. — A long-discussed proposal to launch commuter rail service in the Tampa Bay area is unlikely to advance after CSX Transportation told local officials it is not interested in selling two rail lines in the area.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that the railroad — which indicated seven years ago that it would consider selling the two routes — said in a statement that it would “review any substantive plan” for commuter rail service, but that its “operations in Tampa are essential to the national supply chain network. Our priority is to protect CSX’s critical assets, preserving our ability to grow and provide reliable, efficient freight rail service to our customers.”
To date, little exists in the way of concrete plans for commuter service, leading David Gwynn, Florida transportation secretary for the region, to tell the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority the railroad is not interested in “spending a lot of time talking about things that are really just pie in the sky.”
Some members of the authority want to proceed with a $500,000 feasibility study on possible commuter service, but others see little reason to proceed unless the railroad is willing to be involved. Authority planner Brian Pressaro told the board that without CSX cooperation, a consultant wouldn’t have access to the CSX right-of-way to assess the condition of the track and what upgrades would be needed.
Another study of commuter rail remains on the long-term plans of the Transportation Planning Organization in Hillsborough County, which includes the Tampa area.
Just one more example where the Class One railroads refuse to be good neighbors. A commuter rail system in the Tampa Bay area would greatly improve the quality of life in so many ways. But CSX corp owns the tracks and is not interested in selling them nor hosting passenger trains on its tracks. There are very few nations in the world where a private rail system can hold an entire nation hostage in such a fashion. We all know that these Florida railroad right-of-ways are lightly used by a handful of freight trains everyday with ample capacity for passenger trains. But this great resource we have – the largest rail network in the world – is largely underutilized and void of traffic, freight or passenger on tens of thousands of miles of track. Ron Kaminkow, Amtrak engineer
DUH Reiter is a more accurate comment
I won’t hold my breath waiting for our GOP led State Legislature or Gov. Duh to even mention this. This State has nearly 22 Million residents and traffic is a nightmare, any passenger rail would help.
Very true!
It’s been said that the ultimate buildout of Florida’s railroads was too much. This is probably true. Equally true was the evisceration of Florida’s railroads by SCL, CSX and all the iterations in between, especially in the 1980s. Further, the loss of meaningful competition in the 1967 SCL merger did us no favors, especially now that we are the third largest state by population. There comes a time when you cannot afford to lose anymore.