TAMPA, Fla. — Hurricane Milton is still 700 miles from Florida’s coastal railroads, but the storm’s rapid strengthening from a weekend tropical storm into a Category 5 hurricane has freight railroads on high alert, and Amtrak is already canceling most of its Florida service for the week.
Amtrak’s southbound Silver Star No. 91 and Silver Meteor No. 97 will only operate as far south as Jacksonville, Fla., beginning today (Monday, Oct. 7) through Thursday, Oct 10. Northbound counterparts Silver Star No. 92 and Silver Meteor No. 98 will originate at Jacksonville, Fla., Tuesday, Oct. 8, through Friday, Oct. 11.
Amtrak has canceled the Auto Train in both directions beginning Tuesday, Oct. 8, through Thursday, Oct. 10. No alternate transportation is available for any of this week’s cancellations.
Orlando’s SunRail commuter rail operations will be suspended Tuesday, Oct. 8, until Thursday, Oct. 10. Brightline will suspend operations between West Palm Beach and Orlando on Wednesday and Thursday, and a Tuesday 7:45 p.m. departure from Miami will terminate in West Palm Beach instead of continuing to Orlando, the Palm Beach Post reports.
CSX Transportation is running as normal, but is implementing safety protocols ahead of Hurricane Milton’s Wednesday landfall to ensure operational continuity.
“At this time, all CSX yards and terminals are maintaining normal operations. Intermodal customers are encouraged to promptly pick up units network-wide that show as ‘notified’ in our ShipCSX portal,” a railroad customer advisory reads.
Norfolk Southern is operating as normal but is closely monitoring the storm, noting that high winds and heavy rains could impact rail operations in North Florida.
Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in the Tampa Bay area on Wednesday evening as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds greater than 110 mph.
This would put Regional Rail’s Port Manatee Railroad and CSX’s Tampa-Orlando operations through Lakeland, Fla., and Winter Haven, Fla., in the direct path of the hurricane. Short line railroads Florida Midland at Winter Haven, Fla., and the Florida Central in Orlando could see heavy rains and localized flooding as Milton pushes east on Thursday.
The storm is expected to remain a Category 1 hurricane as it reaches the Atlantic Coast along the Florida East Coast Railway on Thursday.
Hurricane Milton arrives less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene, a Category 4, made landfall on Florida’s Gulf Coast with record flooding across the Appalachians. CSX and NS rail lines are still out of service in western North Carolina and will likely remain that way for the weeks ahead as unprecedented flooding washed away large sections of roadbed and at least two railroad bridges on CSX’s former Clinchfield Railroad between Erwin, Tenn., and Spartansburg, S.C., and NS’s former Southern Railway S-Line west and east of Asheville, N.C.
— Updated at 6:40 p.m. CT with additional details on Brightline service suspension. Trains News Wire will provide more updates as information becomes available.
