I spoke today with Fred Wise, manager of the Florida Department of Transportation’s rail office.
He is one of the point men in the ongoing negotiations with CSX over the proposed $491 million deal that would reorganize freight rail traffic in the state, create an Orlando commuter rail corridor and bring the giant CSX integrated logistics hub to Winter Haven.
Wise, like CSX, emphasizes that the deal isn’t done yet. It’s a highly complicated agreement, running to hundreds and hundreds of pages. There’s no formal timetable for cementing it.
But what I found particularly interesting about the conversation was the difference in how the state and CSX have treated Ocala and how they’ve treated Lakeland. Both cities can expect extensive and comparable increases in train traffic. -- Polk County News Blog
