Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX has a new deal for Florida panhandle trackage

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation’s deal to sell its Florida Panhandle route to short line operator RailUSA is back on.

The newly created Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad is scheduled to make its debut over the former CSX route sometime between May 31 and June 14.

CSX and RailUSA gained federal regulatory approval of the sale of 373 miles of trackage across the Panhandle, effective Jan. 6, but the two sides couldn’t come to final terms and the deal fell apart at the finish line, according to people familiar with the matter.

The regulatory approval remained intact, however, and a CSX spokesman confirms that the railroads were able reach a new agreement on the sale of the Tallahassee Subdivision between Baldwin, Fla., and Chattahoochee, Fla., the P&A Subdivision between Chattahoochee and Pensacola, Fla., and portions of the Bainbridge Subdivision between Tallahassee and Attapulgus, Ga.

The Florida Gulf & Atlantic is hiring around 37 people to run the Tallahassee-based railroad.

It’s also sending 18 to 20 four-axle locomotives to an unused customer siding, where the units will be painted in a red, white, and blue scheme and prepared for operation on the Florida Gulf & Atlantic.

Florida Gulf & Atlantic is the second acquisition for RailUSA, a new company headed by Gary Marino, an industry veteran who founded shortline holding companies RailAmerica and Patriot Rail. RailUSA is a subsidiary of International Rail Partners. Both companies are based in Boca Raton, Fla.

CSX will retain trackage rights on the line in the event of an emergency or natural disaster that would require rerouting of traffic, but the Class I has no plans to regularly use the Florida Gulf & Atlantic as a through route.

CSX has identified about 4,500 miles of routes as candidates for sale or lease, a figure that includes the 1,325 miles of lines that have already been put out to bid, sold, or are in the process of being sold.

Nice story. Too bad you couldn't attribute it to Bill Stephens at Trains Magazine.
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/03/21-csx-transportation-reaches-deal-again-to-sell-florida-panhandle-route
 

I haven't seen any confirming info on the deal yet.  Maybe later today.

One item of interest will be whether this is an all cash purchase, or a buy-out over time, etc.  My understanding is the original deal was some cash up front, and more cash as business grew with service / marketing, etc.

K-5 Wrote:
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> Nice story. Too bad you couldn't attribute it to
> Bill Stephens at Trains Magazine.
> http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2019/03/21-cs
> x-transportation-reaches-deal-again-to-sell-florid
> a-panhandle-route
>  
I got it off of a Facebook post, it was unattributed there.   Too bad you couldn't be polite.

I don't wish to be impolite. I just want to point out that if A posts B's material in what we can presume to be an infringement of copyright (it sure ain't "fair use" to copy something that long verbatim) regardless of attribution and then C reposts it from A, C has still committed copyright infringement. In other words, just because someone has already committed infringement, the material hasn't gone into the public domain for everyone else.

I'm not holier than thou; I'm sure that I have inadvertently fallen afoul of this myself. How can one tell when material has already been infringed? Unless you find it in the original via Google, you have to infer infringement from the way it's written. Omission of attribution when the wording looks to be professional is another clue.

Of course, A violated the Facebook TOS in the process. 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/22/19 15:12 by ctillnc.

ctillnc Wrote:
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 How can
> one tell when material has already been infringed?
> Unless you find it in the original via Google, you
> have to infer infringement from the way it's
> written. Omission of attribution when the wording
> looks to be professional is another clue.

Actually it looked like a standard CSX press release.  I incorrectly assumed this.  I'm going to hide from the Kalmbach's attorneys now! (Joke)

Still no formal CSX announcement.

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