Eastern Railroad Discussion > FL: FEC and Riviera Beach resolve trains blocking roads

The town of Riviera Beach, just north of West Palm Beach, has complained about traffic delays of up to an hour as Florida East Coast trains block several main streets into their port district during morning and evening rush hours. The problems began in late 2021 as FEC changed and simplified its schedules, cutting trains and combining others. The road power added or dropped containers for the port. The result was long trains blocking truck routes into and out of the busy port.  The FEC does not usually cut trains to allow crossings to remain open during the switching.

The Palm Beach Post reports the railroad and the city have reached an agreement to have the morning train arrive earlier and be out of the way before highway traffic peaks. No word on what they're doing with the afternoon, but I've noticed an FEC local out of Fort Pierce picking up Tropical boxes out of Port of Palm Beach after dinner and returning to FP. That was the old practice.

In the past, the Port of Palm Beach switcher put outbound traffic on the interchange tracks in the early morning, and again between 1 and 3 pm. I don't know how this change will affect that practice. 


https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/westpb/2022/05/03/monster-fec-trains-arriving-later-riviera-beach-rush-hour-traffic-commuters-relieved/9587128002/

The 101 (old 121) was handling West Palm traffic and 109 (old 117) was handling Ft. Pierce traffic after the schedule change last year. The 109 is now handling the West Palm traffic and they depart Bowden earlier allowing for an earlier arrival in West Palm. Conversely, 101 is now handling Ft. Pierce.

Posted from Android