(The following story by George H. Newman appeared on The Tampa Tribune website on September 25, 2009.)
PLANT CITY, Fla. — CSX has recently contracted with Tampa Electric Co. to add a 110-car coal train to the list of trains passing through Plant City.
Gary Sease, a spokesman for the Jacksonville-based railroad, said the train will not run on a particular schedule, but will move through town when openings on the track occur.
“The train will run at anytime during the day or night,” Sease said. “The timing will be based on track availability and TECO’s delivery schedule.”
The coal train is expected to start running in December.
The 110-car train is a pretty typical length for trains in the Southeast, he said.
TECO spokesman Rick Morera said the coal train will originate in the Illinois basin.
“This is part of TECO’s effort to add diversity in transporting coal to the Big Bend coal burning plant [in Apollo Beach],” Morera said. “Coal delivery to the Big Bend plant has been exclusively delivered through the Mississippi River, and across the Gulf of Mexico. Weather can be a factor. Train gives us another form of delivery that will improve our delivery system.”
Morera said this will be TECO’s sole coal train running through the city. The north to westbound train will slow to about 10 miles per hour as it makes the turn at Laura Street, south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
City Manager David Sollenberger said he doesn’t foresee any problem with the added coal train.
“Public safety with all traffic through town is of high concern,” Sollenberger said. “We don’t expect this train to create any problems for us.”
Police Chief Bill McDaniel said trains are a part of life in Plant City, which was built as a railroad town. He said his agency always keeps that in mind as its officers patrol the city, so trains don’t cut them off from an emergency.
“Train traffic will not interfere with police service,” said McDaniel, who added that his department has been in contact with CSX about the coal train. “Our officers are deployed in the east-west/north-south quadrants defined by rail lines. I don’t see any problem related to the coal train that is any different from other train traffic through town. We will deal with it.”
Plant City Fire Rescue’s two stations are strategically located so firefighters are available to reach any part of town without waiting for a slow moving train to clear.
Information regarding the TECO plan can be found at tampaelectric.com/pr