Wildwood’s struggle with CSX railroad trains blocking city streets may be coming to an end.
Commissioner Joe Elliott, who was designated to work on the problem in April, told the city commission Monday night that the railroad is cutting back some of its Wildwood operations and will focus only on serving local customers.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” he said. “I think things are getting better.”
Mayor Ed Wolf said the railroad has closed its Wildwood terminal and will move switching operations to Lakeland. He said no trains blocked city streets on Monday.
“I think you scared them to death,” he told Elliott. “Take credit.”
On many weekdays, trains would block several intersections west of U.S. 301 in the city’s downtown area for several hours while crews took coffee or breakfast breaks.
Earlier this year, City Manager Jason McHugh said he tried several times to contact the railroad about the problem but was unsuccessful. The commission appointed Elliott to work on it in hopes that it would be harder to ignore an elected official. Elliott is active in Republican politics and is a former Community Development District 8 supervisor.
Besides meeting with railroad representatives, he also tracked state legislation that would have imposed stiff fines for trains blocking city intersections. The legislation was not enacted this year in part because CSX lobbyists said they would rather deal with local officials.
Elliott said he found that Baldwin and other communities had the same problem.
Besides an inconvenience to residents, blocking intersections is a public safety issue forcing ambulances and other emergency vehicles to take detours to respond to the area.
Based in Jacksonville, CSX Corporation operates 21,000 miles of track in 23 states and two Canadian provinces. The railroad operates an average of 1,300 trains daily with a fleet of more than 4,000 locomotives and about 70,000 freight cars.
