Palm Beach proposing interport rail network

Palm Beach proposing interport rail network    The Port of Palm Beach is spearheading a proposal to develop an Inland Port Cargo Complex that would be part of a new rail network connected to ports from Tampa to Miami.
   The Port of Palm Beach has identified ways to patch together an interport rail network using existing tracks belonging to CSX Transportation, the Florida East Coast Railway, and the South Central Florida Express, a specialty railroad primarily dedicated to the sugar industry, plus some relatively short stretches of new track that would parallel existing state highways.
   Under the proposal, there would be continuous rail lines linking the ports of Palm Beach, Port Everglades, and Miami on the Atlantic Coast and Tampa and Port Manatee on the Gulf Coast. There would also be an 'inland port' located south of Lake Okeechobee and some 40 miles west of the Port of Palm Beach.
   Port of Palm Beach executive director Lori Baer said the proposal is still in the concept stage, but port officials have presented the plan to the Florida Department of Transportation and the Florida Transportation Commission, as well as a group of port stakeholders and potential shippers that might be impacted by the proposal.
   A key part of the network would be the Inland Port Cargo Complex in western Palm Beach County. The facility would be built on 2,000 to 2,500 acres in a location that would be compatible to industrial usage and sufficient available space, Baer said.
   Tallahassee-based Cambridge Systematics Inc. is now working on a study to determine the costs and economic feasibility of the project. When that study is completed, Baer said, the port will be ready to go to the state to work out a financing proposal, which would likely include some kind of public-private partnership.
   Although the port has shown the proposal to the railroads, there has been no commitment on participation to date.
   The initial inland port concept was developed as a way to provide a site to handle more freight for the land-constrained Port of Palm Beach, Baer said, similar to successful inland facilities in Virginia, Georgia, and South Carolina.
   But it would ultimately be more a regional project, Baer noted, that would possibly be administered by a separate port-authority-type entity with representatives from the state and different ports.
   In addition to a rail yard, the proposal calls for development of warehousing and distribution center facilities around the inland port.
   The rough estimate on the cost of the inland port itself is currently around $100 million, Baer said, noting that those numbers could change as more details are worked out.