Southern Railroads Brace for Hurricane Milton

Just as railroads in the Southeast recover in the wake of Hurricane Helene, their attention is now being refocused on the arrival of Hurricane Milton, which is predicted to strike Florida somewhere in the Tampa vicinity late on Wednesday and cross the state from West to East before entering the Atlantic Ocean, FreightWaves reported (10-8-24).

CSX Transportation is running as normal but is implementing safety protocols ahead of Milton’s landfall to ensure operational continuity. “At this time, all CSX yards and terminals are maintaining normal operations. Intermodal customers are encouraged to promptly pick up units network-wide that show as ‘notified’ in our ShipCSX portal,” a railroad customer advisory said.

Norfolk Southern (NS) is also operating as normal but is closely monitoring the storm, noting that high winds and heavy rains could impact rail operations in north Florida.

Milton will put Regional Rail’s Port Manatee Railroad and CSX’s Tampa-Orlando operations through Lakeland, Florida, and Winter Haven, Florida, in the direct path of the hurricane. Short-line railroads Florida Midland at Winter Haven and the Florida Central in Orlando could see heavy rains and localized flooding as Milton pushes east on Thursday.

Milton is expected to weaken but remain a Category 1 hurricane as it reaches the Atlantic Coast along the Florida East Coast Railway on Thursday.