[JudyinCanada]

Sounds like they’re setting up a new way to ship their criminals.

[Delta 21]

All cash?

[aumrl]

Would be informative to report on who controls Fortress.

A Japanese holding?

[WKUHilltopper]

Mexico is an enemy of the Republic.

[ryderann]

I put pennies on those tracks 70 years ago.

[Rebelbase]

The old Henry Flagler line.

I love the monuments he left down in the keys.

[GladesGuru]

Given that Miami Cubans look down on Mexicans as a form of lower life, this will not be the cause of dancing in the streets of Little Havana.

Or anywhere else, for that matter.

[PAR35]

So the ‘Smartest Guys in the Room’ managed to turn a $3.5 billion asset into a $2.1 billion asset?

FEC used to have some other short lines around the country that were controlled by the same holding company, but not (technically) directly under the FEC. Were those included in the deal?

[VastRWCon]

Anyone know if these are the same lines that All-Aboard FL will be on?

[norwaypinesavage]

It's too bad. I'll add a bit of history to show why. It's from memory, so forgive anything not exactly right.

In steam engine days, a train crew had five members, an engineer, a brakeman, and a fireman in the locomotive, and a conductor and a brakeman in the caboose. The steam was exhausted into the air, so the train would have to stop every so often (200 miles, or so)to take on water. With the advent of diesel locomotives, union rules kept the same crew sizes and exchange points even though the diesel operation and reliability eliminated the need for the brakemen and fireman.

The Florida East Coast was first to significantly challenge this pattern. They found they could run the entire length of their 350 mile route with a crew of two, both in the locomotive. They had just an automatic brake light on the caboose. This caused all kinds of consternation at the union. For a while, they were pushing an empty car ahead of the locomotive to detonate dynamite left on the tracks by the "protestors". Finally, the FBI, under one of the very few things President Johnson did right, caught the few perpetrators.

Now virtually all railroading in the US is run with only a crew of only two. It's too bad the railroad that caused this is no longer US owned.

[PAR35]

Connecting a few dots here. Grupo Mexico is heavy into mining. One of FECs big moneymakers is shipping limestone rock. And one one of FEC’s big customers for that limestone is the Mexican company CEMEX.