THIS CASE DOES NOT CALL FOR ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

It calls for common sense, which is missing whenever the process worshippers come after Florida's Brightline.  Trains columnist Bill Stephens elaborates.  "Coast Guard bridge plan ignores practices elsewhere, realities of railroad operation."  In particular, the Stuart drawbridge has much in common with the New River draw just south of the Fort Lauderdale station.  The Saturday I checked out the service that draw was up.

The Coast Guard, perhaps being nudged by a rail-unfriendly Member of Congress, want to change the protocol at the St. Lucie River draw, which is on one remaining (downsized to) single track stretch of Florida East Coast.

Currently, the bridge closes only when a Florida East Coast Railway freight train approaches. Before closure, mariners are given a warning, allowing the FEC train to retain momentum and move through downtown Stuart without stopping.

Beginning June 21 and until Dec.17, 2023, that changes. The new rule will require all trains, that are unable to complete passage by the scheduled openings to be held until all marine traffic passes. The Coast Guard calls “temporary deviation” a test and is inviting comment before Aug. 4, 2023.

That's not the case at the New River draw.

The latest ruling is a departure from the way rail and marine traffic interact at Fort Lauderdale’s New River drawbridge before and after hourly Brightline trains were first extended to Miami in May 2018.

“The Fort Lauderdale experience was successful because we were able to find that middle ground and, no surprise, communication was the real key,” recalls Jay Westbrook.

Now retired, the former CSX passenger rail liaison with Amtrak was hired by what was then the parent company of both Brightline and FEC to create DispatchCo, an independent dispatching entity to evenly balance — in perpetuity — the competing needs of passenger and freight operations.

Finding middle ground and nonstop communication is exactly how DispatchCo, helped by generous capacity and infrastructure upgrades, keeps hourly Brightline trains on time and FEC happy. Similarly, Westbrook tells Trains News Wire, “mutual respect and trust” helped achieve peaceful coexistence between the railroad and over 400 members of the Marine Industries Association of South Florida.

Remember those Rowan and Martin Laugh-In skits about the CIA not knowing what the FBI is doing?  Comedy shows come and comedy shows go, but government agencies still don't communicate with each other.  The Coasties have yet to respond to Trains.  Federal Railroad Administration people know how to reach Trains, but apparently the Coasties aren't monitoring that frequency.

Federal Railroad Administration spokesman Warren Flatau told Trains News Wire on June 12 that his agency “is aware of the matter, but we have not communicated directly with the U.S. Coast Guard,” adding, “It is a certainty that FEC and Brightline will make their concerns known to the Coast Guard through the public comment process.” He says FRA staff he questioned is unaware of any other rail line where bridge openings are scheduled more than once per hour through the day at fixed times and of fixed duration.

When briefed on what the Coast Guard now has in mind, former DispatchCo head Westbrook remarked, “Wow! That’s going to be a real challenge!”

A second track across the bridge and through the coastal towns would help out, funds permitting.

I can't help but suspect, though, that any plans to double through Stuart would bring out the same sort of whining about grade crossing incidents that has beset Brightline, and, for all I know, Florida East Coast ever since they went to faster intermodal trains, from the beginning of the Fort Lauderdale to West Palm service.