South
Central Florida Express, Inc. - (en)
South Central Florida Express, Incorporated (originally known as the
South Central Florida Railroad and run by the Brandywine Valley
Railroad until September 17, 1994) is a short line railroad in
southern Florida run by U.S. Sugar. It serves customers at 26
locations.
U.S. Sugar, the only sugar company in the continental U.S. to
transport sugarcane by rail, owns private trackage to take the cane to
the SCFE. From there, the SCFE runs around both sides of Lake
Okeechobee. The west side connects to CSX at Sebring, and the east
side connects to CSX at Marcy and the Florida East Coast Railway at
Fort Pierce, with trackage rights to CSX and Norfolk Southern at
Jacksonville, Florida.
History
The 87 miles (140 km) west connection, west of Lake Harbor, was a CSX
line (Sebring Subdivision along the mainline to the sugar fields, and
Okeelanta Subdivision on the spur to Lake Harbor), originally part of
the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. It was bought on June 2, 1990, by
the Brandywine Valley Railroad, a Lukens Steel subsidiary, and sold to
U.S. Sugar on September 17, 1994. U.S. Sugar set up the railroad as
separate company with its own board of directors to operate
independently from the 119 miles (192 km) branch line U.S. Sugar
already owned at the time.
The 71 miles (114 km) east connection, east of Lake Harbor, is still
owned by the Florida East Coast Railway as their Fort Pierce-Lake
Harbor Branch (also known as the K-Branch). It was part of the
original Kissimmee Valley Line to Lake Okeechobee south of near Marcy,
and a newer cutoff north of there. On March 2, 1998, South Central
Florida Express and the Florida East Coast Railway entered into a car
haulage arrangement, allowing SCFE to use the branch and the mainline
to interchange with CSX and Norfolk Southern at Jacksonville.
