Chiquita announced today that it is laying off 15% of its workforce and closing the Bradenton, Florida shipping facility. :thumbs_down: FEC is based in Bradenton, Florida. :-( http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071030/BIZ01/710300318/1076 Resp, John "delljohnb" Baugher Mason, OH
EAST - WEST ? John, So sad to see more jobs lost. Chiquita Brands Llc is located in Bradenton. FEC = Florida East Coast ?? Bradenton is on the West coast of Florida near Tampa, The FEC serves the EAST coast......... unless something has changed ...... Most likely the plant would be served by CSX or a shortline. FEC RAILWAY recently moved it's Headquarters from St. Augustine to Jacksonville.
Chiquita also uses the port at Gulfport MS served by CSX and KCS. Maybe they are going to increase the flow though that point. However, I have never noticed any Chiquita containers moving by rail.
Hi! The facility closing is the banana distribution facility. That's OK, because the important rail-served customer is the orange juice plant, which is where the famous Tropicana orange juice trains originate. What a relief, my friend almost has enough cars to model the Tropicana train in N Scale, and he would have been bummed out if the train was discontinued before he completed it! :tb-biggrin: Bradenton is where Rail America is based.
FEC serves the Tropicana facility in FT Pierces. Then they take the cars to Jacksonville were CSX adds them to the Juice train on its way to Jersey.
