From the Department of CSX Actions No One Could Have Predicted

Some schlub wrote this not long ago:

In this economy, CSX will not lightly walk away from more than $600 million in cash and system improvements, liability or no.

A commenter expressed some skepticism and asked what I based that on. Oh, well, just a hunch.

From The Orlando Sentinel:

Last week, in a development first reported by the Orlando Sentinel, Dyer, Mica and others negotiated an extension to a proposed contract with CSX, the Jacksonville train company that owns the tracks that SunRail would use.

What’s funny about here is that, according to future CSX board member Rep. John Mica, R-CSX (that’s total idle reckless speculation, I should note), CSX is now willing to reconsider the liability, the feds will help the state by kicking in more money, and the whole thing will get worked in somehow with high speed rail. There’s absolutely no shred of evidence that any of what Mica says is true, and his record of being correct, is, well, less than consistent.

But assume for a second he’s telling the truth. Either CSX has suddenly become the picture of civic altruism, or all those frets about how we couldn’t possibly create a better deal were crap – as many of us told you all along.

Who knows what’s going to happen? Supposedly, supporters will make a move in the fall. Until then, we’ll just keep an eye on it.