Seminole Gulf Railway reopens nearly 17 months after Hurricane Ian

Shortly after Hurricane Ian passed 17 months ago, officials explained how vital the then-ruined Seminole Gulf Railway was for getting resources to Southwest Florida.

It’s taken a while, but the Seminole Gulf Railway has completed its first test train ride since the powerful hurricane.

WINK News is hearing from Robert Fay, the executive vice president of the Seminole Gulf Railway, about the progress they have made.

“Work the problem,” said Fay.

And that’s exactly what he and his team did.

For more than 500 days, the railway found ways to repair its tracks while supplying its customers. On Tuesday, it was finally worth it.

Hurricane Ian sent waves of devastation throughout Southwest Florida, and the Seminole Gulf Railway wasn’t spared.

“In addition to the Caloosahatchee bridges, we also had the Peace River bridges to repair as well, plus several miles of track that were washed away between the flooding and storm surge,” said Fay.

Making recovery much more difficult.

“Fort Myers was at the end of the day cut off not only from, you know, the national rail system, but it was just cut off from an inability to bring in supplies and relief materials that would normally flow through straight into the area,” said Fay.

The Seminole Gulf Railway didn’t get federal or state funding.

“We took money out of our own accounts,” said Fay. “The ‘save for the rainy day in the rain’ came, and then we had to go and obtain commercial banking loans, which we were able to do.”

With major repairs needed, about a dozen clients couldn’t get supplies. Nevertheless, the railway got creative.

“You do what’s called ‘translating your unloading’ from the rail car and putting it onto a truck and making that kind of the final mile delivery, which from North Fort Myers isn’t so bad. But now we had to do it for everybody that was cut off,” said Fay.

The creativity and hard work for the family-owned railway paid off. The first test train chugged along on Tuesday across the Caloosahatchee River, nearly 17 months since Ian’s landfall.

“You go from that devastating moment of you’re standing on the shoreline on the Caloosahatchee looking north and knowing you’re not walking across, you’re certainly not taking a train across. And now you’re looking at that same spot. And now the trains can go back,” said Fay.

Since the railway is open, materials should get to suppliers quicker. That means those who have been waiting for their homes or roofs to get repaired since Ian shouldn’t have to wait much longer.