Norfolk Southern’s Florida freight partnership with FEC Railway expands amid textile and automotive growth (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — Norfolk Southern is leaning hard into Florida — and Jacksonville is emerging as the hinge point.
As booming EV demand and a resurging U.S. textile industry reshape freight patterns, the Class I rail carrier is seeing new momentum from its expanded partnership with Jacksonville-based Florida East Coast Railway, which funnels everything from Teslas to raw materials for Central American apparel manufacturers through the city.
The two rail carriers have expanded their intermodal interline partnership in recent years, which sees cargo transition between the two railroads in Jacksonville, and serves retail giants such as Amazon and local logistics heavyweights such as Crowley.
The collaboration has become a proving ground at a pivotal moment for Norfolk Southern. With Florida’s consumer economy surging, domestic manufacturing accelerating and port access growing more valuable, the railroad is positioning itself for even greater reach as it prepares to enter a proposed merger with Union Pacific. Executives say the deal would only strengthen the NS–FEC corridor — amplifying the freight flows now driving growth across the Sunshine State.
EV boom in Florida
Via its partnership with FEC, Norfolk Southern has seen 56% growth year-over-year in shipments for Tesla bound for Miami. The vehicles originate outside of Florida, and Norfolk Southern has invested in a dedicated secured area for storage and protection of the automobiles.
In 2024, the rail carrier moved about 20,000 new finished vehicles for Tesla, and surged to transporting about 31,000 this year. With domestic manufacturing on the rise, Florida is a prime destination for Norfolk Southern as it serves a burgeoning consumption market, said Alex Luc, Norfolk Southern Group Vice President of International Intermodal & Automotive.
“Florida is such a big consumption market and continues to thrive in that regard, they’re going to continue to need more goods, so as domestic manufacturing continues to grow throughout the country, additional goods are then going to need to be moved into the Florida market, whether it’s automotive, auto-part, whatever it may be, all of those various industries are going to continue to thrive,” Luc said.
A Norfolk Southern spokesperson said the rail service removed almost 13,000 truck trips off Florida highways by moving finished vehicles by train, and this year it’s on track to remove almost 14,000 truck trips off Florida highways.
Textile passageway to Central America
Another sector of domestic manufacturing positions Florida as a crucial gateway to overseas markets — providing raw materials to be shipped by Jacksonville-based Crowley.
Through its two-way service dubbed the Florida Express, Norfolk Southern and FEC serve Crowley by carrying textiles out of Charlotte to Crowley’s South Florida marine terminals for shipment to garment and apparel manufacturers in Central America and the Caribbean.
The service capitalizes on the strong textile industry in North Carolina, from which nearly 20 percent of all U.S. textile exports originate, according to Norfolk Southern. The state boasts the largest textile mill industry and more than 395 textile manufacturers.
In 2025, this service is set to remove approximately 6,000 trucks off the roads between Florida and North Carolina, a Norfolk Southern spokesperson said.
Luc outlined the collaboration it took to piece together the transportation for the textile supply chain into the Sunshine State.
“We already had a relationship with Crowley, and so we sat down and talked with them about the needs of those customers, whether it was produce or textiles, what does the product need to look like,” Luc said. “And as we did that, we sat with the FEC at the same time, and then that’s where I talked about what does our transit need to look like? What does the FEC’s need to look like? And then what is Crowley’s schedule around all of it, because they’re the ones connecting this whole puzzle together for those customers.”
The thriving freight partnerships have spurred increased investment in intermodal infrastructure in Jacksonville.
Norfolk Southern expanded its intermodal parking to 114 trailer spaces and its new exit in the city went into service in March 2024. Since 2022, Norfolk Southern has invested $22.5 million in capital for its intermodal ramp.
Photo courtesy of Florida East Coast Railway