The Canaveral Port Authority (CPA) last night held the first of a series of community meetings to discuss the importance of rail and intermodal transportation to the future of Brevard County and the central Florida region. The meeting provided an update on the Port Canaveral Rail Extension Project, which the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) is in the process of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to determine potential impacts of the project. Speakers included Port Canaveral CEO John E. Walsh and Jim Dubea, Deputy Executive Director of Government Relations & Strategic Partnerships. Brad Swanson, State Freight, Logistics and Passenger Operations Administrator for the Florida Department of Transportation, gave a presentation on the statewide initiative to expand multimodal capabilities. “We were pleased that so many from the community attended and are interested in this project that is critical to multimodal growth and development for our region, state and nation,” Walsh said. “The concerns of our community are important to us as we continue to live up to our responsibility to respond to the market and provide critically needed infrastructure in order to help our economy recover. We encourage the community to show its support of a rail extension in order to make this happen.”