Ball fought ferociously for the company's right to engage in its own contract negotiations with the railroad unions rather than accept an industry-wide settlement that would traditionally contain featherbedding and wasteful work rules. This led to a prolonged work stoppage by non-operating unions beginning January 23, 1963, and whose picket lines were honored by the operating unions (the train crews). From this point forward, the long-distance named passenger trains rerouted over the Seaboard Air Line route through the central interior of the peninsula south of Jacksonville, marking the end of long-distance coastal service between Jacksonville and West Palm Beach. Any resumed service later in the 1960s was strictly intrastate trains operated by the FEC.