Brightline Trains Florida discussion

[Seaboard92]

Also it will make Fortress Investment Group some major profits on land sales near the stations. Seeing correct me if I'm wrong they own the land. If enough people use the services the value goes up.

 

[cirdan]

Brightline is a hospitality service primarily. That is going to be its primary focus. This fellow will have a rail operations person who will report to him who will be in charge of making sure the trains run properly, that is the T&E side, which is an enabler but not the primary business in their view. A fundamentally different approach. This is my speculation that is line with the choice of COO.

Isn't the primary source of income going to rent from real estate, especially at the Miami site. Therefore I would think they need somebody who understands real estate and can sell the opportunity to the most suitable and best paying tenants. I don't see what value a guy who understands hotel operations can bring in here.

 

[jis]

No. Not for AAF. True for FECI the owners of AAF. AAF's primary P&L is Brightline and its station buildings. Not the rest of the development.

 

[Thirdrail7]

Prepare for the arrival.

 

[jis]

Yep. Rusty Roberts (of AAF) informed us at the NARP meeting that the first set will be coming in late October/early November and Amtrak will transport it from California to Florida.

Thirdrail, have you heard anything about testing of the set to 125mph on the NEC? Or are they not going to do that for now and wait until,next year or the year after?

 

[Carolina Special]

How would the rumored sale of FECR impact the Brightline project? Seems like CSX and Norfolk Southern are not going to be enthusiastic supporters of passenger rail, if the Feds allowed either to win the bidding. They're interested in freight traffic.

 

[CCC1007]

How would the rumored sale of FECR impact the Brightline project? Seems like CSX and Norfolk Southern are not going to be enthusiastic supporters of passenger rail, if the Feds allowed either to win the bidding. They're interested in freight traffic.

Hasn't CSX been pulling out of south Florida?

 

[jis]

How would the rumored sale of FECR impact the Brightline project? Seems like CSX and Norfolk Southern are not going to be enthusiastic supporters of passenger rail, if the Feds allowed either to win the bidding. They're interested in freight traffic.

I have tried to explain before that FECR is already treated as a distinct arms length corporation by AAF, and they have long term contracts for supporting AAF in place. FECR and AAF are not subsidiaries of the same entity one level up. AAF is a subsidiary of FECI. FECR is a subsidiary of the Fortress Group as is FECI. Fortress has always wanted to focus on real estate and hospitality. It is quite unlikely that either CSX or NS will be allowed to acquire FECR anyway by the feds, and as mentioned CSX is actually in the process of getting out of South Florida anyway. Irrespective of all that the framework for operation is already in place, and AAF will actually provide a significant proportion of the revenues for FEC, and pay actual cost of operation, unlike Amtrak does to freight roads.

Someone that claims FECR is interested only in freight traffic clearly does not know much about FECR's business model today. They are struggling with under-performing freight revenues, which is incidentally a problem that most other freight railroads are struggling with today too.

 

[WoodyinNYC]

Prepare for the arrival.

At least we've all had ample time to prepare ourselves.

Much thanks for this heads up.

 

[Seaboard92]

Any idea if they will move in a special movement or be tacked on the rear similar to private cars? That might be worth me getting up at two AM to see the Meteor head south.

 

[jis]

Any idea if they will move in a special movement or be tacked on the rear similar to private cars? That might be worth me getting up at two AM to see the Meteor head south.

Thirdrail might know the answer to that one. Outside of Amtrak, Siemens and AAF it is unlikely that anyone knows.

 

[Thirdrail7]

Any idea if they will move in a special movement or be tacked on the rear similar to private cars? That might be worth me getting up at two AM to see the Meteor head south.

Unless something changes, it will be a special move that travels on its own.

 

[Seaboard92]

Any idea if they will move in a special movement or be tacked on the rear similar to private cars? That might be worth me getting up at two AM to see the Meteor head south.

Unless something changes, it will be a special move that travels on its own.

Thank you. I'll keep my eyes open for it.

 

[Brian_tampa]

From a Broward County meeting agenda from today, I learned that AAF is wanting to construct an additional station at the Ft Lauderdale airport. It will be located near where the runway bridge is over the FECR tracks. Not sure if the station and platform will be constructed immediately or will come later as part of a possible Wave trolley expansion or airport project. Per the meeting agenda attachments, the high level platform will be 860 ft long with grade level pedestrian crossing of the outside platform track (the westernmost track, which will be new or relocated). I'm surprised no one else has mentioned this neat little addition to the AAF system!

http://205.166.161.204/agenda_publish.cfm?id=&mt=ALL&get_month=11&get_year=2016&dsp=agm&seq=23321&rev=0&ag=519&ln=91091&nseq=&nrev=&pseq=&prev=#ReturnTo91091

Also, tomorrow is when the US DOT is supposed to approve AAF'S new PAB plan. Two separate bonds one for $600M and another for $1.15B. This is being done to increase the appeal to bond buyers primarily but also it conveniently causes the lawsuits brought by treasure coast counties against AAF/USDOT/FDFC to go away!

 

[Seaboard92]

That Fort Lauderdale airport has a decent amount of international departures and routes. So adding a stop makes loads of sense. I'm surprised it wasn't on the original draft. I would even try to offer codeshares with the airlines to destinations similar to how DBAG does between Frankfurt and Düsseldorf.

 

[Brian_tampa]

An additional thought on the station location. It may just be a platform with minimal facilities. Also, it's impact on travel time will be minimized as the curve it's located on is one of the slowest sections of the AAF route. I wonder if AAF did some sort of traffic study before deciding to add this stop?

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

I'm assuming most people flying in will be going on a cruise, so they wouldn't need brightline at the airport. If they are coming to Fort Lauderdale on brightline, I did the google maps to Port Everglades (the cruise port) from the already being built brightline station and from the airport. The driving time from the original station is about 20 minutes, and from the airport is about 30, so I'm not sure what the benefit would be of stopping there--it would be just slightly faster to get a cab to/from the cruise port from the original brightline station.

Having been to Fort Lauderdale several times to visit a friend, this surprised me. Perhaps because the airport seems to take over a great chunk of the town, it looks like it is close to everything (we had to drive around it to get somewhere, and it seemed to take forever), and the brightline station to the north seems like it would be much further away.

I have just succeeded in confusing myself completely :unsure: , so someone please help me out and explain the benefits of an airport station--thanks .

I would have posted this earlier, but I tend to go off on tangents, and I had to take a virtual detour to look at the Port Everglades webcam and see what was going on at the cruise port! (Not much today--just a couple of small boats--the liners must all be out on their travels .)

 

[jis]

Looks like they may be keeping the option open to build something in the future rather than building something immediately. They want to place the track at the right place for it, so that they don't have to fiddle around with the tracks when the time comes to construct. I will know more about it on Friday from the AAF guy who usually attends the FCRP Meetings. One is scheduled for this Friday.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

Ah, I see--thanks, jis.

 

[cirdan]

I just checked this location out on Google Maps and was surprised by the very elongated and elegant bow the rail line makes to avoid the airport. I guess the tracks must have been moved to make room for the airport.

I wonder if any thoughts were given to creating a passenger station at the time. It definitely looks like an easy win, with the tracks being so close to the terminal buildings.

 

[Palmetto]

I believe that area was re-worked to make room for an extended runway at FLL.

 

[Caesar La Rock]

http://malled.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2016/11/29/all-aboard-federal-officials-move-to-end-lawsuit-over-tax-exempt-rail-bonds/

 

[jis]

Basically they just shifted $600 million of internal funding from Phase I to Phase II back filling it with bond for Phase I.

I suspect they will use internal funding for construction in Martin and Indian River County and issue additional bonds through a separate process to cover construction or parts thereof in Brevard and Orange counties. Martin and Indian River County will not have a standing to challenge things that do not touch the counties possibly.

Just my speculation based on nothing.

 

[chrsjrcj]

Local media did an exclusive on the station in WPB. Not a bad piece: http://www.wptv.com/news/region-c-palm-beach-county/west-palm-beach/brightline-high-speed-rail-from-wpb-to-miami-70-percent-complete

Also:

That is a screenshot from this video:



From my understanding, the date for the arrival of the first trainset is still up in the air (I was optimistic for before Christmas). Right now, the repair facility in West Palm Beach is still not 100% complete. I suppose once that is done, we will get the first trainset, then one set every month after that. Initial testing will be between West Palm Beach and Boca Raton.

 

[cirdan]

Basically they just shifted $600 million of internal funding from Phase I to Phase II back filling it with bond for Phase I.

I suspect they will use internal funding for construction in Martin and Indian River County and issue additional bonds through a separate process to cover construction or parts thereof in Brevard and Orange counties. Martin and Indian River County will not have a standing to challenge things that do not touch the counties possibly.

Just my speculation based on nothing.

I hope you are right.

It would be sad if the scaremongering by opponents were to reduce confidence in the market and lead to the bonds not being fully sold.