Search Results for: all aboard florida

Brightline Noise

By | | Transportation
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There’s lots of noise coming from Brightline, the company that is operating private passenger trains between Miami and West Palm Beach, with a goal of eventually reaching Orlando. Yet underneath the noise it appears nothing is really happening.

First, last September, Brightline bought XPressWest, a company that has gained permission, but not much funding, to build a high-speed rail line from Las Vegas to Victorville, California, because apparently a lot of people in Victorville (population: 121,000) have to get to Vegas really fast. Brightline supposedly paid $120 million for XPress, but it isn’t clear what it got for that money since XPress didn’t really have any assets other than building permits; most likely Brightline paid the $120 million in some sort of securities.

Second, a couple of months later, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group purchased a “minority interest” in Brightline. Branson has a lot of nice things to say about Brightline and Wes Edens, the co-founder of Fortress Investment Group and the lead supporter of Brightline. Continue reading →

Brightline Prospects May Not Be So Bright

By | | Transportation
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The last time we looked at Brightline, Florida’s private moderate-speed rail line from Miami to West Palm Beach, it had killed three people before even opening for business. Since then it has killed five more. While you might think that people will learn not to cross the tracks in front of fast passenger trains, it turns out that freight trains on the Florida East Coast Railway (which owns Brightline) have consistently killed about two people per month for the last several years.

This helps explain why some Florida residents are vehemently opposed to Brightline’s plans to extend service to Orlando. So far, opponents have been unable to stop the train in the courts.

They appear to be doing better, however, in the court of financial opinion. Brightline hoped to fund the extension to Orlando (which will require the construction of new tracks between Cocoa and Orlando) with $1.15 billion worth of tax-exempt private activity bonds. The tax exemption would allow Brightline to pay lower interest rates. But Brightline was unable to convince investors to buy the bonds by its deadline of May 31. The U.S. Department of Transportation generously extended the deadline to the end of the year, but Brightline still has to find buyers. Continue reading →