Brightline

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Brightline
Brightline logo
Brightline logo
Route length: ~ 540 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Top speed: 160 km / h
Legend
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(0) MiamiCentral
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(43) Fort Lauderdale
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(110) West Palm Beach
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  Fort Pierce (?)
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  Stuart (?)
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(325) Cocoa (junction of the new line)
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(390) Orlando Airport (2022)
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  Lakeland (?)
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  Disney World (?)
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(540) Tampa (202x)
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Jacksonville (?)

Brightline , Virgin Trains USA from April 2019 to July 2020 , is a rail project in the US state of Florida . The associated railroad company " All Aboard Florida " is a subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries . The company's aim is to offer rail passenger transport between Miami and Orlando Airport . An extension of the high-speed route to Tampa is in preparation.

Operations began on January 13, 2018 between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, and on May 19, 2018 between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , operations were suspended on March 25, 2020 until further notice. In August 2020, no date was known for the resumption of traffic; however, construction work to extend it to Orlando will continue.

history

Brightline train on the expanded route near Palm Beach

In 2007 Florida East Coast Industries was acquired by the investment company Fortress Investment . Subsequently, the subsidiary Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) was spun off from this company in 2008 . However, the FECI retained the right to offer passenger services on the FECR tracks. As a result, the company "All Aboard Florida" was founded in early 2012. In 2014 the “Brightline” brand was registered and from November 2015 it was used for announcements and for the operation of the route.

The “Draft Environmental Impact Statement” in the regional planning procedure was presented in September 2014, and the “Final Environmental Impact Statement” was approved on August 4, 2015. The construction of the stations had already started at the beginning of 2015 - these are basically new buildings for high-speed traffic. In the following, the existing route, which in many cases was also sufficient for freight traffic, was completely converted to double-track.

MiamiCentral under construction (July 2016)

Construction of the MiamiCentral station began in March 2015 . From there there are direct connections to the Miami-Dade Metrorail and the Miami-Dade Metromover ( Government Center Station ). For the “Tri-Rail Downtown Miami Link”, the regional train company is also contributing 70 million dollars to the construction of the station. The station should go into operation at the end of April. This was postponed to the beginning of May at the earliest. After the opening weekend on 19./20. May 2018 8 train pairs will be offered, which will later be increased to 11 daily train pairs. This can be expanded to 26 daily train pairs by 2019. From September 2018, there will be regular service, every hour on weekdays (7-23) and every two hours on weekends (9-21).

Scheduled services between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale began on January 13, 2018. The maximum speed on this section is 160 km / h. The expansion to Orlando Airport is scheduled to begin in 2018, with 200 km / h on that section after the planned opening in 2022 (originally 2020).

Florida East Cost Industries claims to invest a total of 1.8 billion US dollars for the section from Miami to West Palm Beach, including tracks, trains and stations. At least 2 billion US dollars will then be invested again until Orlando. Passenger traffic began there on May 19, 2018.

Operating speed in the densely populated area between Miami and West Palm Beach is initially limited to 79 mph (127 km / h). From West Palm Beach to the Cocoa junction, 110 mph (177 km / h) will then be driven in the future. A new line will then be built from Cocoa to Orlando, which will also allow 125 mph (201 km / h). However, it is expected that the operating speed will then be 120 mph (193 km / h). Due to the US definition for high-speed rail traffic , which only starts above the value of 125 mph, it is therefore legally only an express service with a few stops, which between Orlando and Miami has an average speed of 80 mph (130 km / h) can reach.

The company received approval to issue $ 1.15 billion in tax-free bonds in December 2017 to fund Phase 2 through Orlando. Brightline states that it had the necessary regulatory approvals at this point in time. The private law side of building clearance was already achieved in 2015 for the corridor to be built on. In the spring of 2018, the company was still in coordination rounds with the neighboring municipalities, who speak out against the construction - as their area will only be crossed by the future train line, but not served. All Aboard Florida was able to resolve previous questions, although it became known that the bonds to finance phase 2 had not yet been issued in May 2018. The deadline for issuing the bonds will probably need an extension, but then construction work could start in 2018. Phase 2 is a bit behind schedule and the opening has also been officially postponed so that Orlando will not be served until January 2021. In August 2018, Brightline received approval for the tax-free bonds, both for the 1.15 billion for the new route and 600 million for refinancing previous bonds.

Interstate 4 with a wide grass verge

Tampa politicians have also expressed interest in continuing the construction of the route beyond Orlando. For this purpose, support was assured with the acquisition of land and the rights of way - especially on the median of Interstate 4 , which leads from Orlando to Tampa. This corresponds to older plans for a "Florida High Speed ​​Corridor", the construction of which was originally intended to build exactly this section between Orlando and Tampa first , and should travel with electric multiple units with up to 300 km / h (see Florida High Speed ​​Corridor ). However, these plans, which had been endorsed by a referendum in November 2000, were buried by the governor in February 2011 when he rejected the federal funds intended to be established under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act . An establishment with private funding, however, has the basic support of conservative politicians.

In November 2018 it was announced that the Virgin Group had acquired a minority stake in the company from Brightline. Marketing is to be switched to Virgin Trains USA in 2019 as part of a strategic partnership between Fortress Investments Group and the Virgin Group . The formal renaming took place on April 4, 2019.

As part of the transition to the Virgin Group, the cost of $ 2.3 billion for the route to Orlando was secured. Meanwhile, Virgin Trains USA is working on further financing for the route from Orlando to Tampa, for which not only rights of way but also $ 950 million in tax-free bonds are earmarked. The new line to Orlando covers 275 km, the extension to Tampa another 151 km.

The construction of the route from Orlando to the existing upgraded route to Miami finally began in mid-2019. Work began at the end of May 2019 on a new depot at Orlando Airport (Zone 1) and the 5 km connection from there to the motorway (Zone 2 ). Subsequently, a 35-mile new line to Cocoa will be built along Highway 525 (Zone 3), and from there the 129-mile old line will be expanded to operate at 110 mph (177 km / h) (Zone 4). The commissioning of all zones is now expected for 2022. The volume of investments will thus increase to a total of 4 billion US dollars.

Virgin Trains USA

The company Virgin Trains has been the mid-1990s during the privatization of British Rail was established in the UK. The Virgin Group has numerous investments in the transportation sector, including Virgin Atlantic with airplanes and Virgin Voyages with ships, complemented by Virgin Hotels and Virgin Vacations for travel offers. The Virgin Rail Group is a joint venture with the Scottish Stagecoach Group . It should be noted that Virgin Voyages is a joint venture founded in 2014 with Bain Capital , a private equity company of the US oligarchy , and the US stake of Stagecoach was sold to Variant Equity in 2019 , also an asset management company of the US oligarchy. The latter already own the Coach USA bus company. This shows that the financial sector in the US has found confidence in rail passenger transport and is interested in investments. Commentators draw a bow to the Gilded Age of the USA and especially Henry Flagler , who founded the Florida East Coast Railroad.

Outline map CaHSR in blue with Desert Xpress in black from Las Vegas to Victorville in California

It is sometimes doubted whether the rebranding to the Virgin brand will be successful, since other companies of the Virgin Group are not very successful. However, companies in the financial industry see Virgin's involvement as a foundation for marketing in other regions with similar requirements. Richard Branson himself states in interviews that distances in the range between 250 and 350 miles are fundamentally sensible, and refers to Charlotte to Atlanta and Chicago to St. Louis. Commentators have compiled lists with comparable characteristics, in which Dallas to Houston (compare Texas Central High-Speed ​​Railway ), the Northeast Corridor Washington to New York to Boston (compare Acela Express ) and shorter routes from Los Angeles to San Diego appear, Dallas to Austin to San Antonio, Vancouver to Seattle to Portland, each of which corresponds to the route length of the Brightline offer until 2019 to Miami.

It fits into this concept that Virgin Trains USA bought XpressWest (formerly DesertExpress) in September 2018 , which had developed plans to connect Las Vegas to the surrounding metropolitan areas, which, however, had never materialized since the first announcements in 2008. To the west, Palmdale and / or Victorville were to be shot, of which there is a train service to Los Angeles, including the planned high -speed traffic of the California High Speed ​​Rail Project (CaHSR). Phoenix (Arizona) could also be connected to the east; possible lines to Salt Lake City (Utah) and Denver (Colorado) were also mentioned. XpressWest originally, like other projects of the time, relied on electric multiple units in high-speed traffic with 240 km / h, while Brightline demonstrated the expansion with locomotive-hauled express trains with a maximum of 200 km / h. In the course of the acquisition, Virgin Trains USA came to the location of the station in Las Vegas and announced that it would start building the line in 2019 and possibly start operations in 2022. The Hard Rock Las Vegas Hotel has also been bought and the future train station complex is to be connected to the new Virgin Hotel.

At the beginning of August 2020 it was announced that the contract for the use of the brand name "Virgin" by Brightline expired at the end of July and was not renewed. Reports indicate that Richard Branson pointed out in January 2020 that he had not yet made any committed investments in the company. This was after the end of the railway company Virgin Trains in Great Britain in December 2019. In the wake of the subsequent corona crisis , the airline Virgin Atlantic had to file for bankruptcy in August 2020, which probably meant that Virgin had never invested in Brightline and thus the contract after the deadline had expired ends.

The involvement in the XpressWest project is therefore no longer planned with Virgin either. The cooperation with the financial investor Fortress is being continued there by Brightline. It was not until April 2020 that tax-free bonds in the amount of 600 million US dollars were approved, which could result in a capitalization of up to 2.6 billion on the free market. As a reminder, Fortress Investment is also behind Brightline's parent company, FECI, and is a US oligarchy investing firm with ties to the Democratic Party . The respective investors who participated in the bonds are still critical of the route from XpressWest to Victorville.

Line course

New Brightline train station in West Palm Beach

The total length of the line from Miami to Orlando is approximately 390 kilometers (240 miles). The following stations are to be served:

Existing routes of the parent company Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) are to be used on around 313 kilometers (195 miles). To connect the Orlando airport, 64 kilometers (40 miles) will be built. The branch from the existing FEC route will therefore take place at Cocoa , then the route will follow the Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway (SR 528) to the Orlando airport in order to bundle traffic routes .

In the contract documents for All Aboard Florida there is an option to use the FEC's existing route to Jacksonville . However, plans for the expansion have not yet been presented.

Additional stations could be built on the route to Orlando, with Stuart and Vero Beach named as possible candidates .

Politicians are proposing an extension beyond Orlando to Tampa. For better development of the theme parks near Tampa, Lakeland and Disney World near Orlando , own stations are to be built if necessary.

business

The total travel time from Miami to Orlando Airport should be around 3 hours. Operations between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale began in January 2018, with a 40-minute drive on this section. It should be another half an hour from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. From West Palm Beach to Orlando two hours are planned accordingly. The route, which opened in May 2018, stretches from Miami via Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach. The train takes an hour and 15 minutes for 106 kilometers. Depending on the traffic, it often takes twice as long on the highway.

16 trips per day and direction are planned. When it opens between Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, 10 trips per day will be offered.

On the section between Miami via Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach, the regional trains of the Tri-Rail company also run on the tracks of the South Florida Railway Corridor. Their lines stop at 18 stations. In previous plans, there was a long-term goal for 2025 to 2030 to also offer regional traffic in the Florida East Coast Railway Corridor. A connection, albeit initially for goods traffic, has already been created between the two routes. With the opening of Brightline's MiamiCentral Station, Tri-Rail now also wants to connect this inner-city train station, while at least partially using the FEC Corridor.

The number of passengers is developing roughly within the planned framework. In October 2018 60,013 passengers were carried with a turnover of 1 million, in November 2018 80,660 passengers with a turnover of 1.5 million, and in December 2018 98,076 with a turnover of 2.2 million. After the numerous public holidays, the numbers in January 2019 were 73,568 passengers and 1.7 million sales. In February 2019, the number of passengers had risen to 78,707, with a turnover of 1.9 million, and were almost in line with the operator's expectations. The operator expects that after a three-year ramp-up phase, 2.9 million passengers could be carried annually with an annual turnover of $ 107.3 million US dollars.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , operations were suspended on March 25, 2020 until further notice. In August 2020, no date for the resumption of traffic was known.

vehicles

The first train sets in the main workshop, with the different colors of the attached cars

Train sets supplied by Siemens Mobility from its Sacramento plant are used as rolling stock . Each set consists of two diesel locomotives (one at each end of the train) of the Charger type and initially four cars, one of which is from the first class called Select and three from the second class called Smart . Five sets were ordered for the start of operations, and each train has a different color. The wagons were given shades of red, orange, green, blue and purple, while the locomotive has a yellowish base tone. The numbering of the push-pull trains is based on the locomotives, for the first five sets from 101 to 110.

The first train set was presented to the public in June 2016 and delivered in December 2016. For the start of operations on the entire route (approx. 2021), it is planned to extend the trains by three more cars and to put five additional train sets into operation.

Xpress West

In September 2018, Brightline acquired the Las Vegas- based hotel and casino construction company Marnell Corrao Associates their shares in the Xpress West rail project , which will connect Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

Web links

Commons : Brightline  - collection of pictures and videos

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Brightline slates fares and service date. Railway Age , January 18, 2018, accessed August 12, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Brightline to begin Miami service May 19. Progressive Railroading , May 14, 2018, accessed on August 12, 2020 .
  3. ↑ a b Brightline lays off 250 after it suspends South Florida service due to coronavirus. The Miami Herald , March 25, 2020, accessed August 12, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Temporarily Closed - Response to COVID-19. Brightline / All Aboard Florida, May 20, 2020, accessed August 12, 2020 .
  5. ↑ a b Miami-Orlando train service gets new name, bold look . SunSentinel. November 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ Alfonso Chardy: On track: Details for downtown Miami railway hub are revealed . In: The Miami Herald , March 9, 2015. 
  7. ^ Tri-Rail Downtown Miami Link . Retrieved January 17, 2018: “The key to this leveraging is a local investment of $ 70 million by the public for incremental construction costs by the public partners for the Miami Central Station, to accommodate Tri-Rail trains and new rail infrastructure to support the extension into Downtown Miami. "
  8. ↑ Brightline president: 'Train ridership is three times what we expected' . In: South Florida Business Journal . March 7, 2018.
  9. ↑ Brightline launching service to Miami 'hopefully' by early May, county mayor says . In: Miami Herald . April 11, 2018.
  10. ↑ Jennifer Sorentrue: Brightline announces opening date, fares for service to Miami . Palm Beach Post. May 11, 2018.
  11. ↑ Brightline launches higher-speed inter-city service . In: Railway Gazette . 15th January 2018.
  12. ↑ Interview with Mike Reiniger, Executive Director of Florida East Cost Industries . In: youtube egchouston .
  13. ↑ https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/shaping-our-future/all-aboard-florida/2017/12/22/brightline-receives-us-department-transportation-approval-financing/976498001 /
  14. ^ Scott Powers: All Aboard Florida defends its bond status for railroad money . Florida Politics. 1st May 2018.
  15. ↑ Lisa Broadt: Bright Line's private-activity bonds in peril, but Phase 2 construction nearing . TC Palm. 4th May 2018.
  16. ↑ Jim Turner: Brightline rail system wins approval to issue tax-exempt bonds. Not everyone is cheering. . Miami Herald. 29th August 2018.
  17. ↑ Janell Irwin: CSX executive joins Brightline as plans for Tampa / Orlando high-speed rail are put in motion . Biz journal. 11th July 2018.
  18. ^ Virgin Trains USA formed by the Virgin Group and Brightline . In: Railway Gazette . 16th November 2018.
  19. ↑ a b Ryan Lynch: Sir Richard Branson-backed Virgin Trains USA Locks Up Funding for Orlando Leg . In: Orlando Business Journal . April 4, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
  20. ↑ Orlando bonds approved as Brightline becomes Virgin Trains USA . Railway Gazette. April 9, 2019.
  21. ^ Josephine Cordero Sapién: Virgin Trains USA Begin Construction of Orlando Expansion . Railway News .com. May 22, 2019.
  22. ↑ Shelly Sigo: 'Wowed' investors snap up bonds for Florida's US Virgin Trains . The Bond Buyer. 3rd April 2019.
  23. ↑ Simon and Susan Veness: A new railway rivals a glamorous past . BBC - Travel. January 26, 2016.
  24. ↑ a b Chris Bryant: Two Billionaires Want to Restore the Glory of the US Railroads . Bloomberg. 1st February 2019.
  25. ^ Laine Doss: Interview with Richard Branson at Virgin Trains USA Launch in Miami . Miami New Times. 5th April 2019.
  26. ↑ Jonathan Levin and Drew Singer: Virgin Trains USA Delays Planned $ 538 Million IPO . 2019-02-12.
  27. ^ A b Brightline to Build Express Intercity Passenger Rail Connecting Southern California and Las Vegas . Brightline (Press Releases). 18th September 2018.
  28. ↑ a b Proven, Reliable, Safe Technology . XpressWest. 2008. Retrieved May 2, 2019.
  29. ^ The Southwest Network . XpressWest. 2016. Accessed May 2, 2019.
  30. ↑ PHILIP CONNELLER: Virgin Brand to Roll Into Las Vegas Via Planes, Trains and Casino Hotel . The Casino. April 15, 2019.
  31. ↑ Brightline Loses Its Virginity. August 10, 2020, accessed August 11, 2020 (American English).
  32. ↑ Alan Ohnsman: High-Speed Rail Line Startup Bright Ends Alliance With Richard Branson's Virgin . Forbes. August 7, 2020.
  33. ↑ Mick Akers: Virgin out as partner in Las Vegas to SoCal high-speed rail project . Las Vegas Review Journal. August 7, 2020.
  34. ^ Romy Varghese & Nathan Crooks: A Private Equity Firm Wants to Build a Train to Las Vegas . Bloomberg Business Week. September 24, 2019.
  35. ^ Miami-Orlando train service gets new name, bold look. SunSentinel, November 10, 2015, accessed March 27, 2016 .
  36. ↑ Brightline officials eye rail corridors in Georgia, Texas, one day before South Florida service begins .: "Once full service is running and profitable, Brightline will look into adding additional stops, and on the Treasure Coast, Stuart and Vero Beach would be likely candidates, Edens told USA Today. [..] Wes Edens, co-founder of Fortress Investment Group, Brightline's parent company. "
  37. ↑ according to the timetable at https://gobrightline.com/trip/schedule
  38. ↑ Steve Przybilla: Florida's alternative to the car is called "Brightline". In: SZ online, July 8, 2018
  39. ^ A Train Project Could Be Third Rail In Florida Race. NPR's Here & Now, October 9, 2014, accessed October 12, 2014 .
  40. ^ First ride: Aboard Florida's new Brightline train . In: USA Today . January 12, 2018.
  41. ↑ a b Brightline: January Passenger Count Was 74K, Revenue $ 1.7 Million . The Next Miami. February 21, 2019.
  42. ^ Brightline's Ridership Ahead Of Analyst Forecast; $ 600M Bonds To Be Refinanced Next Month . The Next Miami. 20th March 2019.
  43. ^ All Aboard Florida Selects Siemens as Train Manufacturer. Siemens USA, September 11, 2014, accessed October 12, 2014 .
  44. ^ Brightline unveils Siemens locomotives and coaches . Railway Gazette. June 8, 2016.