Brightline Trains Florida discussion

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Seems like a reasonable way to do it; the wifi at Toorcamp 2022 was backhauled by one Starlink dish, and although transfers were pretty slow any time between noon and midnight, the performance was way better than what I got on my phone at any point during the rest of the trip. Small hardware too! It's the little white wedge in the distance to the left of the couple (who I haven't asked for permission to share here)
R0000336.jpg
 
The political clout of the various Weekend Admirals is amazing, but remember, these are people with serious money who can probably call most of those in political power any time they so choose. A yacht was once described by one of the 19th century wealthy more or less as, "A hole in the water you throw money into."
 
A yacht was once described by one of the 19th century wealthy more or less as, "A hole in the water you throw money into."

That applies to most any boat - not just yachts

However, it is true, those with money and influence usually don't hesitate to use it to get their way ... thus, one of the reasons Brightline is 10+ years behind schedule
 
I don't understand why it's so delayed last-minute. I guess I should buy tickets for 9/1 assuming it's the inaugural?
 
Brightline has to test every track it runs on. FRA has to be there and probably has someone monitoring every crossing signal and every block signal. Cocoa t Orlando went fast probably because of no grade crossings. Cocoa - West Palm still has a few sections and until all bridge work substantially complete the bridges cannot be tested. Roaming railfan might know the status of the testing.

Rounding up enough FRA persons might be a problem. Just imagine how many got assigned to monitor East Palestine.
 
Tampa Bay Business Journal:

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund acquires Brightline's parent company

That's all I can see; the rest is paywalled, as is Bloomberg, but I found this:

https://www.businesswire.com/news/h...Mubadala-to-Acquire-Fortress-Investment-Group
Softbank was hawking Fortress for the last six months or so together with a whole bunch of other Real Estate plays it was involved in. Being owned by Abu Dhabi is not the worst of things. It is probably more stable than Softbank at least in the medium term. Unlike with Branson, I don't think it will lead to branding as Etihad (means Union or Alliance and is the name of Abu Dhabi's airline, one of the Middle East Three) or anything like that.

Ultimately Brightline has to swim or sink on its own. So the ridership numbers are what matters more than who owns Fortress.
 
The political clout of the various Weekend Admirals is amazing, but remember, these are people with serious money who can probably call most of those in political power any time they so choose. A yacht was once described by one of the 19th century wealthy more or less as, "A hole in the water you throw money into."
George, your post is very much appreciated by this Florida resident. I remember when a hurricane warning was announced and the public informed of bridge lockdowns for evacuation there was more than one of the persons noted above using a loud hailer to yell obscenities at the bridge tender. An advisory warning to get your boat to safe harbor went our 24 hours earlier.
 
Softbank was hawking Fortress for the last six months or so together with a whole bunch of other Real Estate plays it was involved in. Being owned by Abu Dhabi is not the worst of things. It is probably more stable than Softbank at least in the medium term. Unlike with Branson, I don't think it will lead to branding as Etihad (means Union or Alliance and is the name of Abu Dhabi's airline, one of the Middle East Three) or anything like that.

Ultimately Brightline has to swim or sink on its own. So the ridership numbers are what matters more than who owns Fortress.
The most this is likely to do, in terms of affecting the business, would be to potentially trigger some codesharing. Ethiad has other codeshares, so if (in theory) they got back into the Florida market, they could hit several major cities with one route.

Also, note this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Dhabi_International_Airport#US_border_preclearanceAUH has pre-clearance facilities, so Ethiad could simply check folks' baggage through in both directions if desired.
 
This never ending carousel of changing ownership before the full service is even up and running puts the project at risk of changing objectives and expectations .

I have no idea how much the new owners want to pursue synergies with their airline business as opposed to just seeing Brighline as a good investment . I guess Emirates accounts for only a tiny percentage of airline passengers arriving in Orlando and would therefore not be the most logical partner for code sharing .
 
This never ending carousel of changing ownership before the full service is even up and running puts the project at risk of changing objectives and expectations .

I have no idea how much the new owners want to pursue synergies with their airline business as opposed to just seeing Brighline as a good investment . I guess Emirates accounts for only a tiny percentage of airline passengers arriving in Orlando and would therefore not be the most logical partner for code sharing .
So far none of the changes in the ownership of Fortress (or FECR for that matter) has changed anything at Brightline. Do you have any specific reason to believe that something is different now or are you just shooting in the dark simply because anything is possible in principle?

Remember that the Virgin thing had nothing to do with what the owners of Fortress specifically wanted. It was a tactical move by the Brightline team.

And what exactly does Emirates have to do with anything Abu Dhabi? Abu Dhabi's airline is Etihad, not Emirates. Emirates is Dubai's airline. Of course Dubai and Abu Dhabi are both part of UAE, as are five other Emirates. Incidentally, Emirates code shares to 150 United destination in the US through Chicago, San Francisco and Houston.

Etihad does not fly to Orlando. They fly via code share with Jet Blue, via JFK. For other Florida airports, if they think it is important, they would most likely expand code share with Jet Blue via JFK. So this whole code share with an ME airline generally and Etihad in particular via Orlando is farfetched fantasy. I doubt anything like code share through Orlando will happen unless something changes spectacularly.
 
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Code:
2021    November     61,045     0.6         $  582,979    $ 9.83    $ 9.55    0.8     $13.11
2021    December     95,348     1.3         $1,259,547    $13.63    $13.21    1.6     $13.63

2021                156,393     1.8         $1,842,309    $11.51    $11.78    2.4*    $15.34

Year    Month       Ridership   Tix Rev-A    Tix Rev-B     PPR-A     PPR-B    Tot Rev  Total PPR
2022    January      64,243     1.3         $1,254,666    $20.24    $19.53    1.5     $23.35
2022    February     77,806     1.6         $1,624,589    $20.56    $20.88    1.9     $24.42
2022    March       107,069     2.3         $2,289,135    $21.48    $21.38    2.7     $25.22
2022    April        93,922     1.9         $1,926,340    $20.23    $20.51    2.3     $24.49
2022    May         102,796     2.2         $2,178,247    $21.40    $21.19    2.6     $25.29
2022    June         92,304     1.7         $1,713,162    $18.42    $18.56    2.1     $22.75
2022    July        111,582     1.9         $1,896,894    $17.03    $17.00    2.3     $20.61
2022    August      100,116     1.9         $1,917,221    $18.98    $19.15    2.4     $23.97
2022    September    91,577     1.8         $1,769,268    $19.66    $19.32    2.5     $27.30
2022    October     102,615     2.1         $2,126,183    $20.46    $20.72    3.0     $29.24
2022    November    102,544     2.2         $2,213,925    $21.45    $21.59    3.4     $33.16
2022    December    183,920     3.7         $3,733,576    $20.12    $20.30    5.1     $27.73
                    
2022                1,230,494  24.6        $24,643,207    $19.99             31.8     $25.84

2023    January     156,137     3.5         $3,538,064    $22.41    $22.66    4.7     $30.10
2023    February    151,654     3.7         $3,654,861    $24.39    $24.10    4.7     $30.99
2023    March       179,576     4.7         $4,710,278    $26.17    $26.23    6.5     $36.20
2023    April       151,080     3.4         $3,446,135    $22.50    $22.81    4.9     $32.43

Updated to include April 2023.
 
According to a post from an FECR project manager on the FECRS Members Only group on Facebook, the last segment of double tracking on the West Palm Beach - Cocoa segment between CP Pineda and CP Malabar through Melbourne was put into service today (6/4/23), thus completing the double tracking work on the old FECR line between Miami and Cocoa (minus Stuart Bridge).

Next item is to prepare the whole thing for through 110mph testing.
 
According to a post from an FECR project manager on the FECRS Members Only group on Facebook, the last segment of double tracking on the West Palm Beach - Cocoa segment between CP Pineda and CP Malabar through Melbourne was put into service today (6/4/23), thus completing the double tracking work on the old FECR line between Miami and Cocoa (minus Stuart Bridge).

Next item is to prepare the whole thing for through 110mph testing.
Now how soon can the final 110 MPH certification of all segments from Cocoa to West Palm Beach be completed? Then how long for the FRA to sign off to allow service to start?
 
Now how soon can the final 110 MPH certification of all segments from Cocoa to West Palm Beach be completed? Then how long for the FRA to sign off to allow service to start?
Actually most segments have individually been tested and cleared. What they are talking about is continuous running tests which is more of a schedule test and in many cases does not involve FRA on the 110mph segments. More of running timetable tests etc. Remember, they have been running certifications tests for almost 6 months now in the 110mph sections. It is not like certifications tests are just beginning.
 
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