Private firm wants to build Cotton Belt

[saxman]

Well this has been a long time coming, but it looks like a private developer has come forward and is interested financing the Cotton Belt commuter rail line from SW Fort Worth to DFW Airport and onward to Plano.

ARLINGTON -- The once unlikely prospect of seeking a private developer to build a 62-mile commuter line connecting Fort Worth to Plano is quickly emerging as a viable alternative, several North Texas officials said Thursday.
One by one on Thursday afternoon, members of the 43-person Regional Transportation Council lined up to sign a nondisclosure agreement to get a peek at an unidentified private developer's letter of intent to build the passenger rail project.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/09/13/4257412/private-developer-interested-in.html#storylink=cpy

Another article:

For a few years now, DART and its neighboring transit agencies have been drafting plans for the Cotton Belt Corridor project, a 62-mile passenger rail line that will, if things go according to plan, someday stretch Wylie to Fort Worth. The only thing standing in the way? Just the small task of finding $1.9 billion or so to pay for it.It was clear from the get-go that this wasn't going to be the typical public transit project, paid for with federal grants and local tax money. The federal faucet had slowed to a drip with the recession and cash simply wasn't there. So DART and partners looked to fund the project in a more "innovative" way, namely by getting private interests to dump in their own money.

More: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2012/09/cotton_belt_may_have_funding.php

I've heard some of these guys speak and still, the concept goes a little over my head. But this is the way streetcar lines were built in the first place...using the anticipated growth brought by the streetcar to fund itself. And to my understanding, this is how many roads were financed-until the Interstate Highway System.

 

[stntylr]

In the article someone says that if you want to know who is behind this all you have have to do is google regional rail providers around around the world. Well, I did exactly that and do you know who came up?

Veolia Transportation

Although I still like my suggestion earlier of Bombardier or Siemens.