Brightline (All Aboard Florida) Orlando - Miami FL FEC fka Virgin Rail

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/201 ... al-airport

All Aboard Florida, which would run the privately financed train for Florida East Coast Industries of Coral Gables, also must overcome the complaints of Cocoa officials who want a stop on the route but have been rebuffed.

"They don't want to be distracted from their mission [of Miami to Orlando]," said Bob Kamm, director of the Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization.

All Aboard Florida spokeswoman Stacey Rinaldi said in an email that only four stops are planned for the train: downtown Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando's airport.

Previously, train officials said speed was a primary attraction of the train and an additional stop in Cocoa would slow down the anticipated three-hour trip.

A stop for Cocoa also would be opposed by the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, one of the four property owners in talks with All Aboard Florida. The others are the state, the airport and the Mormon Church.

The expressway authority owns much of the BeachLine Expressway, where the right of way is the most logical place for the train to lay tracks. The state also owns parts of the road.

Interesting that the Mormon Church is finally being mentioned in connection with this project. Perhaps there's a big reason why Cocoa is being shut out, that the church prefers that Cocoa be shut out, and perhaps, that the ranch manager is being either clueless or disingenuous about deals back in Salt Lake. A route from Orlando International Airport to southern coastal points could cross the church's Deseret Ranch, running more directly north-west from the Melbourne area. The Beach Line right of way may only be necessary for the last few miles to the airport, if that.

See the map of the church's Florida land holdings on the third page of this article.

http://www.cynthiabarnett.net/clips/ChurchRanch.pdf

Mike Doughney wrote:See the map of the church's Florida land holdings on the third page of this article.

http://www.cynthiabarnett.net/clips/ChurchRanch.pdf

Also here, in more detail: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?relation=1205058
The Orange County portion is verifiable here: http://paarcgis.ocpafl.org/Webmap1/default.aspx (Suburban Land Reserve and Farmland Reserve)
SR 528 won't be necessary at all if they use the OUC line to the airport (International Corporate Park, is, I believe, also Mormon-owned, or at least some of the land in the south portion is). But zoom in and note the swamps (and the apparent lack of a good corridor through the sprawl east of I-95); SR 528 provides a ready-made crossing. Perhaps they're planning to simply cut the corner to the OUC line using some Mormon land.

Jose Gonzales, VP Florida East Coast Industries, addresses FEC Railway Society members about All Aboard Florida. Extensive Q&A session follows, good discussion thanks to the knowledge and interest base of the audience:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl1yVSD_Tv8

I find it interesting that at 11:53 he says "our rolling stock operator" (as part of a discussion of having narrowed rolling stock to two "providers").

I think its telling that he didn't use the word "manufacturer" to describe the provider of rolling stock, and it suggests to me that from FEC's prospective there's just a box that says "insert operator here (and make sure they bring suitable rolling stock"

Sounds like this is just a formality that must be gone through before the state lets the FEC use the land along the expressway.

State seeks competing bids for train between Orlando, South Florida

By Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel
7:34 p.m. EDT, October 8, 2012

The state is seeking bids from any company that wants to compete with the Coral Gables operation planning a privately financed train from South Florida to Orlando International Airport.

But don't expect Florida to contribute anything to the deal, other than free use of some land along the BeachLine Expressway.

Plans must be submitted by Dec. 7, along with a $10,000 check to cover review costs by the Florida Department of Transportation. Interested parties also must attend a mandatory meeting on Nov. 13 at FDOT headquarters in DeLand. FDOT plans to pick a winning bid on Dec. 18.

The so-called "request for proposal" by FDOT starts the clock running for All Aboard Florida, which announced in March its intentions to build a 240-mile system that would link the airport with Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The $1 billion train would run on tracks already owned by a sister company, Florida East Coast Railway. But the train would need free land along the BeachLine to lay tracks to get to OIA. The BeachLine is owned jointly by the state and the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority.

All Aboard Florida will be expected to submit a proposal along with any competitors.

By law, the state has to make sure there are no better deals available before entering into a possible agreement with All Aboard Florida.

* * *

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/os-miami-or ... 4930.story

Looks like they have someone with an idea on equipment:

http://ccrail.com/wp-content/uploads/20 ... l.com_.pdf

http://ccrail.com/

Very nice.

chrsjrcj wrote:Looks like they have someone with an idea on equipment:
http://ccrail.com/wp-content/uploads/20 ... l.com_.pdf
http://ccrail.com/

From their site, these are refurbs of the Santa Fe Hi-Levels (http://ccrail.com/hi-level-trains/):

Corridor Capital owns or controls 50 of the finest railroad passenger cars ever built—a mix of double-deck stainless-steel coaches, dining cars and lounge cars built by the legendary Budd Co. of Philadelphia for the Santa Fe Railway’s finest passenger trains during the 1950s and 1960s.
...
By 2001, the Hi-Levels were coming due for a major heavy overhaul. Amtrak lacked a congressional budget appropriation sufficient to perform a total rebuild, so it decided to sell the cars to a series of private collectors. Most of the Hi-Levels never ran again. In 2006-07 Corridor Capital acquired them so that they could be rebuilt and modernized for operation in the fastest-growing passenger-rail market in the U.S.—intrastate daytime corridor trains.
...
Several veteran railroad rolling-stock engineers have pronounced the Santa Fe Hi-Levels “the best passenger cars every produced” and have called them “ageless” because their stainless-steel carbodies do not rust and are virtually immune to metal fatigue. Before selling or leasing them to a passenger-rail operator, Corridor Capital will totally rebuild them, “tubing out” each car [down to the tube and doing all-new interiors and systems]

Is such an overhaul faster than buying something being produced right now?

I'm not sure if the overhaul would be faster than a purchase of something new, but I would imagine so being that you'd go to the back of the line. I'm not even sure what's being produced that's HEP capable right now outside of the Sprinter for Amtrak.

In any case, this is the power being looked at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMD_F59PH#F59PHI

The Electro-Motive Diesels F59PHI diesel-electric locomotive is a common locomotive on passenger trains in North America, built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division.

First built in 1994, the locomotive is a 3,200 hp (2.4 MW) B-B diesel-electric locomotive intended for service on North American mainlines. This locomotive is equipped with a turbocharged EMD 12-710E3,a 12 cylinder, 2 stroke water cooled "Vee" diesel engine (prime mover). The main (traction) alternator converts mechanical energy from the prime mover into electrical energy that is distributed through a high voltage cabinet and rectifier to direct current traction motors. Each of the four traction motors is directly geared to a pair of driving wheels. The gear ratio of the traction motors (model D87BTR) to wheel axle determines the maximum operating speed of the locomotive; a standard F59PHI has a gear ratio of 56:21 which provides a top speed of 110 mph (176 km/h).

The F59PHI has a fully enclosed carbody which provides protected walkways for easy access to the engine room and trailing units. This arrangement allows routine maintenance while the locomotive is in service. The noteworthy aspect of this locomotive's exterior is the use of composites to present a streamlined appearance.

To supply electrical power for passenger service, the F59PHI is equipped with a secondary electrical generator referred to as the Head End Power (HEP) unit. The head-end generator generates AC power at 480 V AC, 750 amps or about 500 kW to provide power to the passenger carriages for lighting, electric heating, and air conditioning. The head-end generator is powered by a second diesel engine dedicated to it. With this arrangement, the prime mover is not burdened by head-end power generation and consequently is used solely for supplying tractive efforts.

They seem to still be in pretty wide use, and this is the later version.

Are there any PHI's to spare though? I don't think Amtrak or any of the commuter rail systems that use them intend on phasing them out before 2014. Any replacements for them won't come til some time later. Unless they intend on fixing up some of the GO Transit PH's.

Here are the proposed stations in South Florida. Note the Miami station would be huge -- taking up four blocks north and south from NW 1st Street to NW 5th Street. There would also be closings of current grade crossings, NW 3rd Street in Miami and NW 2nd Street in Lauderdale.

New Miami-Orlando passenger rail service would build big downtown station

BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
[email protected]

All Aboard Florida, the proposed passenger rail service between Miami and Orlando, would build a big new train station with tracks elevated on a platform four stories up on mostly vacant land between the Government Center and Overtown Metrorail stations in downtown Miami, a report newly issued by the company says.

In an exhaustive environmental assessment report to federal regulators, the company, a subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries, lays out its preferred location and schematic outlines for three new stations that could become landmarks not just in Miami, but also in the heart of downtown Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

The Miami station, by far the largest of the three, would provide train passengers with “a panoramic entry into the city’’ and “a celebrated piece of engineering and architecture,’’ the report by an All Aboard consultant says. The station would be designed by the noted firm of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — architects of the signature Southeast Financial Center in Miami and the new Freedom Tower on the site of the World Trade Center in Manhattan — in collaboration with the Miami firm Zyscovich Architects.

That station project would occupy nine acres owned by Florida East Coast and could also encompass two midrise towers for hotel, residential and office use, extensive retail and a garage for 1,050 cars, according to the report. The property was the site of the original train station serving industrialist Henry Flagler’s railroad, which gave rise to the city of Miami. The FEC is the successor to Flagler’s rail company.

In Fort Lauderdale, the contemplated station and train platform would rise on the north side of Broward Boulevard between Northwest Second and First avenues, and the West Palm station would occupy the corner of Quadrille Boulevard and Evernia Street, north of the City Place redevelopment and just west of the resurgent Clematis Street district.

* * *

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/11/11/3 ... -rail.html

Here's the environmental assessment report laying it all out: http://www.allaboardflorida.com/wp-cont ... _Miami.pdf

Land Purchase: West Palm Beach.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/ ... ion/nS42g/

WEST PALM BEACH — In a sign of its commitment to passenger rail service, Florida East Coast Industries has paid $2.5 million for downtown land it favors for a train station, the sole Palm Beach County stop on a proposed Miami-to-Orlando express line.
The Sewell Hardware warehouse at Evernia Street west of Quadrille Boulevard would be replaced by a state-of-the-art, two-story station, part of a proposed $1 billion, privately financed project to convert the single-track freight rail line that dates to Henry Flagler back into the business of moving passengers.
With a platform spanning 800 feet, the station would require the closure of two streets: Evernia and Datura. It emerged as the rail company’s preferred site in a detailed Oct. 31 environmental report.

This may have been included in the Environment Report JasW referenced above.

One other thing that occurs to me: this proposal could siphon off passengers from Amtrak in the Orlando - Miami segment. If they ever extend to Jax and Tampa, Amtrak will be stuck with low-traffic intermediate stations.

Jeff Smith wrote:Land Purchase: West Palm Beach.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/ ... ion/nS42g/

WEST PALM BEACH — In a sign of its commitment to passenger rail service, Florida East Coast Industries has paid $2.5 million for downtown land it favors for a train station, the sole Palm Beach County stop on a proposed Miami-to-Orlando express line.

Its getting harder and harder to argue that FEC isn't serious about operating a passenger train.

The worst you can say is pretty similar to the best you can say: FEC has ALWAYS been a company that sees synergies between railroad operations and real estate development. In the 1920s it was passenger rail and hotel development, then it was freight rail and industrial development. In a post-industrial, leisure-services Florida, it makes a lot of sense that they'd swing things back to passenger ops and people spaces.

Successes on one side of the business tend to make successes on the other side more likely, and failures on one side (fewer new freight opportunities in an urbanizing Florida) tend to get offset by opportunities created on the other (office development).

But even if the passenger effort failed, what's the worst that happens? Gee, they end up owning $2.5m extra worth of land in central Palm Beach County bought near the bottom of Florida's real estate bust--not the end of the world

One other thing that occurs to me: this proposal could siphon off passengers from Amtrak in the Orlando - Miami segment. If they ever extend to Jax and Tampa, Amtrak will be stuck with low-traffic intermediate stations.

Wow, what a concept- competition in the passenger rail business