Letter from Alice Johnson Vero BeachPublish Date:
Monday, May 26, 2014 - 1:45pmALL ABOARD FLORIDA
Alice Johnson, Vero Beach - May 26 2014
More reasons why it will fail
Based on the research I’ve done, there are only two profitable highspeed trains in the world, the TGV between Paris and Lyon, and the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka. A comparison between All Aboard Florida and these routes shows why AAF will fail financially.
Existing Ridership: The TGV and Shinkansen were built to relieve crowding on existing heavily traveled train corridors. We’ve already witnessed the failure of both Amtrak and CSX passenger trains between the AAF cities, leaving no existing ridership, and demonstrating lack of demand.
Travel Expense: Gas prices in Europe and Asia are two to three times higher than in the United States, and toll roads are prevalent. The low cost of automobile travel in the United States makes train fares seem too expensive, limiting demand from tourists.
Speed: The profitable French and Japanese routes take slightly over two hours, even though the distances are longer than the AAF route. By definition, high-speed trains travel more than 150 mph. At a top speed of 125 mph and three hours travel time, AAF is not a high-speed train, losing much of its appeal to potential passengers.
Exclusive use of tracks: High-speed trains should never share tracks with freight trains. The two services are incompatible, causing unacceptable delays for both types of service. Lack of reliability will kill ridership demand, as proven by the failure of CSX’s Florida Fun Run between Orlando and Miami.
I believe AAF fails every test for profitability. Its failure should be expected to cause taxpayers to eat $1.5 billion in loans and in addition to wasting several hundred million dollars on publicly financed transit hubs and safety upgrades. Let’s not waste taxpayer money on it.
From www.citizensagainstthetrain.com
Monday, May 26, 2014 - 1:45pmALL ABOARD FLORIDA
Alice Johnson, Vero Beach - May 26 2014
More reasons why it will fail
Based on the research I’ve done, there are only two profitable highspeed trains in the world, the TGV between Paris and Lyon, and the Shinkansen between Tokyo and Osaka. A comparison between All Aboard Florida and these routes shows why AAF will fail financially.
Existing Ridership: The TGV and Shinkansen were built to relieve crowding on existing heavily traveled train corridors. We’ve already witnessed the failure of both Amtrak and CSX passenger trains between the AAF cities, leaving no existing ridership, and demonstrating lack of demand.
Travel Expense: Gas prices in Europe and Asia are two to three times higher than in the United States, and toll roads are prevalent. The low cost of automobile travel in the United States makes train fares seem too expensive, limiting demand from tourists.
Speed: The profitable French and Japanese routes take slightly over two hours, even though the distances are longer than the AAF route. By definition, high-speed trains travel more than 150 mph. At a top speed of 125 mph and three hours travel time, AAF is not a high-speed train, losing much of its appeal to potential passengers.
Exclusive use of tracks: High-speed trains should never share tracks with freight trains. The two services are incompatible, causing unacceptable delays for both types of service. Lack of reliability will kill ridership demand, as proven by the failure of CSX’s Florida Fun Run between Orlando and Miami.
I believe AAF fails every test for profitability. Its failure should be expected to cause taxpayers to eat $1.5 billion in loans and in addition to wasting several hundred million dollars on publicly financed transit hubs and safety upgrades. Let’s not waste taxpayer money on it.
From www.citizensagainstthetrain.com
Letter from Vero Beach Resident on Swiss High Speed Trains - Sebastian SchmidPublish Date:
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - 1:30pmExperience of a Swiss Railway UserAs a Swiss snowbird coming to Vero Beach since more than 40 years I am shocked to read the news about the "All board Florida" - nightmare. As a citizen of the country with one of the best public transport systems in the world, I can only warn the population living near the tracks that their life will change drastically to the worse if the project should be realized. The noise of a train approaching and passing with more than 100 miles per hour wakes up everybody sleeping and frightens children, elderly people and animals. In a way it sounds like a jet plane passing at low altitude. In Vero Beach I fear that the many restaurants at 14th Avenue would have to close as guests would not be pleased to be disturbed by the noise of the passing trains. The whistling of the trains is also disagreeable but less frightening than the passing trains.
The experience of most railways - including the Swiss - is that they are often in deficit. The taxpayer has to cover regularly the hole in the accounts. So it is inconceivable that federal or state funding should help start this monster which has little effect on the ecology as the number of cars on the roads will be reduced only marginally.
By the way in Switzerland the construction of secure crossings and noise barriers is a task of the railway corporation and not of the town or county. I do not mention the danger of train derailments in towns. Experience shows that such accidents can cause up to hundreds of killed people living in the neighborhood. So I hope that a massive movement of opposition will form and that the politicians in Florida will fight this project with all their might.
Sebastian Schmid, Vero Beach
From www.citizensagainstthetrain.com
Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - 1:30pmExperience of a Swiss Railway UserAs a Swiss snowbird coming to Vero Beach since more than 40 years I am shocked to read the news about the "All board Florida" - nightmare. As a citizen of the country with one of the best public transport systems in the world, I can only warn the population living near the tracks that their life will change drastically to the worse if the project should be realized. The noise of a train approaching and passing with more than 100 miles per hour wakes up everybody sleeping and frightens children, elderly people and animals. In a way it sounds like a jet plane passing at low altitude. In Vero Beach I fear that the many restaurants at 14th Avenue would have to close as guests would not be pleased to be disturbed by the noise of the passing trains. The whistling of the trains is also disagreeable but less frightening than the passing trains.
The experience of most railways - including the Swiss - is that they are often in deficit. The taxpayer has to cover regularly the hole in the accounts. So it is inconceivable that federal or state funding should help start this monster which has little effect on the ecology as the number of cars on the roads will be reduced only marginally.
By the way in Switzerland the construction of secure crossings and noise barriers is a task of the railway corporation and not of the town or county. I do not mention the danger of train derailments in towns. Experience shows that such accidents can cause up to hundreds of killed people living in the neighborhood. So I hope that a massive movement of opposition will form and that the politicians in Florida will fight this project with all their might.
Sebastian Schmid, Vero Beach
From www.citizensagainstthetrain.com
All Aboard Florida-Operations, LLC., a Delaware Limited Liability Company
Internal pitch to private investors sheds light on
All Aboard Florida’s business plan, financials
All Aboard Florida’s business plan, financials
Matt Dixon (@Mdixon55) and Arnie Rosenberg (TCPalmArnie)
All Aboard Florida will make much of its money from real estate development, not just selling tickets on its trains, according to a bond offer sent to private potential investors obtained by the Scripps/Tampa Tribune Capitol Bureau.
The 349-page document, developed to help raise $390 million for the first phase of the project, details ridership projections and financial estimates. It is information All Aboard Florida has kept secret — despite government officials and private citizens calling for its release — and details All Aboard Florida has gone to court to protect.
The document also reveals All Aboard Florida plans to seek a $44 million state grant to connect its service with Tri-Rail in Miami.
All Aboard Florida officials declined to comment on the bond-offering document.
Controversy around plans for the 235-mile, high-speed passenger train, linking Miami and Orlando, has grown since the beginning of this year, and most of the opposition has come from the Treasure Coast. All Aboard Florida would be built and operated with private funds, although it is seeking a $1.5 billion federal loan for upgrade of its infrastructure.
Real estate would be a major profit driver, according to the document, and transit-oriented real estate development is considered part of the overall project.
Potential profitability has been among the many questions raised by opponents, particularly along the Treasure Coast. How could the railroad attract enough riders to make money, they’ve asked. The document helps answer that question.
All Aboard Florida will make much of its money from real estate development, not just selling tickets on its trains, according to a bond offer sent to private potential investors obtained by the Scripps/Tampa Tribune Capitol Bureau.
The 349-page document, developed to help raise $390 million for the first phase of the project, details ridership projections and financial estimates. It is information All Aboard Florida has kept secret — despite government officials and private citizens calling for its release — and details All Aboard Florida has gone to court to protect.
The document also reveals All Aboard Florida plans to seek a $44 million state grant to connect its service with Tri-Rail in Miami.
All Aboard Florida officials declined to comment on the bond-offering document.
Controversy around plans for the 235-mile, high-speed passenger train, linking Miami and Orlando, has grown since the beginning of this year, and most of the opposition has come from the Treasure Coast. All Aboard Florida would be built and operated with private funds, although it is seeking a $1.5 billion federal loan for upgrade of its infrastructure.
Real estate would be a major profit driver, according to the document, and transit-oriented real estate development is considered part of the overall project.
Potential profitability has been among the many questions raised by opponents, particularly along the Treasure Coast. How could the railroad attract enough riders to make money, they’ve asked. The document helps answer that question.
JUST WHAT ARE THEY TRYING TO HIDE?
ECONOMIC IMPACT STUDY:
According to the findings from the comprehensive economic impact study conducted by The Washington Economics Group (WEG), a leading Florida-based economic consulting practice, All Aboard Florida will have significant economic benefits on the state. With more than $6 billion in positive economic impact for the state over the next eight years, findings indicate that the passenger rail line will serve as an engine for growth and prosperity for Florida cities and local governments. Additionally, the project is expected to create more than 10,000 jobs on average per year during rail-line construction set to begin mid-2014 through mid- 2016. Study or not, how can you make wild statements like that and expect the residents to fall for it. It is impossible to speculate figures such as your any more than Governor Scott can say a business moving to Florida will create a certain amount of jobs. The same statements were made in regard to SunRail and most of the jobs created were short term. Given the current economy and how fast the state is spending money on failed projects, you will never reach these goals. Dr. Tony Villamil, former U.S. Undersecretary of Commerce and Chief Economist with over 20 years of experience, led the study that also revealed the project will add nearly $3.5 billion in GDP to the state of Florida’s economy, in addition to an estimated $2 billion in labor income and over $600 million in tax revenues for Federal, State and Local Governments through 2021. In addition to job creation and the significant tax revenues the project will generate, All Aboard Florida will serve the transportation needs of the 9 million residents along the corridor, along with the 50 million who already travel between and within the project’s planned route on an annual basis. Additional positive impacts generated by the project include:
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Brevard County Commissioner Andy Anderson pulled no punches when he told a railroad official what he thought about a study promoting the positive economic impact to Brevard County from the proposed All Aboard Florida passenger train service.
He said the conclusions of the study that the construction project would create more than 1,400 jobs in Brevard County for two years "is probably the closest thing to Fantasyland at Disney that I have ever seen in my life." During Tuesday's County Commission meeting, Anderson told the railroad official, Russell Roberts, to ask the study's authors to "amend it or quit smoking crack or whatever they're doing." "We know that's not the truth," Anderson said, calling the economic impact study "the worst one I've ever seen as far as fabrication and spin." |
