By Nicholas Schaus of Vero Beach
December 22, 2016
TC Palm (Letter to the Editor)
All Aboard Florida’s first passenger train, Brightline, went through Vero Beach at 1 a.m. Dec. 14. There were no passengers, as it was manufactured in California and was headed south to be used on the 66-mile Palm Beach-to- Miami “phase one” of the high-speed rail.
Once in operation in 2017, it should serve as an extraordinary real-time laboratory to determine the overall feasibility of AAF. The prices and number of tickets sold in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami will predict if the high-speed service from Miami to Orlando announced in 2012, will succeed in attracting financing and become a reality.
For two years the Wall Street hedge fund that owns AAF has not been able to sell $1.75 billion of bonds which would have financed the entire route. The investors have withdrawn this offering and substituted a $600 million issue for “phase one.”
A normal prospective bond purchaser certainly should watch the ticket sales made next year to conclude if the purchaser can be repaid.
The success or failure of this bond issue will have a direct impact on the plan of AAF to sell $1.15 billion in bonds to finance the northern 154-mile, “phase two” route of Palm Beach to Orlando.
The east coast of Florida will be watching the Brightline ticket- counters.