Brightline seeks service to Tampa

Gov. Rick Scott says FDOT will solicit private firms’ bids to run high-speed rail from Orlando to Tampa.

Brightline hopes to extend its service not just to Orlando but also to Tampa.

Gov. Rick Scott said Friday that, in response to “an unsolicited proposal” from Brightline, the Florida Department of Transportation will seek bids from private companies interested in running high-speed trains from Orlando to Tampa.

Brightline, the rail service operating between Miami and West Palm Beach, intends to begin service to Orlando in 2021.

“As one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions, Tampa Bay is a natural extension for Brightline,” President Patrick Goddard said in a statement.

Friday’s announcement reflects the ever-expanding ambitions of Brightline, whose officials have begun saying they’d like to launch private rail service elsewhere in the United States.

It also renews Florida’s offand-on flirtations with rail service between South Florida and the I-4 corridor. As a newly elected governor, Scott in 2011 famously turned down $2.4 billion in federal money for a high-speed rail project between Orlando and Tampa.

“When I became governor, the Obama administration was trying to use federal taxpayer dollars to pay for a rail connection that had an extremely high risk of overspending taxpayer dollars with no guarantee of economic

growth,” Scott said in Friday’s statement. “This is exactly what we’re seeing in California, a state which took this bad deal from Obama, and in Connecticut where taxpayers had to shell out hundreds of millions of dollars for their rail line.”

Scott said he finds private-sector rail service far more fiscally palatable.

“Instead of placing taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars, our goal is for the private sector to invest in this project,” Scott said. “Through private investment, we ensure that this major project has zero financial risk to Florida taxpayers.”

Would-be train operators have 120 days to submit their bids. The state is charging a $50,000 application fee.

Brightline’s plans have brought skepticism from some in Congress, including U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City. He has called the federal Transportation Department’s approval of $1.15 billion in tax-exempt bonds for Brightline a “serious abuse of taxpayer dollars.”

Brightline already has sold $600 million in tax-exempt bonds to help pay for its Miami-to-West Palm Beach service. Trains began operating between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale in January, and service to Miami launched in mid-May.

Construction on Brightline’s northern extension includes adding a second set of tracks to the Florida East Coast Railway between West Palm Beach and Cocoa Beach and building a section of east-west rail between Cocoa Beach and the Orlando airport.

All Aboard Florida, which operates Brightline, is owned by an affiliate of Fortress Investment Group LLC, a global investment management firm. Fortress Investment Group LLC is con- tracted to manage a nd advise New Media Investments Inc., which owns GateHouse Media, the parent company of The Palm Beach Post.

Though the com p any remains years away from ferrying passengers from South Florida to Orlando, Brightline officials already are talking about linking such metro areas as Los Angeles and Las Vegas, St. Louis and Chicago and Atlanta and Charlotte.

During a recent interview with CNBC, Brightline backer Wes Edens, the billionaire head of Fortress Investment Group, said he envisions expanding Brightline to other U.S. cities.

“We think there’s lots of city pairs that have similar characteristics, kind of too long to drive, too short to fly,” Edens said.

Brightline’s trains will operate at a maximum speed of 125 mph.