Q&A of the Day – Brightline’s Orlando Expansion
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
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Today’s Entry: Good morning, Brian: you have been discussing Brightline’s expansion recently. Residents and politicians, including Brian Mast, from Stuart and the greater Treasure Coast, have been fighting this project being run along coastal communities, massively disrupting traffic, boating, and the marine industry. The belief up here has been that the project should run further inland on new tracks towards Orlando (much like the turnpike route), through much less populated land, especially since there are no planned stops in our area.
The consensus is that the chosen route on existing FEC tracks was selected so that taxpayers would foot the bill for ‘infrastructure improvements’ needed to handle high speed passenger trains on these existing tracks.
Please investigate and share your insight and analysis.
Bottom Line: Brightline has been around for eleven years and the debate over its plans, expansion projects and funding for them have been regular focuses of the debate. As Brightline is nearing the completion of its expansion to Orlando, which is expected to be complete within the next four months – connecting Disney to Port Miami – with of course many stops in between, continues to be the subject of a frequently contentious debate. As you’ve outlined there tend to be three different points of contention by opponents to Brightline in general:
- Safety
- Location
- Funding
Also, as you’ve noted, Congressman Brian Mast has been perhaps the most vocal opposition leader to the Orlando expansion project. And to your point, specific to the path used by Brightline, Mast first testified before Congress during a hearing on the Brightline Expansion April 19th, 2018. In that hearing Mast said: I could tell you one of the issues that I do hear about most frequently from my constituents are the physical and economic danger that are posed by the Brightline expansion into the Treasure Coast. There are numerous issues that deserve scrutiny when it comes to this expansion. Now, let me just start by saying, I am a supporter of private activity bonds. There are numerous important project, good projects that Congress has specifically intended to provide the option of private activity bonds for. There’s a list of them up on the board right there. There are two additional categories. The first is high-speed intercity rail facilities, which Congress defines as a railway using vehicles that are reasonably expected to be capable of obtaining a speed in excess of 150 miles per hour. In other words, if Brightline wants to use tax-exempt bonds, they have to have the capability to run their trains in excess of 150 miles per hour. But they don’t. So Brightline has, instead, sought to circumvent this congressional intent by claiming that they qualify as a highway.
This is where stuff can get really wonky really fast, so I’ll spare details, but you may recall that Brightline now can and will travel at speeds of 150 mph. In fact, the trains could now hit 200 – though there’s no intention of trying. The bottom line on the speed piece as it relates to access to federal bonds, matters as was outlined by Mast five years ago. And yes, the original path was in part a consideration as part of that funding process. Brightline has been able to qualify for what are called “private-activity bonds”. In August of 2018 the federal government, under the Trump administration mind you, approved $1.15 billion in Private Activity bonds which were critical to the Orlando expansion project. Now, there’s been a bit of conflating about what those bonds are by opponents to the project. Those bonds aren’t a grant. They’re tax-free bonds, so they’re tax advantaged, but they must be repaid – so it’s not direct taxpayer funding. All in the total cost of the expansion was $1.75 billion (there was a separate $600 million bond sale). All of it was obtained through private bond placement using tax advantaged bonds. That’s notable for this reason. Brightline is proving to be the most cost-effective rail project on record.
The total cost per mile for Brightline’s expansion has been $7.3 million. By way of comparison, the largest other existing US rail project, the California, High Speed Rail project, has been built at a cost of $154 million per mile, or greater than twenty times more than Brightline. All of this is to say, that from my perspective, the economic case against Brightline isn’t a sound one. They’ve used private money through tax advantaged bond issuance to build the most cost-effective railroad in modern American history. That’s especially true when considering what’s expected to happen once the Orlando expansion is complete. An economic impact study suggests within the first eight years 10,000 new jobs will be created and $6.4 billion in additional revenue will be generated.
There was one small government grant ($25 million) which is unrelated to the Orlando expansion project which was received last year from the Federal Department of Transportation and Florida Department of Transportation through the RAISE grant program which was designed to improve safety at crossings. And that of course leads to the complaints by some about safety which you’ve raised. At last check, since first operating in July of 2017, there have been a total of 88 deaths associated with a Brightline train. To date almost all of the deaths associated with Brightline have come in two categories. Suicide and recklessness. It’s sad but it’s also entirely preventable and it’s a personal problem. It’s frankly absurd in my view for someone blaming Brightline for someone running out in front of a train. Likewise, I place the concern about vehicles in the category of people who play stupid games winning stupid prizes. It doesn’t matter how fast trains go. There’s ample notice the train is coming at all stops. People to trying to beat the train are fools. Period. Especially considering how short the delay is when stopped at the tracks. I cross the tracks to go to and from work every day. I couldn’t begin to tell you the number of times I’ve been stopped at them. Brightline is no less safe than any other train in my regular experience. There’s simply more opportunity for foolish people doing foolish things.
As for the “not in my back yard effect”. I get it. And if anyone has their quality of life negatively impacted by its proximity, I understand the frustration. That’s both legitimate and specific. All decisions about Florida’s growth must be weighed against the pros and cons of action and inaction. It doesn’t positively change the impact for those who may be negatively impacted by proximity, however more traffic, new roads and expanded roads would also have similarly negative impacts on people with much higher costs – especially to taxpayers. Hopefully this has been helpful.