All Aboard Florida only bidder to FDOT

[spuwho]

AAF was the only bidder to place the required $10k deposit with their proposal due to FDOT on Friday, December 7th. It is unclear if the bid is automatically accepted if they are the only one.

Per the Palm Beach Post:

All Aboard Florida submitted the only proposal Friday to use State Road 528 rights of way for a private rail line.
The company, an arm of Florida East Coast Industries and descendant of the original Flagler railroad company, provoked the Request for Proposal process when it submitted an unsolicited proposal to build the rail line to link Orlando to its east coast rail lines. The company plans in 2014 to launch a private express rail service from Miami to Orlando with stops in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale.
The proposal process, which Florida Department of Transportation spokesman Steve Olson said is required since the land is state-owned, clears the track of any competition. Several companies attended the required pre-bid meetings, but only All Aboard Florida and FECI came up with the $10,000 to submit a formal proposal.
FDOT officials were expected to announce the selected company Dec. 18, but without any competition, it is unclear whether FDOT and the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority must accept All Aboard Florida’s bid.

[Charles Hunter]

I think they still have to review the bid to make sure it meets all the bidding requirements.
But it seems unlikely that AAF would mess up on something like that.

[Jason]

This is all just a formality.  AAF is the reason the bid exists at all. 

[fsujax]

^^yep.

[thelakelander]

I guess all the worry some had about them not being able to secure BeachLine ROW was premature.

[Ocklawaha]

This thing is a DONE DEAL and has been since sometime before the announcement.

[tufsu1]

Really Ock?  I thought you were convinced they would use some old rail alignment.

[spuwho]

Per the Orlando Sentinel:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-miami-orlando-train-20121214,0,1037131.story

State appears ready to get on board with Orlando-to-Miami train

By Dan Tracy, Orlando Sentinel
December 14, 2012

The state appears set to approve a key step in All Aboard Florida's quest to build a privately financed $1 billion train to carry tourists and business travelers from Miami to Orlando International Airport.

On Tuesday, the Florida Department of Transportation will announce whether it has approved a bid by the company to negotiate a deal to lay tracks along the BeachLine Expressway to the airport.

That authorization seems likely because All Aboard Florida was the only company making a pitch for the project, and FDOT largely has fast-tracked the administrative process for it. Top officials also have spoken highly of the plan, including U.S. Rep. John Mica, R-Winter Park, who runs the powerful House transportation committee. But Florida law prohibits FDOT managers and All Aboard Florida executives from speaking specifically about the proposal until the decision is made public next week.

"All we've been told is we will be notified," Husein Cumber, executive vice president of Florida East Coast Industries, said Thursday. FEC is a privately held real-estate company that owns All Aboard Florida.

The broad outlines of the plan has been known for months. All Aboard Florida would run on tracks owned by a sister company, Florida East Coast Railway, for 200 miles from downtown Miami through stops in Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach to near Cocoa. The train then would need to veer west for more than 30 miles to get to the airport.

The most logical path would be along the southern edge of the BeachLine, owned jointly by the state and the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority. But the state and authority could not make a deal with All Aboard Florida over the land without making sure no better offers were available. The agencies sought bids starting in October, but All Aboard Florida was the only applicant.

But even if All Aboard Florida wins approval, it will not be easy getting the right of way, which it wants for free. The expressway authority, which owns 24 miles of the BeachLine from near the Brevard County to just west of the airport, eventually hopes to add two more lanes in both directions, plus at least two new interchanges.

Authority Director Max Crumit said his agency is willing to give the land for free but is unlikely to bargain away its expansion rights. "We pretty well know what we need them to address," Crumit said. "It's pretty much up to them."

The interchanges could be problematic because the train most likely would have to go either over or under the roadwork. And that is expensive, with some estimates ranging as high as $30 million a mile to elevate or dig. Laying track along level ground could cost $5 million a mile. All Aboard Florida officials initially projected a start date in 2014, but since has indicated that date might slip to 2015. Cumber would not discuss the reason for the change.

Cumber also would not say whether the train would pursue federal loans for some of the track work. "We are keeping our options open now and haven't made any decisions," he said.

All Aboard Florida is meant to compete with airlines flying between Orlando and South Florida. The train trip â€" with a fare of about $100 each way â€" would take about three hours, as opposed to four hours by car. Top speed could be 125 mph.

Construction could start as early as next year, if agreements can be reached with the state, the expressway authority and the airport. "We are working to get this project delivered to Florida as quickly as possible," Cumber said.

[Jason]

I'm curious to see how they'll propose to access te airport area.  It is full of highways to cross.

[thelakelander]

They will be coming in from the south.  I wouldn't be surprised if they use the OUC railroad ROW in that area.

[Ocklawaha]

Really Ock?  I thought you were convinced they would use some old rail alignment.

Better reread what I said there TUFSU1, I said historically there WAS a rail line from the South end of Lake Okeechobee north through Yehaw, Holopaw, Bithlo, Geneva, Maytown, and a connection with the FEC Mainline just south of New Smyrna Beach Yard. Another route ran from Titusville to Mim's, Maytown, Osteen, Enterprise, and a connection with the ACL (CSX) at Benson Junction Yard (site of a Sunrail Station) then via trackage rights into Sanford.

From Holopaw and Bithlo in every direction of the compass logging grades are still in place, any one of which COULD be used if they were pointed in the right direction.   

The only line that I thought/think would be a no-brainer for their use is the OUC RR from the Beachline to the south end of the airport. The right-of-way is quite wide and the lines being new are pretty straight, laying another couple of tracks from the 528 to the south end of the airport along this route would be so easy... A...

- You know what I mean!

[tufsu1]

guess I was referring to how you thought they would go to downtown Orlando instead of the airport

[Ocklawaha]

Fair enough my friend, I will go to my grave with the contention that if the Airport is to remain the 'end of the line' they have screwed the pooch out of a much greater market potential. It all comes down to ease of access, and having lived in the area back when the Greeneway opened, that Airport is NOT central to the Orlando-Sanford-Volusia metroplex. If they don't make that adjustment now, it will likely come later, if not, they may pay a price for that omission.

Just Sayin' somewhere in the Florida Hospital Sunrail Station to Orlando's old Church Street Station would be ideal to pick off the easy fares from the metro.

Before someone asks, in the event Sunrail goes to the airport for that vital connection, the way it traditionally works is All Aboard Florida trains would not sell local tickets between downtown and the airport. That market would belong to Sunrail and All Aboard Florida would own the Downtown Orlando-South Florida traffic.

[tufsu1]

It all comes down to ease of access, and having lived in the area back when the Greeneway opened, that Airport is NOT central to the Orlando-Sanford-Volusia metroplex.

maybe not....but the central travel force of Orlando (Disney) isn't central...and when you think of it as the Orlando-Sanford-Daytona-Cocoa-Kissimmee-Winter Haven metro area, the airport is smack dab in the middle

[Ocklawaha]

Kind of goes back to that old Florida conundrum, build services and industry for Floridians or should we perhaps relegate the average Floridian to the trailer park and build for the tourist.  In Orlando's case - Mickey has spoken and the only thing he has brought to the table in any quantity is poverty wage and service jobs.  Per capita income tells this story pretty well:

Duval   $25,854
   
Orange   $25,490
Lake           $25,323   
Osceola   $20,536
Polk           $21,881