AAF/Brightline December 2016 Update

[ProjectMaximus]

^not exactly in the middle of the night but yes with minimal fanfare. Former CSXer who is part of the Brightline team posted on his Facebook page about his journey on the new train. He rode it in from New Orleans to West Palm. I was gonna share his post with photos here but saw that it's private so I'll just summarize...sounds like a very gratifying culmination of 4 years of hard work and really proud to see all the kids, police, mechanics and just general train fans chasing after them, taking pics with them, and in some cases coming on board.

I'm sure he'll be even more excited when it's operational...to Jax. 

[spuwho]

Per Trains.com;



JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The first new trainset for a private intercity rail company is now on home rails. The first Siemens-built passenger trainset is on Florida East Coast tracks near Jacksonville and headed south to Miami for additional testing. Pulled by Union Pacific SD70M No. 4418, the Brightline special departed Siemens' Sacramento, Calif., shops overnight on Dec. 8 and moved along Union Pacific tracks through Southern California, through Houston, Texas, and New Orleans, where it railed on to CSX Transportation tracks.

Florida East Coast is the freight railroad that hosts and is the sister company of the All Aboard Florida private passenger service which is slated to one day move passengers at more than 100 mph between Miami and Orlando, Fla. Brightline is All Aboard Florida's brand name for the trains and service.

Siemens has an exclusive contract to build the coaches and locomotives, which are based on the German company's successful Charger diesel passenger locomotives.

Rail officials tell Trains News Wire that the train's scheduling unintentionally helped it pass through dense urban areas mostly at night until Tuesday.

[spuwho]

It seems Fortress is continuing to divest assets to raise cash.

Either to pay off those PIK bonds, or raise dough to finance the Orlando AAF segment.

The South Florida Biz Journal is reporting that 2 Fortress aligned entities have sold off their assisted living proprties in Broward County recently.

The sale raised $15 million dollars, but what is raising eyebrows is that Fortress took a loss on the sale of about $2 million for what they paid.

No word yet on who is buying the FEC RR.

Basically, Fortress is reaching into their various piggy banks and breaking them open looking for loose change.

With roughly $1.5 billion needed, they need to look under a lot of matresses to make it happen.