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All Aboard Florida begins construction on MiamiCentral Station
Onward and upward…
News from the Treasure Coast, hotbed of the NIMBYs trying to kill the project:
- The City of Stuart revealed they tried to get AAF to build a station but AAF didn’t like the proposal (video here: http://t.co/bKbbDyHs22). Station cost is probably (eyeballing and extrapolating from AAF’s $30M stations and Amtrak’s $10M Amshacks, I’m not a civil engineer) around $40M and was combined with Amtrak stop (serious no-no, AAF promised not to interchange with Amtrak to STB), and was coupled with a luxury hotel in area people don’t generally want to stay at, so not surprised. Anyway, they’ve thrown a tantrum over the proposal being rejected and are now refusing to talk to AAF about other possible stations.
- Martin County and Indian River county have allocated around $5M in taxpayer’s funds to fund legal action to stop AAF. This is not going down very well. http://www.sunshinestatenews.com/story/taxpayer-funded-lawsuit-vs-all-aboard-florida-looking-wildly-out-favor
- AAF looks likely to have the name “Bright”, “Bright Rail”, or “Bright Line”. AAF was always a placeholder. They’ve trademarked those terms, but have made no official announcements thus far.
- AAF opponents released a “report” supposedly showing AAF would make a loss. It’s… a strange report and easily debunked (doesn’t take property income into account for starters), but got a lot of publicity.
Also of note: those tax exempt bonds AAF plans to replace their proposed RRIF loan with? The committee that needs to approve their use has one member and so can’t reach a quorum right now. Consequences of this are unknown, especially as the RRIF loan process is still ongoing, so AAF still has Plan A open to them.
The taxpayer’s money being used to fund likely frivolous lawsuits in the conservative Treasure Coast might actually be the first really serious tactical mistake the antis have made. Unfortunatel
Sanders; beams are horizontal, columns are vertical. You’re an EVP for construction for my FIG?
The elevated tracks at MiamiCentral will be an advantage against potential flooding given Miam’s low elevation and the rising sea levels.
Meanwhile, the anti-rail entities complain about tax money funding railway projects. Now that AAF is a wholly privately funded project, the same parties are opposed to that!
Just awesome news
Using the regional site is a terrific salute to the past glory of FEC passenger service!
@willian d hays:
Could they have just reported it wrong? It’s very possible that both the columns and beams to the 50ft elevation will be done by November. Perhaps beams were mentioned as those would be constructed after the columns? Why is that so unusual if the station will be ready for occupancy by end of next year? Me thinks the EVP for AAF knows what he (and not the reporter) is talking about!
And to all the naysayers in the railroad media (including some at Trains) who called AAF a “paper project” not worthy of reporting on over the past 3 years, time to eat crow!
These people are investing serious money in this project. I hope it works out for them.
Now here’s my questions, is FEC going to hire trainmen to operate trains and have Railroad Retirement OR is going to hire a contractor that does NOT pay Railroad Retirement to run trains like TriRail? Hmmm, that’s the only thing I care about!
Hold on hold on hold on. So there will be Miami Central Station near the Airport and MiamiCentral Station downtown?
From Wikipedia “I-beams may be used both as beams and as columns.”
With awesome news like this I only regret that I don’t have another half-century to enjoy the fruits of their labors! Stupendous news, albeit a little late for many who would avail themselves of it shamelessly! When Tampa is finally connected to all of this is Florida going to be the envy of numerous other states? I’d bet on it!
I really hope AAF is successful. If it is, it will demonstrate how high speed rail can be developed without coercive governments telling the people what it thinks they want. And the real estate may be the key to making it work.
Perhaps we should be thinking of trains as sideways elevators. Just like vertical elevators that don’t recoup their costs through passenger fares, neither do trains. Instead, they recoup their costs through the value of the destination.