Passenger Trains > Brightline: Is it the first new privately financed service?

Eugene Skoropowski, the vice president of Brightline, makes quite a few appearances at rail gathering to talk about the new
Orlando to Miami service.  The promotional materials for him state "Brightline is the first new, privately-financed intercity passenger
serivce in 100 years."  Is that true?  While this new service is privately financed, are they now using federal financing authority
to borrow money?  And, I seem to recall that sometime in the years since Amtrak's birth in 1971, that the Texas Mexican Railroad
initiated a passenger service from Laredo to Corpus Christi.  It did not last long but it would have been a new privately
financed service.  Is that correct?

renf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Eugene Skoropowski, the vice president of
> Brightline, makes quite a few appearances at rail
> gathering to talk about the new
> Orlando to Miami service.  The promotional
> materials for him state "Brightline is the first
> new, privately-financed intercity passenger
> serivce in 100 years."  Is that true?  While
> this new service is privately financed, are they
> now using federal financing authority
> to borrow money?  And, I seem to recall that
> sometime in the years since Amtrak's birth in
> 1971, that the Texas Mexican Railroad
> initiated a passenger service from Laredo to
> Corpus Christi.  It did not last long but it
> would have been a new privately
> financed service.  Is that correct?

Auto Train?

Posted from Android

Not true.  There have been new privately-financed passenger services within the past 100 years such as the California Zephyr.

More recently, the AutoTrain was initially a private operation in the 1970s.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/16 15:59 by RuleG.

Almost all passenger trains in the past 100 years were privately-financed up until Amtrak....

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

He said service, not train. As another poster said, he seems to have forgotten Auto Train Corp.

However, privately financed completely new trackwork and major station construction to run a regular hourly passenger service using new purpose built rolling stock, if not first, is at least quite unusual in the US in this day and age. Not so unusual elsewhere though.

MojaveBill Wrote:
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> Almost all passenger trains in the past 100 years
> were privately-financed up until Amtrak....

The Atlantic City ACES service was funded by the casinos there.  We all saw how that turned out and I suspect the Brightline will end the same way.

mbrotzman Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MojaveBill Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Almost all passenger trains in the past 100
> years
> > were privately-financed up until Amtrak....
>
> The Atlantic City ACES service was funded by the
> casinos there.  We all saw how that turned out
> and I suspect the Brightline will end the same
> way.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          So, are you suggesting that there is some/any correlation between the east coast of Florida and the decaying blight of the Atlantic City area?   AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

renf Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Eugene Skoropowski, the vice president of
> Brightline, makes quite a few appearances at rail
> gathering to talk about the new
> Orlando to Miami service.  The promotional
> materials for him state "Brightline is the first
> new, privately-financed intercity passenger
> serivce in 100 years."  Is that true?  While
> this new service is privately financed, are they
> now using federal financing authority
> to borrow money?  And, I seem to recall that
> sometime in the years since Amtrak's birth in
> 1971, that the Texas Mexican Railroad
> initiated a passenger service from Laredo to
> Corpus Christi.  It did not last long but it
> would have been a new privately
> financed service.  Is that correct?                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Mr Skoropowski, uncharacteristically for him, was way off base on this one, to suggest that, since 1916(!!!), this is the first new privately funded passenger service in the US.   Such a claim is preposterous.  Entire railroads, with passenger service have been built in that timeframe....anyone remember the Milwaukee Road Pacific Coast extension?   Or perhaps the SP Natron Cutoff?  AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

Part of the Atlantic City ACES service was financed by the Casino Redevelopment Authority, a NJ patronage entity which was supposed to make Atlantic City a wonderful place. When CRDA was disbanded and merged into another authority,there was some fancy footwork to change the equipment leases over to NJ Transit. Three major casinos fronted the deal with some cash, and CRDA put some of their cash flow into the rest of the financing. NJ Transit operated the service on behalf of the various players.

I may have posted on that years ago.