JOIN US IN PROTEST AGAINST AAF/BRIGHTLINE'S HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER TRAINS
The “Move ‘em West – Rally at the Rails” will be held Saturday, March 19, 2016 at 11am at six railroad crossings simultaneously on the Treasure Coast and Palm Beach... more
NEWS ABOUT ALL ABOARD FLORIDA
Published: Wednesday, January 13, 2016 - 9:15am
DAVID Z. MORRIS - FORTUNE.COM
Is the bond market to blame—or is this just a bad idea?
The passenger rail project All Aboard Florida (AAF) was granted a one-year extension last week on its effort to raise $1.75 billion to... more
Published: Tuesday, December 22, 2015 - 3:30pm
RICH CAMPBELL - TCPALM
Don't you hate deadlines?
Generally, if you miss a deadline you pay some sort of penalty. Penalties can run the gamut from additional costs — such as those incurred when filing a late tax return — to... more
Published: Saturday, December 5, 2015 - 10:30am
MIKE MAYO - SUN SENTINEL
If Florida East Coast Railway gets its way, it might soon carry hazardous Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) across densely populated South Florida. The rail company has a pending application with the Federal... more
Published: Monday, November 30, 2015 - 10:30am
CHARLES GERARDI - TCPALM
A storm is brewing. With or without All Aboard Florida, the likelihood of increased rail traffic rumbling through our community is real.
Even at current volumes, congestion from rail traffic impacts... more
Published: Monday, November 30, 2015 - 10:00am
Sally Swartz - PalmBeachPost.com
The fight to stop All Aboard Florida from ruining Treasure Coast downtowns and neighborhoods, slowing ambulances and endangering pedestrians at railway crossings is far from over.
In fact, a... more
Published: Friday, November 27, 2015 - 11:30am
Citizens Against Rail Expansion in Florida (CARE FL) is a coalition created by a group of concerned community leaders, organizations and neighbors in South Florida and the Treasure Coast, emphasizing that continued rail expansion will have a... more
Published: Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - 9:15am
RICH CAMPBELL - TCPALM
The Super Bowl of transportation projects — All Aboard Florida's plan to run 32 daily passenger trains between Miami and Orlando starting in late 2017 — has entered the fourth quarter.
It's crunch time.... more
Published: Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - 3:30am
According to a memo provided today to the Martin County Board of County Commissioners by county staff, projected costs of licenses, repairs/rehabilitation, and land leases associated with the Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC), Flagler Development... more
Published: Monday, November 16, 2015 - 4:00pm
PALM BEACH POST - FRANK CERABINO
All Aboard Florida is going to be a high-concept product, and every high-concept product deserves its own vocabulary.
So I’ve been thinking all week how the branding of this Miami-to-Orlando... more
Published: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - 9:15am
"Today, All Aboard Florida announced a name change in a transparent attempt to distance the enterprise from a growing backlash of citizens who oppose or have serious concerns about the project. This PR move is intended to communicate the... more
Published: Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - 9:00am
MIAMINEWTIMES.COM - KYLE MUNZENRIEDER
If you've been following the development of All Aboard Florida, you've probably thought to yourself at one time or another, Wait, are they going to call it THAT? The answer is no. You won't be talking... more
Published: Friday, October 23, 2015 - 10:15am
RICH CAMPBELL - TCPALM
“Grand reveal” is the phrase All Aboard Florida President Michael Reininger used recently to tease a news conference the rail company has scheduled for Nov. 9 in Miami.
Other clues from Reininger... more
Published: Monday, October 12, 2015 - 10:00am
DARRELL PRESTON - BLOOMBERG
Fortress Investment Group sold Florida officials on its plan to build the first new privately run U.S. passenger railroad in more than a century, saying it will get 3 million cars off the road, create 10,000... more
Published: Wednesday, October 7, 2015 - 3:00pm
RALPH VARTABEDIAN - LA TIMES
The only sign of trouble aboard a Norfolk Southern train, hauling roughly 9,000 tons of Canadian crude in western Pennsylvania last year, was a moderate sway in the locomotive as it entered a bend on the... more
Published: Monday, October 5, 2015 - 9:45am
PALM BEACH POST
When All Aboard Florida starts running its express passenger service along the Florida East Coast Railway tracks, Palm Beach County officials want to make sure the company won’t be required to sound train horns at rail... more
Published: Friday, October 2, 2015 - 9:30am
RICH CAMPBELL - TCPALM
I’d like to propose a new marketing slogan for our region:
“The Treasure Coast: We Exist For the Benefit of Others.”
There’s a common thread connecting All Aboard Florida’s plan to run 32 daily... more
Published: Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - 3:00pm
DAVID Z. MORRIS - FORTUNE
All Aboard Florida, a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group (FIG -3.06% ), will soon issue $1.75 billion in bonds to help finance the construction of a passenger railroad line stretching from Orlando, Florida... more
Published: Tuesday, September 15, 2015 - 10:30am
SHELLY SIGO - THE BOND BUYER
Two south Florida counties launched new legal challenges against a private passenger train project within days of a scheduled $1.75 billion bond offering.
The private activity bonds were initially... more
Published: Thursday, September 10, 2015 - 4:00pm
In a recent column, Rich Campbell of Treasure Coast Newspapers threw in the towel and admitted defeat to All Aboard Florida.
If you believe Campbell, a longtime All Aboard Florida critic, it’s all over but the shouting — more trains... more
Published: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - 11:45am
PALM BEACH POST
For the second time in six months, Tequesta officials are calling onFlorida East Coast Railway to change its procedures, after the village said the company’s aging rail bridge over the Loxahatchee River... more
Published: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 - 10:00am
As Martin County continues its review of the Federal Railroad Administration's (FRA's) Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) on the All Aboard Florida (AAF) passenger rail project and the many deficiencies and flaws within the 646-page... more
Published: Monday, August 24, 2015 - 10:30am
The promised financial impact of the All Aboard Florida train is large: $6.4 billion infused into the state's economy by 2023, $2.4 billion in pay, benefits and taxes for labor through 2021 and 10,000 construction jobs each year through 2017.... more
Published: Monday, August 24, 2015 - 9:45am
On August 4, 2015, hours before the Florida Development Financial Corporation’s decision to issue the tax free bonds regarding the All Aboard Florida (AAF) passenger rail project, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) issued its... more
Published: Monday, August 10, 2015 - 11:45am
Dear Mr. Johnson:
I write regarding the proposed All Aboard Florida (AAF) passenger rail project and its efforts to finance the project using Private Activity Bonds through Florida Development Finance Corporation (FDFC). As the elected... more
Published: Monday, August 10, 2015 - 11:30am
If you’ve got some extra cash lying around, here’s an idea:
Sink all your hard-earned dollars into tax-free bonds for All Aboard Florida, the high-speed passenger train service that will supposedly run between downtown Miami and the... more
Published: Monday, August 10, 2015 - 10:15am
Pieces of the past that are hundreds of years old could derail one of Florida's big future projects.
Archaeologists said the high-speed All Aboard Florida rail would run through one of South Florida's most historic areas.
... more
Published: Thursday, August 6, 2015 - 11:00am
The final environmental impact statement on the All Aboard Florida project, released Tuesday by the Federal Railroad Administration, is everything I expected it to be: a whitewash of the facts, a minimization of impacts to our region, and a... more
Published: Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - 11:15am
A recent column by Canaveral Port Authority Treasurer and Secretary Tom Weinberg highlights many of the potential benefits of the All Aboard Florida rail project. After reading the column, the reader is left to believe that the project will... more
Published: Wednesday, August 5, 2015 - 9:30am
MICHAEL MAYO - SUN SENTINEL
Getting $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds approved by a state board on Wednesday looks to be the easy part for All Aboard Florida.
The seemingly harder part for the proposed Miami-to-Orlando express... more
Published: Tuesday, August 4, 2015 - 9:45am
If ever there was a ferociously fishy foregone conclusion, it's Florida Development Finance Corp.'s impending decision to approve $1.75 billion in tax-exempt, private activity bonds so All Aboard Florida can get funding. FDC has already gleefully... more
Published: Saturday, August 1, 2015 - 12:30pm
FLORIDA DEVELOPMENT FINANCE CORPORATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2015
1:00PM – 6:00PM EST
AGENDA
I. Call to Order;... more
Published: Friday, July 31, 2015 - 9:30am
Issues with the St. Lucie, Loxatachee and New river train bridges have resulted in “unreasonable obstructions to navigation” that need to be “dramatically altered,” CARE’s attorney, Stephen Ryan, said in the letter.
Each of the bridges... more
Published: Wednesday, July 29, 2015 - 11:30am
An attorney fighting the All Aboard Florida project is taking aim at a series of text messages between a representative of the rail company and the chairman of the state board that will decide whether the project receives $1.75 billion in tax... more
Published: Saturday, July 25, 2015 - 12:15pm
All Aboard Florida won preliminary approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation in December to issue $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds to help pay for its express-passenger rail line planned between Miami and Orlando. The... more
Published: Saturday, July 25, 2015 - 11:00am
We knew from the start of AAF’s quest for cheap, publicly financed capital that they work the inside deals and have millions to spend on lobbyists and public relations/advertising firms and here is a fine example of how this all pays off. ... more
Published: Monday, July 20, 2015 - 12:15pm
The state this week paid $3.2 million to a woman injured in a 2013 train crash in Bridgeport as part of the settlement in a federal lawsuit filed against the Metro-North Commuter Railroad.
The payment was noteworthy beyond the significant... more
Published: Monday, July 20, 2015 - 9:30am
Four tank cars leaked an estimated 35,000 gallons of oil after a train hauling fuel from North Dakota derailed in rural northeastern Montana, authorities said.
The spill marked the latest in a series of wrecks across the U.S. and Canada... more
Published: Saturday, July 11, 2015 - 10:15am
All Aboard Florida will not attend the next meeting of the Florida Development Finance Corp., tentatively scheduled for July 21 in Orlando, a company official said.
“AAF is not attending this meeting,” spokeswoman Lynn Martenstein said... more
Published: Thursday, July 9, 2015 - 3:15pm
PARENT COMPANY OF FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY MAKING CHANGES AFTER RECENT LOSSES AND INVESTOR WITHDRAWALS
Fortress Investment Group FIG -3.06 % LLC is shuffling the leadership of its flagship hedge fund on the heels of heavy recent losses... more
Published: Thursday, July 9, 2015 - 2:30pm
The Florida Development Finance Corp. has tentatively set a hearing for 2-3 p.m. July 21, during which All Aboard Florida’s request for $1.75 billion of private-activity bonds could be discussed.
According to the finance corporation’s... more
Published: Thursday, July 9, 2015 - 11:15am
Rear Admiral Scott A. Buschman, Commander
United States Coast Guard District Seven
Bridge Administration Branch
Brickell Plaza Federal Building
909 SE First Avenue
Miami, Florida 33131-3050
... more
Published: Thursday, July 2, 2015 - 11:15am
More than 5,000 residents were evacuated after a freight train carrying a "highly flammable and toxic gas" partly derailed and caught fire overnight just outside Knoxville, Tennessee, officials said.
Ten officers were hospitalized after... more
Published: Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - 9:45am
Martin County officials on Monday took aim at a draft federal study evaluating the impacts of the All Aboard Florida rail project, saying that the study grossly underestimated the number of boats that travel passed the St. Lucie River railroad... more
Published: Sunday, June 28, 2015 - 4:00pm
Matthew Cianfrani, Jensen Beach
Letter: A rolling oil spill, a rail disaster: the calamity that would be All Aboard Florida
I am a new resident of Martin County who chose this location for the quality of life and the forward... more
Published: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 - 9:30am
All Aboard Florida on Friday received a six-month extension to sell $1.75 billion in tax-exempt bonds to help pay for its express-passenger rail project between Miami and Orlando.
Officials with the U.S. Department of... more
Published: Monday, June 22, 2015 - 10:00am
A group that describes itself as citizens who support All Aboard Florida is little more than a ghost.
Connecting Florida, which uses a Stuart address and claims to be a nonprofit organization, has sent out emails and fliers in the past... more
Published: Monday, June 22, 2015 - 9:45am
Liquid natural gas is poised to be either a best friend to Martin County residents, or its worst enemy.
The Fortress Investment Group-related liquified natural gas plant in Medley is nearing completion without any apparent... more
Published: Monday, June 22, 2015 - 7:45am
We have just begun to fight!
All is not lost… I hate to start this edition with that thought but a number of readers have contacted us with the misconception that our setback on the preliminary injunction was the end of the line. It wasn’... more