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Taxpayer burden to support overall project

  1. First there is the cost of tax payers dollars for a Federal loan of a reported $1,875,000,000.00 dollars. The public is being bribed with its own money.
  2. Second is the cost of upgrading more than 300 train Intersections along the East Coast of Florida at an estimated $150,000 to $250,000 per intersection – paid for by local citizens. To quiet train horns, communities along the FEC tracks will have to pay to improve railroad crossings. All Aboard Florida says it will make safety upgrades but has stopped short of agreeing to pay for extended gates, raised medians and other protective structures needed to meet federal “quiet zone” standards.
  3. Third is the ongoing cost of maintenance. At a time of unprecedented national debt and declining condition of our existing roads, highways and bridges, Florida citizens will be required to pay for subsidizing this rail train that only stops in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Passenger train services have been money-losers in the U.S. for more than half a century. Most railroad companies dropped passenger service in the early 1970s, after the federal government eased requirements that they carry them, and established the publicly funded Amtrak instead. Today not a single private passenger-rail service still operates. All of the operating and capital costs are highly subsidized by the government. Amtrak has had almost $40 billion in subsidies during its existence and routinely needs more than $1 billion each year to continue operating. Our local Tri-Rail receives more than $40 million per year in subsidies from local taxes and State funding. Amtrak and Tri-Rail continue to hemorrhage money. Somehow the magic of All Aboard Florida will change all that. How?
  4. Last, Gov. Rick Scott pledged $213.5 million in State money to expand a terminal in Orlando for a station and maintenance facility. It will be beautiful….and expensive and aren't private American workers in debt enough already?
  5. Question of the day: How do you design a rail system if you don't know how many people will ride it?  "It drives everything – how many tracks, how many parking spots, how many everything..."