Brightline buys high-speed rail project linking Las Vegas to L.A.

The jury is still out on Brightline in Florida, they are not turning a profit yet and they have missed their ridership projections but to be fair they have not built the core system yet and only have partially built what they committed to Palm Beach to Miami. Once they build out to the stop at Orlando and eventually Tampa it will be interesting to see what their finanicial numbers are for rail. They are using an interesting model of "value capture" in which they have a fairly large real estate development project at each station stop that is built around the rail station. When the rail service is implemented that property increases in value fairly significantly which they then capture on their books. Now the question is do they hang onto those projects and use the lease rates and rents to subsidize the rail or does the rail pay for itself. I believe the Brightline plan is for the rail to pay for itself eventually which would be a historic accomplishment since very few passenger trains turn a profit that do not run with a high frequency. Anyways, if they are successful they will greatly embarrass California and it's growing boondoggle HSR project from LA to San Francisco. Because the LA to Las Vegas service is to be constructed like the rest of Brightline entirely with private funds. I am sure the taxpayers of California at some point IF Brightline pulls this off are going to ask......."What the hell did we just pay $90 Billion Dollars for in taxpayer funds???". Anyways, I do hope Brightline can pull this off and is not expanding too quickly because just one or two successful privately run high speed lines will swing the door open to private sector funds for projects across this country. And it is something Democrats have said would never happen while criticizing Trumps domestic Infrastructure program. The private sector getting involved in large infrastructure projects with private money. Looks like they are willing and able if conditions are right. BTW, the Texas HSR project Dallas to Houston is still moving forwards and they look to start construction next year. So far they have approx $600 million of the $10-15 Billion needed. Folks are guessing Japan is going to lend them the bulk of the money since they decided on Shinkensen type HSR trains. We'll see.