Brightline Trains Florida discussion

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Yeah, it is a bit weird. I have had someone chatting with me on that window at times, and at other times it forwards to the "send email" bot.

While you are at it, do include a complaint about the email thing in the email message too. ;)
 
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They did respond, and said reservations are not yet open past 12/31 - and try again “in a few weeks”! :blink:

I guess the trains will be very empty on 1/1/2019!
Frankly, I don't think they have a huge number of reservations this far out anyway. Typically they start filling up two weeks before departure. The fare does not change all that much either.
 
Apparently Richard Branson is dipping his hand into the US rail market. Brightline has partnered with Virgin Group, and will be rebranded as "Virgin Rail USA"

https://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/news/2018/11/16/brightline-partners-with-virgin-group-as-it-plans.html

peter
What the hell?! That really came out of nowhere. :huh:

And for the record, I quite like the name "Brightline" as well as its color scheme, so I'm a bit sad that it's probably about to be replaced with something like this:

Virgin-Trains-Pendolino-Repainted-Train-e1534499151599.jpg
 
On the one hand, I'm sorry to see the Brightline branding vanish.

On the other hand, based on everything else I've seen attached to the Virgin brand, the two are a good match.  In the scheme of things, this is probably going to involve some sort of tie-up with Virgin Atlantic, too, btw (if only through a shared loyalty program).  SRB is also still smarting from the Virgin America acquisition and he did say he wanted back into the US market.
 
I had thought, or hoped, that the NEC operations would be rebranded Virgin USA. 
 
My guess is that this is tied up with the Tampa situation and/or Southern California.  Orlando-Tampa really does create a much stronger operational profile for the Florida operation (since that adds several market subsets to the picture).

Also, checking that map in the SEC filing?  I had a feeling they were going to try and steal the Surfliner as soon as the Vegas stuff got up and rolling.  Looks like they're really going hard on this (though in their shoes, I probably wouldn't hold my breath on the NEC...even if I could lever operational control away from Amtrak, the SOGR shortfall there is enough to make me run very fast in the other direction).

Edit: I've packed an analysis into the other thread.  Bottom line is that the numbers are rather a mixed bag as-is.
 
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Anderson? Seems to exceed even your estimates. This is good news. 

As for Virgin, 8 think the line will be Virgin Trains USA's Brightline. I don't expect to see everything going into the paint shop for a major redo.
 
Technically, it didn't exceed them since my estimates were for September;-)

Looking at the numbers for Q3, this suggests another 30-50% growth quarter-over-quarter.  I have little doubt that October beat September in terms of ridership by a good bit.  One thing to note is that Brightline added additional weekend trains in October, which can't help but have helped.  I'll slap some additional notes down elsewhere, but it looks like PPR is pretty steady while ridership is moving upwards solidly.
 
The SEC filing says they expect the average fare between Miami and West Palm to be $50 per passenger. That's double what they charge now.  :eek:  At least Miami to Orlando for $100 sounds somewhat more reasonable. 
 
On the one hand, I'm sorry to see the Brightline branding vanish.

On the other hand, based on everything else I've seen attached to the Virgin brand, the two are a good match.  In the scheme of things, this is probably going to involve some sort of tie-up with Virgin Atlantic, too, btw (if only through a shared loyalty program).  SRB is also still smarting from the Virgin America acquisition and he did say he wanted back into the US market.
Virgin's rail operations in the UK were not exactly a success and probably damaged the Virgin brand more than it leveraged it.
 
Virgin's rail operations in the UK were not exactly a success and probably damaged the Virgin brand more than it leveraged it.
The West Coast franchise has arguably been a success (they've had it for 21 years).  CrossCountry also didn't seem to have many issues other than the ill-fated frequency increase, while the East Coast situation has been a running problem for the last few decades and every operator has run into problems with it (not to mention that the nature of the franchise system there is a bit problematic).
 
East Coast was also mostly First Group with Virgin holding a 10% interest. Management was entirely from the First Group side and the financial hit was also on the First Group side of things. Also there really was no complaint about the quality of service, which is what the Virgin brand was primarily associated with.

I think on the whole Virgin Trains has a positive impression in balance. The only thing that they control almost fully has done well.
 
Once Brightline is built out and proves itself successfully, I can see that Virgin will buy the rest of it and run it as Virgin. The same with Vegas to LA and any where else this model will apply. 
 
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