1) Not to play ‘battle of the modes’ but I don’t know what it is about passenger rail that seems to drive some people crazy and mad. Unfortunately, passenger rail investments have become another of the ‘cultural war’ issues.
2) Bob Crandall is a smart person—I don’t know what is so difficult to figure out that a large part of the business case for the All Aboard Florida rail project comes from real estate development at the stations and land surrounding the stations. Florida East Coast Industries, which is building the rail line, is a large, savvy, real estate developer and is developing large plots of land, including in downtown Miami, around most of the stations that it owns. Mobility and increased connectivity greatly enhances land values. Mr. Crandall likely only sees this as a transportation investment and not as a significant real estate play. At a Transportation Research Board session a few years ago, I heard one of the executives from either JR East or JR Central in Japan note that something like half of the company’s revenue comes not from the rail operations but from the real estate development.
From planes to trains: Robert Crandall joins opposition to All Aboard
Palm Beach Post
May 22, 2015
"Robert Crandall was a titan of the airline industry in the rollicking days of deregulation, and at 79, his heart still pumps jet fuel.
Today, though, he's got another transportation project in his crosshairs -- All Aboard Florida's $2.9 billion express passenger rail.
Crandall, a winter resident of Palm City, is on the steering committee of the anti-All Aboard Florida group Citizens Against Rail Expansion. When he joined the opposition, it bolstered the rag tag effort of grassroots organizers who were taking on All Aboard Florida..."
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/ma...S_4745_32454-1
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