Quote:
Originally Posted by twister244
Here's a question - Is there a place for someone like Brightline within the Chicago/Midwest arena?
I hadn't heard of Brightline until two seconds ago hearing about the LA/Vegas route about to be developed. I don't know the background, but when I looked up the trains and routes in Florida, they look damn nice.
Obviously Metra technically has jurisdiction for the metro suburban market, but can Brightline make an entrance with something like a Chicago/Milwaukee route?.... Or a Chicago-MI route? Or is this something Amtrack also plans on tackling?
Just thinking out loud after looking up Brightline....
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Unlikely. The investor appetite to fund rail privately in the Midwest is non-existent, because of our slow population growth and limited tourism market. The strongest city-pair travel markets in the Midwest all cross state lines too, which make the approval process exceptionally tough when you start talking about building thru red states like Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio.
Maybe if Brightline was a smashing business success, you'd see more companies forming and trying to take on the Midwest, or maybe even the Class I freight railroads getting back into the passenger game. But as it stands, Brightline is only modestly successful even in a high-growth state with huge tourism numbers.
Both of the current Brightline projects are sort of unique situations too. In Florida they had the existing FEC mainline with a highly cooperative freight partner, and a cooperative toll highway authority that let them expand to Orlando. In California, they have hundreds of miles of open desert between Victorville and Vegas, a cooperative state government letting them use I-15, and they have shied away from entering the LA basin where construction gets difficult.
I think any private effort in the Midwest will end up more like Texas Central. Lawsuits and political opposition will kill it before it starts.