USA: High-speed rail for Florida

[John Ashworth]

National Express gets on board the US high-speed rail revolution

UK rail transport firm hopes to operate America's first major high-speed rail service across Florida

* Dan Milmo
* The Observer, Sunday 14 November 2010

National Express is in talks to join the US high-speed rail revolution in a move that could see it become the operator of a $2.6bn (£1.9bn) route across Florida.

The transport group, which already operates school buses in the US, is discussing a role as operator of a 168mph link between Tampa and Orlando in what is expected to be the first major high-speed route in the US.

Andrew Chivers, managing director of National Express's rail division, said: "We have been in discussions with various potential consortia over the past couple of months and we are interested in being involved as the operator."

National Express would also oversee the maintenance of the line if it joined a winning consortium. Chivers said that little if any equity investment in the route would be required because Florida has secured $2bn of the $2.5bn budget from President Obama's stimulus fund. The rest would be largely debt funded, resembling a public private partnership. "It is a traditional PPP scheme. One of the decisions is likely to be what equity involvement we want, if any," Chivers said. He added that the Florida project was seen as the most likely of several high-speed rail plans to get the go-ahead in the US. California is pondering an ambitious San Francisco-to-Los Angeles route but the state's multibillion-dollar budget deficit is viewed as a big hurdle.

National Express believes that high-speed rail could become a significant industry in the US owing to its green credentials and the boost for construction jobs: "It looks like a good project. High-speed rail is something there is a strong feeling for in the US. It can help meet a number of agenda points including transport, the environment and stimulus jobs."

The first phase of the Florida route from Tampa to Orlando International Airport is 84 miles long, with a stop at DisneyWorld. National Express expects bidders to vie for a 30-year contract to design, build, operate and maintain the railway. Much of the land needed for the route has already been accounted for, after a motorway serving both destinations was built in the 1990s with a central reservation that can accommodate a high-speed line.

"They have the vast majority of the route already identified and secured. All they have to do is to build it and operate it," said Chivers.

The second part of the proposed Florida link, a 240-mile line from Orlando to Miami, has not received stimulus funding but $8m is being invested in a feasibility study.

Chivers insisted that the group's chastening experience with the east coast franchise in Britain, which saw it hand back the contract last year after payments became too onerous, has not overshadowed its strong track record as a rail operator. "Wherever we have gone, we have delivered a good operation," he said.