The Florida East Coast Railway is charging the private railway with secretly making expansion plans despite a financial shortfall and insufficient infrastructure.
The Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) is suing Brightline, the privately operated passenger rail line that connects Miami to Orlando, complicating the company’s expansion plans.
According to an article by Joshua Ceballos and Aaron Leibowitz in the Miami Herald, “In its suit, filed July 11 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Florida East Coast Railway notes the many accidents that have occurred on its tracks involving Brightline, saying that adding more trains to the line ‘would heighten the risk of potentially severe accidents.’” Brightline currently has exclusive rights to run passenger trains on that corridor.
In its complaint, FECR charges that “Desperate to salvage some of its investors’ funds, Brightline has covertly engaged in a years-long campaign to stave off its own financial problems by loading FECR’s tracks with more passenger trains.”
FECR is asking a judge to block any further agreements to expand Brightline service, arguing that Brightline does not have the authority to add more trains to the tracks, and that it did not disclose its expansion plan to FECR.
FULL STORY: FEC Railway sues Brightline over commuter rail expansion plan
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