FEC railway sues to halt proposed Brightline project; lawsuit signals trouble for commuter rail

Rarely have we seen a day when the Florida East Coast Railway has publicly spoken ill of Brightline, its higher speed passenger rail partner in South and Central Florida.

Nor has it openly uttered objections against a planned commuter rail line Brightline envisions operating in concert with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties over the FECR-owned corridor east of Interstate 95.

Until recently.

In a sharply worded lawsuit filled last month in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, the venerable freight carrier based in Jacksonville, and owner of the 351-stretch of rail between Miami and the northeast Florida city, alleges that Brightline kept the FECR in the dark when it started speaking with county officials about a possible commuter line that would run through all three counties, over 85 miles between Miami and Jupiter.

The lawsuit was first reported by the Miami Herald.

The Coastal Commuter Link idea is an outgrowth of a plan researched and coordinated by the Florida Department of Transportation starting in 2003, decades after passenger rail service along the line founded by oil baron Henry Flagler ceased in 1968.

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The Florida East Coast lawsuit alleges Brightline overstepped the bounds of use agreements the two railroads signed in 2016 and 2017. Brightline started operations in 2018 with sleek passenger trains that whisked South Florida commuters among the downtowns of West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. New stations later sprouted in Boca Raton and Aventura, and in September 2023, Brightline achieved its main initial goal by opening a 170-mile extension to Cocoa and then west to a station at Orlando International Airport.

But before the add-on was complete, Brightline started discussions with Miami-Dade and then Broward counties about building a separate commuter line for local South Florida travelers. This was done, the suit alleges, without the knowledge of the Florida East Coast Railway, Brightline’s landlord.

“This is a paradigmatic case of giving an inch and having a mile taken — in this case, hundreds of miles of railroad,” the complaint argues.

“FECR brings this complaint to put an end to Brightline’s years-long campaign to usurp FECR’s rights to the use of its own property, and ensure Brightline’s compliance with the terms it agreed to close to a decade ago,” the complaint says.

Under those terms,  FECR, which operates freight trains along its corridor, including to destinations such as the Port of Palm Beach,  Port Everglades and PortMiami, allowed Brightline to use its tracks for passenger operations “subject to strict limitations on volume to safeguard public safety.”

“But rather than gratitude for the use of the FEC Corridor, Brightline wants more — more trains and more profit,” the suit alleges. “And to obtain it, Brightline colluded behind FECR’s back to dispossess FECR of its own property and load the railway tracks with passenger trains at a volume that the tracks cannot safely handle without significant investment that Brightline cannot afford.”

Ashley Blasewitz, Brightline’s director of media relations, called the Florida East Coast claims “without merit.” She noted Brightline had filed a motion to dismiss the case and “compel arbitration.”  She declined further comment.

The Florida East Coast Railway did not respond to an emailed question that asked whether it would permit a new dedicated commuter line along its corridor under any circumstances.

“Vulnerable” counties

None of the three counties is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

But the suit alleges Brightline has placed the counties, and in particular, Miami-Dade County, “in a vulnerable and untenable position.” It noted that Miami-Dade has sought the approval of hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from the Federal Transit Administration for the commuter project.

“But that funding is dead in the water,” the suit asserts, “as Brightline’s representations are not only legally prohibited by its agreements with FECR, but also practically precluded by FECR’s existing use of its tracks.”

For its part, Broward County, which has been negotiating a deal with Brightline that would place commuter stations in Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and near the Broward Medical Center, said Monday it would continue working with Brightline on the project.

“Broward County is aware of the lawsuit and are still in ongoing discussions with Miami-Dade County and Brightline on the future development and operation of the Broward Commuter Rail Project,” Coree Cuff Lonergan, the county director of transportation, said in a statement to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.  “We still believe this project is an important component of our overall transportation network, provides much-needed relief to our north-south mobility needs and will generate economic development opportunities for our communities along the corridor.”

In Brightline’s motion to dismiss filed July 29,  the Miami-based company’s lawyers called the Florida East Coast claims “frivolous” and “untrue.” Brightline also said the joint agreement calls for disputes to be resolved through arbitration, not in the complex business litigation section of a state court.

“Under that agreement, Brightline has an express contractual right to operate passenger rail service along the FEC Corridor, either itself or through one or more ‘designees,’” Brightline said.

“This includes both higher-speed ‘intercity’ passenger service and ‘commuter’ service,” the railroad’s motion added.

“Nevertheless, FECR’s Complaint asserts that Brightline ‘violat[ed]’ the JUA by working with Miami-Dade County and others to develop a badly-needed commuter rail service in South Florida,” the motion added.

FECR. it said. “knew that one of Brightline’s parent entities was preparing to issue a bond offering to help finance the commuter rail project, and it sought to thwart that effort by asserting specious claims in a public forum.”

It went on to say that Florida East Coast  “publicly sought to harm Brightline by making gratuitous factual allegations it knew not to be true …”

Rough ride

Florida East Coast’s suit against Brightline comes at a time when commuter rail in South Florida is undergoing a tough patch.

Brightline bonds recently saw another downgrade from Fitch Ratings, which announced July 30 that it had downgraded $2.219 billion in senior secured private activity bonds from BB+ to B. The agency cited “uncertainty” over whether additional passenger capacity would generate enough demand to “drive both higher ridership and fare revenue.” Last year, the company posted a net loss of $550 million, much of it attributable to refinancing and expansion expenses.

In a June ridership and revenue report, in which Brightline reported year-over-year upticks in both categories for the month, the company noted it has a global campaign under way to raise “a substantial amount of equity.” It is also pursuing a $400 million tax-exempt bond issue.

Separately, Tri-Rail, the publicly subsidized three-county railroad that travels along a state-owned rail corridor between the West Palm Beach area and Miami International Airport, says it will run out of money if it does not receive additional funding by 2027.

On Monday, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, Tri-Rail’s operating agency, announced the rail line achieved a fiscal year ridership record with 4,578,680 rides from July 2024 through June 2025. The figure surpassed the system’s previous high of 4,465,750 rides in fiscal year 2019.

“We are exceptionally proud of this ridership milestone,” David Dech, SFRTA Executive Director, said in a prepared statement. “It speaks to the essential role Tri-Rail plays in meeting the transportation needs of our growing region.”

Dech is out of the country and unavailable for comment, a spokesman said.

In the statement, Tri-Rail called itself “a cornerstone of mobility in South Florida, helping alleviate congestion, connect communities, and fuel regional economic growth.”

Still, the rail line needs more public money, the statement said, reiterating recent public financial warnings delivered by Dech.

Florida’s recent state budget, the statement noted, “included reductions to the system’s funding.”

“Current financial projections indicate that without additional support, Tri-Rail will only have sufficient funds to operate through July 2027,” the statement added.

As a result, the agency’s governing board and executives are “actively collaborating with the Florida Legislature, Florida Department of Transportation, and leadership from Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, to secure a sustainable, long-term funding solution.”

Wider roads, more arterials

In a telephone interview Monday, Gregory Stuart, executive director of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization, whose function is to map future transportation county projects and help secure federal funding, said the failure to build a commuter line east of I-95 and to sustain Tri-Rail would likely force planners to look at building more highways.

“What does the outlook look like? More traffic on the roads,” he said.

Stuart recalled that FECR representatives have been present at planning meetings for the coastal commuter rail link dating back to 2003, when the Florida Department of Transportation started to map a proposed 85-mile-long service that would run from Miami to Jupiter.

“I think FEC objected even back then,” he said. “When they did the agreement with All Aboard Florida (Brightline’s predecessor firm), I guess that we all saw a glimmer of hope.”

But whatever happens, FEC remains in control.

“They own the right-of-way,” he said. “Every one of those crossings or temporary leases — they can shut down everything very quickly. They’re the property owner.”

Stuart said the federal government has identified “hundreds of millions for the Miami-Dade piece” of the commuter link

“We need to know what to do,” he said.

Originally Published: August 5, 2025 at 7:00 AM EDT

By David Lyons | South Florida Sun Sentinel

UPDATED: August 5, 2025 at 7:05 AM EDT