Richard Branson and Brightline train (Getty, Virgin)
Brightline and Virgin Trains are on different tracks and have terminated their partnership agreement in South Florida. The shuttle service will return after using the name Brightline, it said in its monthly revenue and reporting on ridership.
Brightline had worked as Virgin Trains USA, and was expected to complete the rebranding by this summer. The railroad service, which operated from downtown Miami to West Palm Beach, with an extension to Orlando under construction, said it would change its name to Brightline Trains LLC. It stopped service on March 25, amid the pandemic.
Brightline, which is majority owned by Fortress Investment Group, said in its report to bondholders that its mother provided a termination notice on ties to its licensing agreement on July 29th. “Virgin has challenged the validity of the termination,” according to the report.
Billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, visited the downtown Miami station for a ribbon-cutting ceremony that unveiled a new sign at the MiamiCentral station for mixed use in April last year.
As part of the partnership, first announced in November 2018, Virgin Trains was set to make a minority investment in Brightline.
Virgin Group is struggling in the midst of the pandemic. Earlier this week, Virgin Atlantic Airways filed for bankruptcy protection at the US Bankruptcy Court in New York, as part of a $ 1.5 billion redistribution plan, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Brightline has completed three stations, including one in downtown Fort Lauderdale. It is also working to expand throughout Miami-Dade County. In its monthly report, the company said it had made “substantial progress” on negotiations with Miami-Dade for a new service for services on its rail corridor.
The pandemic has not been easy on Brightline, which reduced its service in mid-March and then stopped all services before the end of the month. The company laid off 250 employees in March.
Year-to-date, 271,778 passengers rode Brightline this year, amounting to just $ 6.6 million in revenue, according to the report.
The development of Brightline’s train stations has encouraged investment in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Last year, Kushner Companies made its first major real estate game in Fort Lauderdale across the street from the then-Virgin Trains station.
Brightline plans to operate a high-speed project between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
Write to Katherine Kallergis at [email protected]
