The Sun Sentinel – Letter to the Editor: Heed warning signs on high-speed rail project

Ku dos, to Michael Mayo’s recent column explaining the absurdity of All Aboard Florida’s bond shell game.

The main question here is who in their right mind would be willing to risk the $100,000 minimum required investment in these junk-rated bonds?

In fact, Fortress Investment Group, the AAF parent company with assets of approximately $68 billion, has refused to lend AAF any money. They know full well what a risky venture this is, because none of these passenger rail projects ever succeeds, especially a high-speed one.

Gov. Rick Scott also knows this because a few years ago the Obama administration offered him $2.4 billion for passenger rail service and he turned it down, saying “that the Florida taxpayers would end up having to pay for it.”

How could he have been so right then and so wrong now?

AAF has become increasingly unpopular and one grass-roots organization, Florida Not All Aboard, has collected 58,000 petition signatures and resolutions from 44 towns all objecting to this project.

In addition there are currently three separate lawsuits filed against AAF. This is most definitely not a done deal — as they would have you believe.

It is more likely a dead deal, and the light at the end of the tunnel would be Tri-Rail running along the FEC tracks, serving some 26 coastal towns from Miami to Jupiter, while all freight trains are shifted to the CSX freight tracks.

Alan Schlossberg, Delray Beach