Florida East Coast Railway

Of course, Brightline, for its part, had some advantages.

Most notably the fact that its parent company, Florida East Coast Industries, just so happened to be the owner of the Florida East Coast Railway.

While other suitors would have to negotiate and lease a rail corridor, Brightline already had access to the very railroad that had effectively built South Florida a century prior.

But having access to a rail corridor was only the first step.

First for Flagler was the hotel here, the Ponte Vedra, an immediate success that hosted the likes of Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain.

Then Flagler, fueled by dreams of an American Riviera, pushed into the swampy, disconnected south, building a bridge across the St. Johns River, establishing the growing network as the Florida East Coast Railway, and extending the line down to Palm Beach, where he would build the world's largest hotel, the Royal Poinciana.

Soon, the rails reached Miami, allowing fruit produce to go north and well-off tourists to vacation in the sunny south.

In two decades, Flagler had laid the physical groundwork for coastal Florida to take off.

And our guest is Luis Hernandez.

He is Grupo México and FEC Railway vice president, and also the president of AMTI, the, uh, Mexican Intermodal Association.

So, with that all situated, let's get to the interview.

So, uh, as president of AMTI, one of the things that we, uh, have seen, I mean, I...

The main stretch from, um, from Miami up to West Palm Beach, it does double.

The Florida East Coast Railway still owns the actual physical tracks.

They still run cargo on it.

Um, but Brightline owns the right to run passenger rail on it.

Yeah.

You know, this was definitely an experiment, and I think, uh, you know, at one time it was Fortress Investment Group that owned both the Florida East Coast Railway and Brightline.

And to a certain extent it was a real estate play, right, where they wanted to develop You know, land, uh, um, and put buildings and commercial centers and residential around, um, these, the rail stations to a certain extent.

Um, in addition to being a, a going passenger railroad concern.