AAF Ridership Study is Out All Aboard Florida (AAF) produced their ridership and fare projection report and Nicole Rodriquez of our own TCPalm did a fine job of reporting on it. Here is a link to her article. (Rodriquez just happens to be one of the few bright spots at TCPalm, IMHO) The report was done by the Louis Berger Group, (LBG) a
The report does mention Tri-Rail although it doesn’t mention that Tri-Rail has never been profitable. It doesn’t mention that Tri-Rail costs Florida taxpayers upwards of $85 million dollars per year. Nor does it say that AAF will pull riders from Tri-Rail exacerbating losses. AAF says that they are not competing for the same riders but we know that isn’t true. An AAF representative even went as far as telling a local group that AAF signed a non-compete agreement with Tri-Rail. Not only will AAF sell tickets for travel between Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm, the area covered by Tri-Rail, the study done by LBG included surveys of Tri-Rail riders. After all who better to ask if they would ride a train than people already riding a train? There has been a lot of comparison between AAF and Amtrak’s Acela. Acela serves the northeast corridor which covers the cities of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, DC. Boston, NY and Philly have a combined population of 8.4 million compared to Miami, Ft Lauderdale, and WPB which combine for less than a