Hello,These are exciting news. The high speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando is going to be procured under a public private partnership (PPP/P3) scheme covering design, construction, operations and maintenance.An availability payment will cover O&M expenses from project revenues. Federal funding will cover capital costs.The public Development Team is going to be leaded by the Florida Rail Enterprise with the following advisors:- FDOT: legal, financial, technical, professional services- Consultants: program manager (HNTB/WSA), legal (Freshfields) and financial (KPMG)Three teams, up to four will be shortlisted after the RFQ process.The P3-PPP contract will have a duration of 30-year and the concessionaire will be paid with the following scheme:- Use of milestone payments during construction- Capex Recovery Payments during operations- Project revenues (e.g. farebox) are expected to cover operations and maintenance expensesFederal funding is primary source for capital costs:- $2.05 billion federal commitment- Up to $280 million non-federal match- Private finance anticipated to meet non-federal match- Capex Recovery Payment sufficient to cover financing of non-federal match- Variety of financing instruments under consideration, including PABs and TIFIAThe procurement process is assumed to take a whole year, the year 2011. Design and construction is expected to start in 2012.See the presentation below for more information:FLHSR Industry Forum 110810-Web Eight teams attended an industry forum on November 8th-9th. Competition form all over the world is assured:Team 1 - Florida Mobility Partners- Soares De Costa (Portugal)- Ferrovial Agroman (Spain)- Prince (United States)- Invensys Rail North America (United States)- Talgo, Inc. (Spain)- Cintra (Spain)Team 2 - Bechtel-SNCF-Amtrak- Bechtel (United States)- SNCF America (France)- AmtrakTeam 3 - Parsons-Samsung-Korail- Parsons (United States)- Samsung (South Korea)- Korail (South Korea)- KRTC (South Korea)- GRDC (South Korea)- KRRI (South Korea)- Korean Consortium (South Korea)- Korea Railway Association (South Korea)- Hyundai Rotem USA (South Korea)Team 4 - Fluor-Balfour Beatty-FHSR/Japan Group- Balfour Beatty Rail (United Kingdom)- HDR (United States)- Parsons Brinckerhoff (United States)- PCL Civil Constructors (United States)- Lane Construction (United States)- Mitsubishi International (Japan)- Central Japan Railway Company (Japan)- Florida High Speed Rail, LLC (Japan)- Sumitomo Corporation of America (Japan)- Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Japan)Team 5 - ASC-Dragados-Odebrecht-GE-CRCC-CSR- ACS Infrastructure Development (Spain)- Dragados USA (Spain)- T.Y. Lin International (United States)- TSDI (China)- G.E. Transportation (United States)- CSR SF China- Odebrecht Infrastructure (Brazil)- CRCC ChinaTeam 6 - Florida Rail Ventures- Siemens (German)- Veolia (France)- Global Via USA (Spain)- FCC (Spain)- Granite (United States)- Jacobs (United States)- Skanska (Sweden)Team 7 - OHL-Alstom- Alstom (France)- Vinci Concessions (France)- OHL USA (Spain)- PBS&J (United States)- AECOM (United States)- Hubbard Construction (United States)- Archer Western Contractors (United States)- Virgin Group (United Kingdom)- Virgin Rail Group (United Kingdom)Team 8 - Bombardier-Kiewit (not yet a team)- Kiewit (United States)- Bombardier (Canada)- National Express (United Kingdom)FLHSR_bidteams_Nov2010 Update. January 7thThe Reason Foundation has prepared a report in which details the risks that Florida's taxpayer would assume in case the project is tendered in the way it is going to be tendered.  This report advocates for the following changes and prerogatives (to prevent taxpayers giving away any money):

• The builder/operator should assume all risks for changes in costs and revenues from projections
• The builder/operator  should operate the high-speed rail line with no operating subsidies
• Any state authorized changes that would increase costs from the $2.7 billion level, increase operating costs or reduce revenues should be approved or rejected by the governor
• Florida should not provide any guarantee of debt or revenues to the builder/operator.
• Construction should be staged in a financially responsible manner to make it virtually impossible to increase the liability of Florida taxpayer.

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