Brightline Florida train hits fire truck

The Brightline Florida train crashed into a fire truck Saturday, the latest and largest accident for the bond-financed express train.

The privately owned passenger rail line, which operates between Orlando and Miami at speeds up to 125 miles per hour through densely populated areas, slammed into a Delray Beach fire truck that appeared to be halted on the tracks. Three firefighters and 12 train passengers were injured and the train's front car appeared mangled.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The board is already investigating two Brightline train crashes that killed three people earlier this year. From September 2023 through June 2024, 34 people have been killed along the Brightline route, according to CNN.

A Brightline spokesperson referred The Bond Buyer to the company's post on X after the accident. Along with a harrowing video, the post includes a warning: "Railroad safety is a community wide effort. For everyone's safety, never drive around crossing gates when they are down."

Florida saw 122 highway-rail grade crossing collisions in 2023, according to preliminary Federal Railroad Administration statistics. The Sunshine State ranked fourth for the most collisions last year, with Texas coming in first with 246 collisions.

Not all of Florida's rail collisions came from Brightline, noted an investor, who does not believe the accidents pose a material risk to the credit.

"I was focusing a lot on it six seven years ago and it was getting a lot of attention because some of the crossings were new," the investor said. "The train is moving faster than other trains, but it's not as if there's any negligence ? the crossings are new and they have gates," they said. "From a financial standpoint, it's an unfortunate part of doing business."

The company named safety as its top priority in bond documents for a Dec. 23 sale featuring $285.7 million of high-yield tax-exempt debt.

"The vast majority of the incidents that have occurred involved individuals who were deliberately circumventing in-place safety features (driving through lights or around gates, etc.) or were trespassing on our corridor (such as individuals with mental health conditions and those committing suicide)," the company said, adding that it has never been found liable for an accident.

Accidents are however listed as a risk factor on the bond documents, noting that the "project owner is at risk of losses and adverse publicity stemming from accidents or service disruptions involving rail services."

Long a prominent name in the high-yield municipal bond space, Brightline came to market earlier this year with a $4.5 billion financing that lifted the credit into the investment-grade space and earned The Bond Buyer's Deal of the Year award.

The company opted to bring the recent December bonds to market to take advantage of Florida's leftover private activity volume cap, according to the investor. The transaction featured new subordinated high-yield, tax-exempt debt with a 10% coupon. The paper, issued through the Florida Development Finance Corporation, replaced more than $200 million of taxable bonds with an 11% coupon and required consent from the taxable debt holders.