DOT bullish on Brightline West as $6bn RRIF loan pends

Brightline West

The head of the Federal Railroad Administration sounded a ringing endorsement of the Brightline West rail project in comments that signal optimism for a $6 billion federal railroad loan that's key to the West Coast project.

"The government is interested in putting in money," said David Fink, administrator at the Federal Railroad Administration Thursday morning during a public-private partnership forum in Washington, D.C. hosted by the Department of Transportation's Build America Bureau.

"Really the only chance of high speed rail in the United States I think in the next decade is Brightline West," Fink said.

Fink's comments come as the Fortress-backed company, and its bondholders, wait to hear whether the FRA and the Build America Bureau will approve the $6 billion Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan applied for last September. Brightline has said it hopes to hear a final decision in early 2026.

Investors have said the federal loan appears key to the project advancing. The company in March told investors that it is working on parallel tracks to secure a $4 billion senior loan package from a banking consortium while talking with DOT officials about the federal loan.

Last November Brightline reached an agreement with bondholders for a bond swap that gives the company more time to nail down financing, including the loan and additional equity or debt.

Brightline West was the first P3 mentioned by Fink when Build America Bureau executive director Morteza Farajian asked him to talk about the FRA's potential P3s.

"I'll tell you one [P3] that sticks out for folks at DOT is Brightline West," he said.

"More important" than the government being interested in funding the project, "the private sector is interested in putting in money," Fink said.

"It's not just us giving billions and billions of dollars like we did in California [until] we stopped that and took that back," he said. "So that's a super interesting P3 that we're very interested in."

DesertXpress Enterprises LLC, which does business as Brightline West, aims to own and operate the nation's fastest train and the first privately owned, all-electric high-speed line, running a 218-mile route between Las Vegas and a suburb of Los Angeles.

The project's estimated price tag is $21.5 billion at the time of the RRIF application.

Fink touted the involvement of Brightline founder Wes Edens, saying that Edens first built the Florida line "with his own money" before he "looked west" and thought about doing the same thing.

Fink did not mention Brightline Florida's struggles, which include a likely restructuring of its $5.5 billion debt stack to avoid default.