Brightline, a privately-owned and operated passenger rail service, is hoping to connect four Florida cities by 2017.
The express train will connect Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando via a 235-mile track that will take three hours to travel from one end to the next. This will not be a high-speed train.
According to All Aboard Florida, Brightline will make use of the existing Florida East Coast Railway corridor between Miami and Cocoa and will build a new track between Cocoa and Orlando along State Road 528.
Motel 6 is also cheaper than the Ritz. The Ritz does just fine…
Well I’d definitely agree that we should have had the true high speed rail system we were planning on building with federal funding
Having to resort to privatized passenger rail is a joke for a developed country and this explains why we were are getting “Slow Speed Rail” on a freight line. At least the intermodal stations will probably be pretty good and will be the best part about this whole project.
To correct a prior poster’s statement: The ticket prices are thought to be $94 one way ($143 is for business class). That is slightly better but still makes it a hard sell in comparison to driving unless you are going by yourself or having your company pay it for you.
Yes, it’s expensive to park in Miami. Trust me I know! $40 a person each way may be equlivalent to one person driving to Miami and back with parking fees. However, for a family of four, that’s a lot of cheese compared to driving. I’m all for mass transit, but when it’s private/for-profit, it’s for the few.
Peter Cavenas I take the turnpike.
Orlando to Miami in 3 hours and 20 minutes is not happening unless there is no traffic and you are doing 90+ the entire way. Realistically it’s a solid 4 hour drive.
Same. A big game changer in South Florida is going to be the addition of the Coastal Link, which will also utilize the FEC rails.
It’ll also make those who travel there for work often be able to work during those 3 hours vs driving.. I’d be willing to pay for a more productive and less stressful commute + less wear on my car. U0001f44dU0001f3fc
Will be a complete and utter failure. Too slow. Too expensive. Florida gets what it deserves. Elect cheating corrupt morons…get moronic corrupt transportation corridors.
They haven’t announced pricing yet, there’s only been speculation from independent studies making guesses. Don’t forget, it’s easy to spend $40 or more per night valet parking in Miami. If you drive down for a few nights, you might have $120 or more in valet charges.
Here’s an example of how it’s done in other countries – In Italy, Milan and Venice are 173 miles apart. It takes 3 hours by driving and gas is a little over 3 times the price it is here. By high speed train it takes about an hour and a half and only costs about 30 dollars, roughly equal to the euro amount. We don’t know how to do high speed trains.
Maybe the price would go down in the future but the culprit of slow travel time is using existing right of ways shared by other trains instead of using new ones and not completely grade separating the route. HSR works best when it has routes only for that train service in straight lines and slight bends bridging over or tunneling under every road it passes without physically intersecting it.
We would have had faster service if Rick Scott had not rejected federal funds for HSR, but his Chief of Staff had those plans shot down so he could support Brightline’s parent company who (shocking) owned the company he was CEO of. Crony capitalism at its best.
Anyway, can’t change that now. We need a viable rail link between Orlando and South Florida. The SunRail connection to OIA will give us access to Brightline which will, in turn, link to Tri-Rail, Coastal Link, Wave Streetcar, and Metrorail. We’ll be pretty covered along the coast in South Florida. Just need additional improvements in Central Florida.
Way to go Orlando
Wow. It shaves a whole 20 minutes off the drive time (3 hrs vs. 3 hours 20 mins) and costs $143 to go one way. Sign me up!