Brightline Completes Construction Of Rail Line To Orlando

Brightline announced today that it has completed construction of its project that will connect Miami and Orlando by rail.

A celebration was held at Brightline’s new Orlando International Airport Station this morning.

Groundbreaking for the project took place in June 2019.

Testing is continuing, with service expected to begin in Summer 2023. Testing at 110 mph through Brevard County is expected in July, the company said today.

It is the first privately completed intercity rail system in the U.S. since Henry Flagler built the railroad over a century ago. It is also the fastest train in the Southeastern U.S., reaching speeds of 130 MPH during testing.

Tickets are currently on sale for service beginning September 1.

 

 

(photo: Brightline)

 

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anonymous
3 months ago

Bravo Brightline!!

Chyneesha
3 months ago

Let’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! 🙂

Melo is sigma and Chad
3 months ago

Hurry up with renderings for the I-Drive and Universal stations brightline

noneya
3 months ago

Great news. My only ‘wish’ is that brightline connected all three major airports in South Florida….

Anonymous
3 months ago

They do have shuttles from their stations to the airports.

Cover the Podiums
3 months ago

its not free anymore….come pingas!

Noneya
3 months ago

Shuttles put you right back into traffic. Nice, but not ideal.

Anonymous
3 months ago

Except the FEC Railroad is nowhere near MIA or PBIA.

Anonymous
3 months ago

Congratulations Brightline !!! When are you coming to Tampa?

Anonymous
3 months ago

hopefully they run a few express trains with no stops between Miami and Orlando. Lets get that commute time down.

Anonymous
3 months ago

In a press release they said something about Orlando to Miami express is 2 hours 59 minutes and another 3 1/2 hours making all stops. Since they mentioned express I think they might have 1 or more in each direction every day.

MiamiCityMan
3 months ago

Congratulations to Brightline. But still can’t ride Amtrak into MIA nor TriRail into downtown. Oy vey.

Cover the Podiums
3 months ago

we need more advanced signaling and crossings. The train operator should be able to see if there is an idiot thats sitting on the crossing. Or sensors to tell the drivers someone crossed while the arms are down

A Nonymous
3 months ago

A heavy train has a lot of momentum and doesn’t stop suddenly.
And if it did, it would send the unseatbelted passengers flying.

Anonymous
3 months ago

Why are grade crossings more of a problem in FL than elsewhere in the US (and the world for that matter)?

Anonymous
3 months ago

Cowcatchers.

Anonymous
3 months ago

If I had a wife and kids, I would totally use the brightline to ditch them all in Orlando and come back to my bachelor life in Miami lol

Anonymous
3 months ago

That’s actually a pretty awesome idea which I hadn’t thought of!

JGoTransport
3 months ago

Just hope they are able to make their schedule of trains every hour to/from Orlando, one way or another, what with the new drawbridge schedule due to the boater opposition in Stuart. Would really suck if a good project like this gets bogged down in a political culture war.

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/coast-guard-to-impose-twice-hourly-bridge-openings-on-brightline-route/

Anonymous
3 months ago

How are boater rights to regularly scheduled waterway access any part of “a political culture war”???? It’s not.

Anonymous
3 months ago

Yea that’s crazy! Coast guard is giving pleasure boaters more rights than scheduled passenger services and freight. This is affecting commerce, how is it the Coast guard has governance over railroad operations on a low end waterway like this. They managed to work it out with the New River Drawbridge in FTL (which has more boat traffic). The same amount of train traffic will cross in Stuart as New River. Why are the rules different? Long term maybe Brightline can get some federal or state funding to build a high bridge there. It’ll have a steep grade so only passenger trains would use it, freight would have to continue to use the drawbridge as it always has.

Josh
3 months ago

They should increase speed… this is ridiculous compared to Europe’s or Japan’s trains!

Daniel
3 months ago

110 mph 🐌 😂 I guess this the best we can do in FL

Anonymous
3 months ago

79-110 because of all the grade crossings. 125-130 mph on the closed access area between OIA and Cocoa (and eventually 125+ Tampa to Orlando). Plus they are using Diesel not electric which has a lower top speed. BL is a private company; electric catenary would have more than doubled the price and with the FL weather would have been problematic & unreliable with daily summer storms. You just hear about the Europe and Japan’s High Speed trains, there are plenty that don’t travel that fast. Remember 125 mph = 201 Km/h. Km/h is used in Europe and Japan so when you see a train there is going 201 it’s easy to get confused. The new Brightline West train from SoCal to Vegas will be electric and travel over 180 mph.