Brightline Rush Hour Trains Selling Out; Pete Buttigieg Takes Ride

·81 Comments

U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took a ride on Brightline yesterday.

Buttigieg is in town to highlight to highlight major investments in the area made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Buttigieg was accompanied by Brightline Founder Wes Edens, CEO Mike Reininger, and President Patrick Goddard, along with a slew of local politicians.

The Transportation Secretary rode from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale. He’s in Miami today.

Meanwhile Brightline’s website is showing rush hour trains between Miami and Aventura selling out. Some southbound trains from Aventura to Miami are showing sold out in the morning, while northbound trains out of Miami sell out in afternoon.

 

(photos: Brightline)

 

Trains out of Miami sold out this afternoon:

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anonymous
1 month ago

I hope brightline gets more involved in the development of mass transit in miami. as a private company I think they can get things done faster than the public sector

42
Anonymous
1 month ago

We stan Mayor Pete!

35
Anon
1 month ago

Pete for President!

12
Anonymous
1 month ago

Hahaha, he can’t even get a mile of railroad.

-7
Anonymous
1 month ago

No.

3
Fern
1 month ago

Gonna have to agree

-4
Name
1 month ago

Pete’s got the ankle-grabber vote

-4
Bob
1 month ago

No, no. Those types are trumpers.

0
Leo
1 month ago

Funny

0
Anonymous
1 month ago

Stupidest post ever, the man is a total maroon

-2
Anonymous
1 month ago

What’s a maroon?

9
Post Maroon
1 month ago

What’s a post?

0
AR
1 month ago

Something you type where you know how to spell correctly? Just a guess

0
Myself
1 month ago

They’re very tasty

0
AAA
1 month ago

Here’s hoping they increase rush hour frequency.

19
Anonymous 09
1 month ago

They just need to add a few extra passenger trains. Maybe 6 instead of the 4 they run now.

6
Anonymous
1 month ago

It is my understanding that they have an order for additional train cars. They do not have an order for more locomotives. It takes much more than 1 year to get delivery of train equipment. The need for additional equipment is critical.
This demonstrates a tremendous lack of planning by Brightline.

-8
Fern
1 month ago

That and they need to add more cars.

4
Anon2
1 month ago

They have 20 cars on order since last year. Amtrak has ordered hundreds of these cars so there is a waiting list.

5
Analyst
1 month ago

Instead of taking a mostly privately funded train he should take a federal owned Amtrak train to Miami Airport Modular Station…well, if it would fit in the station.

15
Anon
1 month ago

He wanted to ride a train that actually works.

24
Anonymous
1 month ago

Why do you think his boss took the only profitable route in the country and gloats about how great all of Amtrak is?

-2
Anonymous
1 month ago

Yes, let’s blame the handful of advocates for the abysmal state of infrastructure. It’s obviously their fault for not fixing 70 years of neglect in 2 years.

11
MrRobato
1 month ago

His boss has been on politics for almost 50 and hasn’t fixed anything.

-2
Alex
1 month ago

“Only profitable route.” As if any of the hundreds of thousands of miles of roadway in the US make any money.

0
Keep Strawmen employed
1 month ago

Hey Alex, tell Firemen/EMT’s to take Metromover to your home to put out your fire and give you CPR. And see if Amazon can use Brightline or TriRail to deliver your packages.

-1
Kevin
1 month ago

Miami Loves Pete! 🇺🇸

14
Name
1 month ago

keep that 2 inches of fury in your pants Kev

-7
MrRobato
1 month ago

Speak for yourself buddy

0
Anonymous
1 month ago

Nothing says “I did this!” than a photo-op for something that have had nothing to do with, and has been in the works since you were in charge of a mini Detroit a.k.a. South Bend, Indiana.

14
Cover the Podiums
1 month ago

please tell me, what does that man, the US Secretary of Transportation, know about transportation and infrastructure fundamentals?

I wish government positions were filled by people with actual professional experience in those fields..

12
Joe
1 month ago

The same way we had neurosurgeon/politician lead the dept. of housing and urban development.

16
Joe
1 month ago

Don’t get me started on devos.

10
Anonymous
1 month ago

The best Secretary of unnecessary departments that were created to appease special interests (i.e. DOE created by Carter to appease the teacher’s unions), is the one which governs least.

-3
Anonymous
1 month ago

You mean Ben Carson?

4
BigPapi
1 month ago

What About Ism

0
Anonymous
1 month ago

Somebody who actually living in HUD projects and facilitated opportunity zones, which tremendously have benefited urban development in Miami.

0
Caridad
1 month ago

Oh yes, opportunity zones only benefit big Corp. Original residents are moved like cows to crowded subsidized apartments with no real job opportunities for them, with schools in that zone that only benefit tyny rich minorities.

-3
Anonymous
1 month ago

And the same way we had a carnival barking reality tv show host as President.

0
Kitty w
1 month ago

Wasn’t most of this done and paid for by the time the infrastructure funds were awarded? It would seem that legislation would more directly benefit the following Tampa expansion?

11
SunsetEasttoWest4FL
1 month ago

Good stuff for better suited West to East Railroad correspondence to Florida.

0
Anonymous
1 month ago

Yes, he has done absolutely nothing as Transportation Secretary and is in it for the photoshoot.

8
Yooo
1 month ago

Thank you Obama!

0
Ed
1 month ago

Brightline = private = big success
Amtrak = government-run = miserable failure

Privatize Amtrak

8
Yup
1 month ago

Amtrack = publicly owned trains + privately owned tracks = failure
Amtrack = publicly owned trains + publicly owned tracks = success

if(privately owned tracks = TRUE, “FAIL”, “SUCCESS”)

0
Anon2
1 month ago

If he would have rode it to Orlando he would realize that Sunrail not connecting to the airport for 10 years is a massive failure.

8
Downtowner
1 month ago

Hot.

7
Anonymous
1 month ago

Cute yes, hot not so much.

1
Anon
1 month ago

Tell him you dropped the soap.

-11
Anon
1 month ago

In my dreams

3
Anon
1 month ago

He’s hot AF

8
Anonymous
1 month ago

Brightline should have trains every 30 minutes, maybe even every 15 minutes, between 7-9am and 5-7 PM in South Florida. Seems like a total waste to have it any other way.

6
Fern
1 month ago

Agreed and seconded. We should electrify the tracks up to WPB with the new Northeast Corridor. Imagine how much faster it would be

3
Anonymoose
1 month ago

Late night weekend trains would be awesome too.

0
Brightline go whoosh
1 month ago

Buttigieg looks like a who from Whoville.

4
Anonymous
1 month ago

Airline travel is still a disaster.
Pete fixed nothing.

3
Anonymous
1 month ago

What’s a disaster about it? Genuine question.

2
MauiPete
1 month ago

So if the train is sold out to Aventura those seats run empty to Orlando. Self defeating to be a commuter and long distance railroad.

3
Jonathan
1 month ago

The train wasn’t sold out. It was a bug on their booking algorithm. The system was blocking out seats for mia-orl leg even if those seats went unsold. I showed the station manager this bug and it seems they eventually fixed it.

0
Anonymous
1 month ago

Can we all get along and stop the BS.

2
Anonymous
1 month ago

Can the DOT Secretary show up here he’s needed, and not just at photo opps? And why do you consider real talk to be BS? This isn’t his fan club blog.

-3
Anonymous
1 month ago

X is available for those who feel the need to bloviate on politics. Miami is doing well because it actually has a two-party system unlike most other major cities. Let’s just be thankful.

1
Anonymous
1 month ago

I remember a winner the morning of November 10, 2016 that said the same thing, and the other side doubled down on lunacy for four years, and used a pandemic to sabotage an election.

-1
Anon
1 month ago

This clown is taking the credit for something he never did

2
Dave
1 month ago

Brightline used to have six trains in the rush period and cut back to two. Completely ignorant of the commuters who helped keep them afloat after the pandemic. Now they’ve raised the prices which have more than doubled in the past year. If you’re not going to Orlando they simply don’t care.

2
Anon
1 month ago

Why would a high ranking leader go to a toxic site? That’s dumb. He can zoom in electronically without causing more harm.

1
Anonymous
1 month ago

So why is Joe Bonehead in Israel under risk of rocket fire?

2
Anonymous
1 month ago

Let me guess, you work from home.

1
Name
1 month ago

Because that’s his job dummy

-1
Anon
1 month ago

Republicans like the Miami city commissioners who neglect everything in Miami, probably caused that wreck. They’re solely to blame.

1
Anonymous
1 month ago

Well, there is a Miami in Ohio, so it’s not beneath Democraps to do anything to pass the blame.

1
No Name*
1 month ago

Good — then move back to wherever you came from

0
Anon
1 month ago

I’m from here. I’m just saying historically they tend to ignore infrastructure needs until it’s to a state of disrepair.

1
Billy
1 month ago

It would have great to have the people move go through all the lobbies in all the buildings that want it. Including entertainment spots. Absolutely zero need for a personal vehicle unless u want to go out of town then there many other options. Bright line and more.

0
Oleg Prytula
1 month ago

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

0
Jonathan
1 month ago

Wanted to jump in here because I feel it’s important. The rush hour trains were actually NOT sold out. I discovered a bug on the brightline website that was basically BLOCKING 50% of the seats of the entire train and reserving those for Mia-Orl trips only. Even if the seats were actually not sold, they would still show up as unavailable. I pointed out the bug to management and it seems to have been fixed as of yesterday.

0
MiamiCityMan
1 month ago

Are you able to book a non-seating confirmed ticket?

0
No Name*
1 month ago

I hope they sanitized his seat after he used it.

-4
Robert
1 month ago

There is no bigger waste of money than passenger rail. Political boondoggles, they don’t help traffic and the massive amounts of real estate they utilize sit largely unoccupied.

-9
Anonymous
1 month ago

I love driving, I am a conservative, but trains are the ONLY way to be able to have population growth without either adding to traffic congestion or destroying open space. Commuting by train is also life-changing when you don’t have the stress of driving.

4
Alex
1 month ago

No, that’s six-lane roads, huge highway interchanges, parking lots, and parking garages that take up enormous amounts of real estate, sit empty nearly all the time, and produce no tax revenue.

0