Brightline Hits Record 130 MPH, Orders 20 More Cars To Increase Capacity

Brightline is said to have broken the speed record for trains in the region while testing its new tracks to Orlando yesterday.

Brightline trains operated at 130 mph during test runs yesterday, which a company representative told Fox 35 was a record speed for a train operating in the southeast U.S.

The trains will normally operate at 125 mph on the segment, but rules call for an additional 5 miles per hour during testing.

Completion of Brightline’s Orlando station is expected imminently, the Brightline representative said.

Brightline’s next phase is expected to increase speeds even further.

In a bond offering memorandum released to investors today, Brightline said that its express trains are expected to travel at speeds in excess of 150 mph on a planned extension from Orlando to Tampa.

Brightline has already taken delivery of all the trainsets needed to begin service to Orlando, but is already looking to increase capacity.

The company said in today’s memorandum that it placed a new order for additional train cars in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The order is for a total of twenty new passenger cars, with half to be delivered in 2024 and the remainder to be delivered in 2025.

The company also said it has identified opportunities to add additional track on certain portions of the corridor to further increase capacity.

 

For a video documenting the 130 mph test by The Roaming Railfan, click here.

 

 

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Build It!
6 months ago

Awesome! Imagine being a tourist, taking the train from Orlando to Downtown Miami than Baylink over to Miami Beach. No more need for a rental car, paying for parking, and the hassle of driving around!

Anon
6 months ago

This used to be understood as a characteristic that was a natural part of cities. So sad how we’ve strayed so far from this basic truth. At least now we are back on the right track.

Pro Rail
6 months ago

Mind-blowing how extensive train travel was in Florida 100 years ago; and only now are we finally beginning to rectify the mistakes of the past century. Lets go!

ParkingHater
6 months ago

I absolutely love how many people who scream about how bad brightline will be for there town (Hobe sound, Jupiter, st luice) are entirely ignorant about how rail literally built the east coast.

Anonymous
6 months ago

Also how the rails are and have been heavily used for freight trains that blow a horn that’s 5x louder than Brightline at all hours of the night thru the Treasure Coast, and how they already sit in their cars at RXR crossings for 1.5 mile long freight trains moving 10 MPH versus Brightline which takes no more time to pass than the typical red light.

Ron D. Santis
6 months ago

We need to claw back all those bike trails so we can increase passenger rail throughout the state.

Jeff
6 months ago

A more realistic strategy would be to push for FDOT to consider simultaneously building HSR-grade tracks along any new toll road that touches I-4… like the road that keeps getting proposed to run from I-4 somewhere between Lakeland and Orlando to I-75 somewhere around Fort Myers, past Winter Haven and Sebring.

Eventually, that road is going to get built… and it would be an awesome opportunity to get almost-free HSR extension as part of the deal. If they literally built the tracks simultaneously with the rest of the new road, it would be like effectively getting a 40-60% discount on the construction cost, because a huge part of the cost would be sunk and borne by FDOT for building the road.

Would it be the IDEAL route to Naples? No. Would it be a GOOD route to SW Florida, especially considering the likely future explosive growth of that entire region of Central Florida? Yes.

With fairly minimal work, Brightline could run from Tampa to Rubonia (where the existing tracks cross I-275 near US-41, providing easy access to both the rural fringe of eastern Bradenton and St. Petersburg), then (on rebuilt tracks) continue to a station literally adjacent to Sarasota International Airport’s terminal. The problem is… all the good routes for continuing south from there (that wouldn’t face opposition from neighbors) are mostly gone now. The original route south of Venice is gone forever, and was too twisty for HSR anyway.

FDOT could probably finance most of the marginal track construction costs by using eminent domain to buy a few hundred acres of present-day wasteland adjacent to the future road/rail route in places suitable for future station construction (including a few places that presently have nothing whatsoever within several miles… but 25-50 years from now, will probably be some really prime real estate), then sell half of it to Brightline “at cost” (to encourage it to develop those stations and jumpstart development in the area), and hold on to the other half for FDOT itself to profit from its future higher value. Hell, if FDOT did that IN GENERAL (buying adjacent land when it builds a huge new road), Florida could probably finance half of its future road construction just from the higher post-construction value of adjacent land.

Don’t laugh. If MDTA had enough foresight 20 years ago to buy a corridor to extend Metrorail west from Palmetto Station to the Turnpike (back when north Doral was still literally undeveloped wilderness), including some generously-oversized surface parking lots that would have been thinly-veiled excused just to buy lots of undeveloped land surrounding the future stations at bargain-basement eminent-domain prices, Metrorail expansion along that route could have LITERALLY paid for itself 10-25 years later just from subsequent land sales adjacent to the new stations.

Building on the I-4 to Fort Myers (and ultimately Naples via I-75) idea, FDOT could do the same thing with the likely future extension of Polk Parkway north from I-4 to the Turnpike… which, continuing along the Turnpike and I-75, would provide a cheap route for Brightline to Ocala, The Villages, and Gainesville. With tracks running along the Turnpike to Wildwood, it becomes commonsense to continue them all the way to Tallahassee as a simultaneous part of a future (equally inevitable) Turnpike extension project. The key is, build the tracks and new road *simultaneously*, so the tracks are just a small added cost on top of an already-expensive project, instead of an expensive project in the own right.

Anon
6 months ago

#NeverTrustFDOT

Anonymous
6 months ago

You’re 100% correct. Thank you for the reminder.

Anonymous
6 months ago

Love it!

Anonymous
6 months ago

But when can I take a train to Wynwood?

Kitty W.
6 months ago

Honest question: Why not 150 from cocoa to OIA? Has total grade separation and is a straight line. What is the reason for 125 only then?

Anonymous
6 months ago

The locomotives and rail cars are designed for a top sustained speed of about 125 mph or 200 kph.
Higher speeds require new train sets and possibly electrification.

Kitt
6 months ago

Thank you.

Jeff
6 months ago

The railcars can do 150mph as-is, and could be upgraded with new bogeys capable of doing 180-220mph if Brightline really wanted to.

All of Brightline’s new track west of Melbourne is built to 220mph geometry.

The problem is the engines. They just don’t have enough power. There are basically 4 ways Brightline could get more:

1. Add a literal jet engine running a turbine generator to generate enough electricity. This idea was considered for the original Florida HSR and went nowhere after Florida HSR was killed because it would have been *absurdly* expensive to run (due to its need for aircraft-grade kerosene jet fuel). The power cars themselves would have been expensive custom vehicles that are literally one step beyond lab prototypes. It’s a nifty idea, but it literally existed as an option solely because Florida HSR was constitutionally-mandated to run at 150mph+, and it was the only viable way to satisfy that mandate without overhead electrification, costs be damned. Literally nobody involved with the project thought it was actually a good idea, and everyone just kind of cringed and figured that once FHSR was running, the staggering operating cost running trains with jet fuel would make the cost of full electrification look GOOD by comparison.

2. Add another pair of diesel engines (one at each end). It’s conventional technology, but would basically double Brightline’s operating and maintenance costs. Between Miami and Melbourne, they’d literally be dead weight. Morever, they’d have relatively slow acceleration above 100mph, so just GETTING to 150mph (between Melbourne and MCO) could take 10 minutes of sustained acceleration. Total time savings between Melbourne and MCO: 5 minutes, if you’re lucky. Not really worth it.

3. Electrify the the whole track. This would be astronomically expensive. Factor in hurricanes shredding the overhead lines at least every year or two (shutting down Brightline south of the hurricane path for days), and it becomes obvious why this idea doesn’t have much support from anyone.

4. Make the next generation of prime movers dual-power. Basically, modifying the current prime movers to add retractable pantographs. From Melbourne westward, they’d run on overhead power (and raise/lower the pantographs while stopped at Melbourne’s future station). There’s still hurricane risk… but almost all of it is in an area that rarely gets directly hit by major hurricanes. IMHO, this IS likely to happen, though probably not for at least another 5-10 years.

Anonymous
6 months ago

Why 150 mph or more on the Orlando to Tampa segment and not on the Cocoa Beach to Orlando segment?

Anonymous
6 months ago

Cause the Orlando to Tampa will go next or on top of the I4 so no railroad crossings.

Anonymous
6 months ago

The Cocoa Beach to Orlando goes next to the expressway with no railroad crossings, so that’s not the reason.

Jeff
6 months ago

Once Orlando-Tampa is running, Brightline probably WILL increase the speeds between Melbourne and Orlando. For now, with Melbourne-Orlando as the ONLY segment where trains could conceivably run faster, it’s not worth the added cost just to shave a whopping 5 minutes or so from a 2-3 hour trip.

The irony is,the day Brightline opens, it’ll actually have higher end-to-end speeds (total distance divided by total time) between Miami and Orlando than Acela does between Boston and Washington. Acela hits 150mph in a few spots, but it actually spends so little time at that speed (and spends so much time running at lower speeds), the average end-to-end speed gets dragged WAY down.

Name*
6 months ago

That’s odd plus the longer segments
are all slower so it’s not very much of a difference

Anonymous
6 months ago

Because to get to 150 mph and it be cost effective you generally need electrification on your rail line. 125 mph is usually the max you can run a diesel and it be worth it. Maybe Brightline has been inspired by Amtrak’s order of the Airo bimode electric/diesel locomotives.

Broward Resident
6 months ago

I will be happy when Brightline starts offering later night services. So, you can come down to Miami. Party then get home safely afterwards.

Juan
6 months ago

LETS GO BABYYYY

Melo is sigma and chad
6 months ago

I noticed the two lots next to the brightline station in downtown have been clean up and additional fencing added. Maybe the new owner is planning on something soon.

El Nalgon
6 months ago

Please no more twin towers. How about about a perimeter 20 story building and a 100 story building in the center?

Ron D. Santis
6 months ago

How is that California high speed train coming?

California
6 months ago

Not well

Not Anonymous
6 months ago

Pretty well, actually, considering the circumstances of it’s construction.

Anonymous
6 months ago

They should be able to plow down more people at these speeds

Andrew
6 months ago

Why only 130 mph? This is VERY slow compared to other countries. Wake up, this is 2023! Think big and fast.

Miamian
6 months ago

High speed rail is defined as 200 kph (or 124 mph) or higher with the standard being 250 kph (or 155 mph). Brightline originally anticipated speeds of 80 mph, but they are delivering high speed rain on dedicated track.

Anon
6 months ago

One step at a time. It’s a miracle we could get this through. I am grateful for Brightline.