Fastest Florida Train Ever: Brightline To Begin 110 MPH Test

Brightline will begin testing trains travelling at 110 miles per hour, the company announced.

It will likely be the fastest that a train has ever run in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel said.

To reduce the possibility of accidents, the company has installed quad gates or medians at all crossing where the trains will operate at 110 MPH.

There are nine such crossings in St. Lucie and Martin Counties, where the testing will begin on October 17.

The tests will run over a six week period along 11 miles of track.

In January, 110 MPH testing will begin in Brevard County.

Brightline will operate at 125 miles per hour on newer sections of track being built on the way to Orlando Airport in Orange County. Those sections don’t have any crossings.

 

 

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Not Anonymous
5 months ago

Great that they are moving along! I can’t wait to ride all the way to Orlando. If it wasn’t for those stupid airheads who kept driving through the crossings when the train is coming, I’m sure that Brightline could’ve been actual High-Speed rail, like the TGV.

Don'tBelieveTheHype
5 months ago

Brightline being actual high speed rail like the TGV, ICE, or Shinkansen would never have happened, for multiple reasons, none of which are airheads driving through crossings. It mostly has to do with Brightline wanting to do the cheapest build possible. A true HSR line would have been electrified from the beginning, wouldn’t share any trackage with freight, and would be 100% grade separated; roads would go under or over the tracks…so there wouldn’t be any crossings for airheads to drive through. Brightline not being actual HSR is 100% on Brightline. No one else.

anonymous
5 months ago

I’m not 100% sure but I believe I read that the cost was too high for Brightline to turn a profit from the grade-separated approach. Basically, grad-level Brightline or nothing. I wish it was separated too

Anonymous
5 months ago

Brightline utilized what they have, which was a 100-year old railroad that hadn’t seen passenger service since the 1960s. Quite a good utilization, if I say so myself, even when it’s not “true” HSR, like the canceled government proposal along I-95 with stops nowhere near destinations and still dependent on automobile use.

Anonymous
5 months ago

Its impossible to build grade-separated trains in America because you’d have to eminent domain the land required for those tracks and those would get tied up in Court for literally a century

Anonymous
5 months ago

We have plenty of grade separated trains such as the entire Northeast Corridor line from Boston-NYC-Philly-Washington DC. There are others too like the Old PA mainline from Philly to Harrisburg and NJ Transit Morristown line. Years from now if they reactivate the Lackawanna cut-off in North Jersey to PA (Scranton) the NJ portion is elevated and grade separated. What they all have in common is that they’re up north and built over 100 years ago.

Believe Nothing From Brightline
5 months ago

If you are talking about going to Orlando from Brevard County. There are no stations planned for Brevard for several years out.

Anonymous
5 months ago

Too expensive for a TVG like train.

spell it right
5 months ago

TGV

Charlie C
5 months ago

They should get the people that are building the San Fransisco to Los Angeles bullet train over here to take over.

Anon.
5 months ago

That is never going to stop. The solution is to raise the road above the tracks or the tracks above the road crossings like they do with high speed rail everywhere else in the US and on earth.

Nona
5 months ago

No, that’s not the solution.

THINK BIG, THINK POSITIVE.
5 months ago

All you guys are so narrow sighted, they’re doing it the right way. Work with what they have now. Once they build up the success and capital, expansion will be easier in the future. Especially with legalities since the socially conscious attitude is moving away from gas powered vehicles.

Melo is sigma and chad
5 months ago

Hope there is further discussion on the Universal and Tampa stations

anonymous
5 months ago

i believe they are negotiating rights with FDOT to ultimately extend to tampa

Jax Jerome
5 months ago

It should honestly go all the way down to Naples and loop back to Miami but I can’t see it being great for the everglades unless we do costly elevated tracks.

Southwest Florida Observer
5 months ago

I could see Fort Myers – Tampa but not all the way down to Naples. Collier County would never allow it and Naples residents would largely be opposed to it. Lee county is more viable as it already has more than 700,000 people and will continue to grow despite the recent hurricane.

Anonymous
5 months ago

Um, Collier County is booming too, and when Boca wanted a Brightline Station, why wouldn’t Naples? A bigger obstacle will probably be environmentalists arbitrarily arguing against tracks down the middle of Alligator Alley, and having to dig up I-595 for the millionth time.

Anonymoose
5 months ago

Is there no rail line that cuts across the state? or does it just run further north, like around yeehaw junction?

wanderer34
5 months ago

The best way to provide service to Naples is to use Alligator Alley (I-75) and place an elevated ROW along the median. If environmentalists are against placing an elevated ROW along I-75, especially when the purpose of having HSR is to reduce the amount of motor vehicles on the roads, then those are some the most stupidest tree huggers I’ve ever seen! They’ll cut their nose to spite their face and all Brightline is doing is reducing the carbon footprint of FL while providing HSR service for SW FL.

Melo is sigma and chad
5 months ago

Yeah there is already tracks going to Fort Myers

wanderer34
5 months ago

If it goes to either Collier or Lee Counties, that would be a great way to expand the Brightline, especially if it were grade separated, then the Miami CSA would possibly grow up to having up to 10 million people if South and SW FL can still maintain positive robust growth!!!

Anonymous
5 months ago

God FDOT is truly the worst… I hope this happens with no problems/setbacks

tampa tony
5 months ago

We need a Tampa station.

Jax Jerome
5 months ago

We need a Jacksonville station.

Not Anonymous
5 months ago

If there is a Jacksonville station, then maybe Brightline could eventually expand all over the Southeast, with stops in Atlanta, Charloette, and New Orleans.

Anonymous
5 months ago

What a dream that’d be

Tally
5 months ago

And Tallahassee.

tampa tony
5 months ago

Amtrak needs to renovate its station in Tally so it can run trains from Jax to new orleans.

Ann reso
5 months ago

Jax to Tampa, and back to Jax! How great that would be! Elder people especially!

Anonymous
5 months ago

Keep shrinking the state!

Mark the Megalodon
5 months ago

it will help get some of the cars off the roads

tuffguy428
5 months ago

Yeah, by hitting them.

Anonymous
5 months ago

and planes out of the air

anonymous
5 months ago

brightline should build a station in hialeah so people from orlando and tampa visit the trendy restaurants in hialeah

Anonymous
5 months ago

I’m sure when people think of vacationing in South Florida, Hialeah is the first city that comes to mind.

Anonymous
5 months ago

Can you imagine the accidents when papi tries to run crossings in his 1994 rustbucket Accord?

Anonymous
5 months ago

Or you can just take the MetroRail from the Miami Brightline station to get to Hialeah

Anonymous
5 months ago

110 mph, lol! Incredibly slow by European let alone Asian standards

Anonymous
5 months ago

Its incredible how people risk their lives even when hearing and seeing news of numbskulls losing their lives trying to cross guard rails instead of letting the train go by. Meanwhile, passengers on that train are stuck for hours going nowhere white even just 40mph now to them would be a blessing instead of just sitting still. 110mph wouldn’t bother me as long as the train and I arrive in one piece.

Anonymous
5 months ago

they should bump it up to 200 mph that way it just pulverizes those idiots and would be going so fast that even when they bring it to a stop after the accident that’ll pretty much be the next station so people can get off and be on their way lol!

Anonymous
5 months ago

Brightline trains wouldn’t travel 110mph between MiamDade and Palm Beach Counties.

Anonymous
5 months ago

It should!

Anonymous
5 months ago

Oh boy….

Anonymous
5 months ago

It moving between cities not states. It much faster than a 5-10 mph traffic jam that’s a mile long at rush hour.

Anonymous
5 months ago

You mean “its,” not “it.”

Anonymous
5 months ago

Lol, you both flunked english, “it’s” with the apostrophe is proper English!

Westchester Kid
5 months ago

Day 8 of my TNM withdrawal, I can’t go much longer

Anonymous
5 months ago

someones on vacation..

Jeffrey D
5 months ago

The fact the the US is so behind on infrastructure is deplorable. Any real investment in a decent rail system would be nothing short of phenomenal on every level. Having lived in Atlanta and having witnessed the small minded, backwoods politics and petty arguments over perfectly reasonable solutions to horrific traffic problems, I can say that Florida will forever pay for its lack of foresight/insight in the matter and its unwillingness to invest. And isn’t there some grand budget surplus just sitting around? Oh, nevermind, that’s gonna buy everyone homeowner’s insurance.

Anonymous
5 months ago

Some people own cars and their homes, Jeffrey

Slim Shady
5 months ago

Jeffery, you have a magnetic personality! Can I put you on the guest list list for my next dinner party?

It would be a treat for you to educate Miamians about the infrastructure of largest cruiseship Port in the world, the Port Tunnel, the Network Access Point of the America’s, and the top airport for International Cargo.

With your wisdom and guidance Miami could rise above number one in those categories….and Maybe the USA will rise to be the most productive country on the planet by GDP.

Please help Jeffrey you’ve got it all figured out.

Sluggie
5 months ago

Jeff, run that by me one more time.

Sonic.
5 months ago

In the news on this cool South Florida day, Okan tower gets a height reduction. 🙁

Melo, the true giga chad
5 months ago

this should have happened a long time ago!

Anonymous
5 months ago

A hunderd n 10! Wee owwww

Miami Boy
5 months ago

Happy for Miami. This will be a fun ride to Orlando, for sure!

rayray
5 months ago

And St. Pete

History
5 months ago

Will the train go by Lemon City and Little River? There was a Lemon City Depot at what is now NE 60th Street.

transplant
5 months ago

with all the concrete we have for highways, can’t we build elevated tracks at every crossing ?

Melo is sigma and Chad
5 months ago

terrible comparison

Anonymous
5 months ago

I guess he has money to just “throw away” unnecessarily, because this rail line from Miami to Orlando cost already well over a billion dollars.

anonymous
5 months ago

Who’s gunna tell him how much interstates cost?

Melo is sigma and Chad
5 months ago

it was the greatest investment in the 20th century and most of it is not elevated.

Not Anonymous
5 months ago

Well, instead of building a double decker Palmetto (which costs billions of dollars) FDOT could subsidize Brightline instead to make the line more separate and efficient (including bridges over intersections.)

Use Your Head
5 months ago

subsidize a private business with tax dollars versus using tax dollars on the expressways you’re supposed to spend that tax money on…..gee, what a choice

Don'tBelieveTheHype
5 months ago

You’re a little low on the cost. Add about $2.7B to that amount and you’ll be in the ballpark.

Anonymous
5 months ago

It’s like people who want Metromover extended to all ends of the earth, without a fare, don’t realize how much that will cost, too.

Anonymous
5 months ago

No one said the Metromover should be “extended to all ends of the earth.” Miami has something that’s functioning (and quite well I might add) and its a crying shame that the elected officials in the city are too afraid or dull-witted about what to do with it.

Anonymous
5 months ago

who’s “we”?? The FEC/Brightline tracks are privately owned. The highways are not.

Lechozo
5 months ago

and the tracks are not owned by Brightline… Currently a Mexican company

Nona
5 months ago

Grupo Mexico owns the FEC and the tracks–not “transplant” and the “we” general public.

Our Infrastructure Lags
5 months ago

Lame. Japan achieved this almost 60 years ago.

my balls melo
5 months ago

ask the oil companies ,car companies and tire companies why we cant have good things here in the land of the free ….and freedumb fries…

Anonymous
5 months ago

^^^cars are good, demanding handouts is bad. Maybe Putin can get the USSR back together for you.

Melo, the true giga chad
5 months ago

Let’s get Ocala on the roadmap!

Anonymous
5 months ago

Silver Springs was the original Florida vacation destination after all before the theme parks got built in Orlando

Anonymous
5 months ago

Briteline Winning.

Florida
5 months ago

OMG! This is a joke. 110 mph!. This train is like a snail 🐌 how could you enjoy that speed in 2022? People wake up. Unfortunately Brightline is just a beautiful regular train. Far for being a fast train. It’s tri-rail but more expensive. Good for them if they find clients ready to pay $$$ for that.

Anonymous
5 months ago

^
This is what you hear after over 100 years of having nothing to getting something in Miami.

anon
5 months ago

The onlyindade vids about to get a whole lot crazier

Melo is sigma and chad
5 months ago

None of those crossings where its going at 110 mph are in Miami Dade County