26 Facts About Brightline

1.

Brightline is a privately run inter-city rail route between Miami and West Palm Beach, Florida that runs on track owned by Florida East Coast Railway.

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2.

Brightline is the only privately owned and operated intercity passenger railroad in the United States.

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3.

In late 2018, Brightline announced that Virgin Group would become a minority investor and would provide rights to rebrand the service as Virgin Trains USA.

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4.

In September 2018, Brightline acquired XpressWest, a private company that intends to connect Las Vegas with Southern California via Victorville, California.

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5.

Brightline announced the intent of purchasing 38 acres of land near the Las Vegas Strip for a station and following the Interstate 15 corridor from Las Vegas to Southern California.

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6.

One of their objections is that Brightline is owned by a private corporation, so they should not be allowed to issue tax-exempt bonds as if they were a municipality.

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7.

Brightline suspended operations on March 25,2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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8.

Brightline itself announced that the ridership has been triple to what had been expected.

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9.

The new Brightline station connects the following transit modes: 2 Metrorail stations, 2 Metromover stations, Metrobus, and the future Tri-Rail station.

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10.

Brightline owns about three acres of land to the east of the Florida East Coast Railway corridor, where there are plans to build a transit-oriented development.

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11.

Brightline will terminate at this station once the 170-mile Orlando Extension track is built.

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12.

Brightline was the only bidder to submit a proposal to construct an intercity rail line along Interstate 4, which has been designated for federally funded high-speed rail.

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13.

In 2019, Brightline operations sent a letter to the city of Boca Raton about the possibility of adding their city as an infill station along the Florida route.

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14.

Brightline proposed constructing the station and rail infrastructure while the city would cover access and zoning requirements and costs.

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15.

In October 2019, Brightline announced plans to start building a station in PortMiami in 2020.

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16.

Brightline has expressed interest in serving at the Miami Intermodal Center, at the facility where Amtrak plans to relocate its service, but no negotiations are currently underway, according to FDOT.

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17.

Brightline has expressed interest in adding a station on Florida's Treasure Coast and another on the Space Coast between West Palm Beach and Orlando.

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18.

Brightline has indicated that Stuart is the most likely location for a Treasure Coast station, and that Cocoa would make the most sense for a Space Coast station, both because of proximity to Port Canaveral's cruise lines as well as for positioning for future expansion to Jacksonville.

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19.

In 2020, it was revealed that Brightline was planning a commuter rail service to complement their existing service.

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20.

Fortress' Wes Edens has stated that Brightline's service is modeled off of Eurostar's Paris-to-London commute.

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21.

Brightline is double tracking the corridor, improving signaling systems, and upgrading every grade crossing to meet the highest applicable safety standards set by FDOT and Federal Railroad Administration.

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22.

The quiet zones were originally planned to be in place when Brightline becomes operational between Miami and West Palm Beach by the end of 2017.

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23.

Brightline started service on January 11,2018, but various delays in constructing the quiet zones have stretched their in-service date to sometime in March.

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24.

Brightline has stated that, prior to it becoming operational, it will start to regularly notify mariners of scheduled bridge closings via the internet, smart phone application and countdown signage on the bridges to enable mariners to have real-time information to decrease wait times at each bridge.

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25.

In December 2019, the AP produced a story based on FRA data that Brightline had the worst per-mile death rate of the nation's 821 railroads.

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26.

None of Brightline's deaths were caused by crew error or faulty equipment, but were all related to suicides or pedestrians and drivers trying to cross and beat the trains, according to law enforcement and federal reports.

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