Brightline is a Fantastic Train that Shouldn't Exist 

In the US, roads and highways have been constructed and maintained almost entirely by tax dollars. Rail transport, on the other hand, receives far less support. As fuel costs rise, transporting people by rail is far more energy-efficient than by automobile, and that's where our tax dollars should go.

Japan, for just one major example, proves that private and public railroads can coexist successfully.

I’ve ridden the Brightline 5 times in the past few weeks. I’ve lived in S. Florida for 30+ years and rarely go to Palm Beach. Now, because of the Brightline, I’ve been there 2x this month alone. Palm Beach is awesome and there’s so much to do right within walking distance of the station. Super clean stations and trains. The staff are great. As you point out, the Premium services are great.

I really hope this Brightline service works. They need to rezone the areas around these stations. Single family homes cannot support a service like this. You need dense communities. I don't mean, residential towers but multi family homes, townhomes, etc. Walkable communities. And pressure these townships to expand their transit within their communities. Create some Transit oriented communities.

Orlando will be their big money maker. As far as Amtrak taking it over...the only way that would happen is if it were to fail. If anything I'd like to see Brightline compete with Amtrak on key corridors.

While we don't have high-speed rail, I still appreciate trains. A private train has helped me get to my presidential summits in China, Russia, and Vietnam. Trains are rooted in the planet's history and have helped connect so many places, and so it is important to treat them with respect Once Korean reunification is achieved, we'd be able to have access to the south's high-speed network.

8:34 - True. In Japan, they have privately owned rail lines. And many of them actually run at a loss, *if* you just count ticket sales. But the companies owning the rail service still make a profit, because they own real estate near train stations, and the increased traffic from the trains mean more rental income. That shows how we should think of transit. Ticket sale profits are not the only or even the leading reason to build rail.

You've expressed alot of my concerns with brightline that I haven't heard anywhere else. I have some bets with people how long it'll exist before the state or Amtrak takes it over. I'm giving it 15years.

If Amtrak takes over you can say goodbye the the extra amenities you said you enjoyed.

Private rail ain't so bad. A lot less bureaucracy political bickering over what gets built. Also public/private partnerships can add an addition means of funding and expansions.

Whilst Brightline is an "express train" between major cities, they are planning on creating a second service that will stop at many new not yet built stations in South Florida that will serve the local commuters. A Ft Lauderdale Airport Station will connect to an intermodal garage, where a light rail "loop" will run from the airport, cruise port and Brightline station. Similarly, extensions at the Miami Station will connect to Miami Airport and Cruise Port. Universal Studios in Orlando has donated land for a future Brightline Station that will serve them and the convention center. The goal is to market Brightline as a means of connecting the major tourist centers, increasing options for vacationers already in Orlando. By hopping on Brightline, visitors can go to a casino in Tampa or Ft Lauderdale in the morning, then go back to their hotels that same evening. With the South Florida local service, residents can have alternatives to driving. To help fund the railroad, Brightline built apartment buildings next to the Miami and West Palm Beah stations. Profits from those go to keep Brightline running, They did their homework and the future is looking good!

One more thing about Amtrak. It is publicly funded and the funding has to go through Congress. Which means if you want this new train to be blended into Amtrak, you'll want it to go through Congress now for its funding and it's survival. You haven't done your homework.

Brightline is perfect for Florida. Florida Man does so many things in one day and in order to get Florida Man wherever they need to go, they need a fast train. And thus Brightline helps them stay focused rather than sitting in traffic Also, the Orlando station won't be at Disney. The plan is to build one by Universal Orlando and I-Drive as those places pushed for it more. People were hoping it'd be at Disney as an alternative for the Magical Express from the airport which Disney eliminated as a perk for staying on-property. In Paris, you can go to Disneyland Paris directly from CDG on TGV in just ten minutes. Eurostar even provides a service from London-St. Pancras.

Since taking a train on opening day in 2018, when Brightline first ran trains only from/to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, I have taken about 20 trips. All have been excellent as this video describes. In February 2020 we took Brightline roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale to Miami for a cruise. Our reasonably priced tickets were for: parking, the train trip, and transportation to/from the ship terminal. It even included free checked bags and allowed us to spend time in Miami following the cruise without our bags. AND, the total cost was cheaper than either car service both ways or parking a car at the ship terminal. When guests visit I insist we take Brightlne somewhere. I look forward to service to Orlando.

The biggest problem Brightline will face is revenue. They're putting a lot of money into expansion, but they're definitely not filling trains with riders. Sure, some people ride it, but it's not financed through anything other than investment and sales. If those can't cover costs, it will degrade until it shuts down.

Since I've first heard of it, I knew Brightline would be good for the whole state of Florida. One of the main reasons why is because of "induced demand" if more people are off the highways and taking the train, traffic will improve. Let's hope Brightline continues to expand to Tampa and to the other cities in Florida.

I use Brightline from Fort Lauderdale to MIA twice a month. However when I come back I use tri-rail as one service per hour makes the entire trip that much longer and the uncertainty of when my plane lands makes buying the tickets in advance impossible. With added frequency I am sure BL could serve mire people. Also annoying you habe to ger there 15’ early or they will not let you board. Making it possible to buy tickets at the turnstiles with apple pay or the likes as you can do with Metrorail, would make it far more convenient and popular.

I'm sorry I LOL'd at the idea that Amtrak will take over brightlines infrastructure. Considering all the money the money that has been invested into building the infrastructure plus brightlines ambitions to be a nationwide rail alternative to Amtrak it's simply not happening and I pray that it never comes close to happening. There needs to be more competition when it comes to rail services instead having one service monopolizing the entire country.

I honestly can't wait until BrightLine finally makes it to Orlando & connects to Miami! A lot of people travel between both cities on a weekly basis and the traffic especially on I-95 is horrendous at times.

Also, brightline owns some of the land next to the stations, which, based on the limited knowledge I have about Hong Kong metro stations, is a similar idea where the trains operate at loss, but the stations as destinations make the profits

Not sure if anyone has said this yet, but people need to understand that the phase one corridor has been around since the 1890s, so you can see why there are so many grade crossings. Furthermore, since the FEC runs frequently, (I am assuming based on the amount of trains I see, which seems rather frequent than compared to Class Is), grade separating the route would have to also allow the FEC to access their yards and customers. Finally, I counted the total grade crossings between Miami and WPB, and the total I found was 174 level crossings, that's an average of about 2.6 crossings per mile.

We already saw a taste of what problems the for-profit/private part might cause during COVID when they completely shut down for a year while most of the public options were reduced, but not completely eliminated.

Brightline sounds like a model for how California HSR should operate once open

Agree the removal of crossings needs to be reviewed for Brightline. For NC I think once the station is built in Uptown Charlotte that the use of the train should see an increase of usage. I moved outside of Charlotte and drive to the Light rail to get to work in Uptown but would rather get on a train in my town and ride it directly into Charlotte.

The extension north from West Palm Beach to Cocoa is NOT being built on the right of way of I-95.

I'm hoping for Amtrak to expand its service to be more similar to brightline here in Michigan between Detroit and Chicago. My town of Ann Arbor is right on the line and its walking distance to downtown (or I can bike there in ~8 minutes). The trains sometimes get up to 110mph on the route from what I've found with expansions coming. But 3 round trips per day is just not going to cut it. Hourly (or half hourly) between two sizable midwest cities seems plausible and I think ridership would directly follow. Great to hear your experience was so great on Brightline, rail travel and public transit in general need better marketing! Its a great, relaxing, and usually affordable way to travel.... even if this one is privately owned.

While it's an advance in US terms, compared with Europe and South-East Asia it's decades behind, for the following reasons: Brightline shares some track with freight trains; Brightline tracks have level crossings; Brightline uses diesel locomotives; Brightline's highest speed will be only 125mph.

We used to have this. Pennsylvania Railroad. New York Central. The Daylight service in California from the old Southern Pacific Railroad. The list goes on. American government screwed over the Railroads in the 1960s, then the oil crisis of 1972 led to a Government merger in Conrail which ultimately failed. Tax breaks were given to airlines and roads heavily subsidized, to where passenger rail all but dried up. People Demanded SOME type of service, which is Amtrak, but it needs major upgrades on the long haul routes. The high speed corridor in the Northeast is good but it's bottlenecked in New York City. A point of major delays. We HAD an all electric train system. We used to actually be efficient, with railroad towns, and places in walking distance from stations. But it all got tore up. Imo it was for no good reason. But sure lets DRIVE everywhere. Man... I would love to be able to just hop on a train, play games on my phone, and then arrive at work. Would be so nice

I live in Charlotte. My mom visits from Greensboro to Charlotte on Amtrak and loves it. She's never been out of the country though so doesn't have anything to compare it to. I would love to see high speed rail in this area. We park and ride our light rail here to go downtown because parking fees downtown are painful.

The one thing I want from Brightline is electrification, providing it grows in demand and ridership. Being from NJ, we're blessed with ~30 minute interval trains on the NEC, as well as reliable Amtrak service that's fast and fully electrically powered. Though the stations make Indian stations look spotless, the actual service is still pretty good. I hope Brightline does keep improving and hopefully, when Amtrak improves it's service and reach, it'll be encompassed into a new national rail network.

I wish instead of just going towards Tampa which is another sprawling city they also went towards Atlanta who at least has a decent MARTA network.

Amtrak really should put a brightline-style model to work in the Hiawatha corridor in Illinois and Wisconsin. Seeing as it's only 86 miles currently between Milwaukee and Chicago, I think frequency would totally take this service to the next level.

I'm in Fayetteville NC. There were some pamphlets in the Amtrak station talking about implementing regional state rail. This was 2007. Like regional rail from Wilmington to Fayetteville to Charlotte to Asheville. It would've open the state to a large amount of people who would prefer rail if it was available. The reason why North Carolina is a good candidate for this plan, is because of how populations are distributed throughout the state.

I live in Austria 🇦🇹 we drive to work by train. It is great for Florida to have Brightline.

Dude nice video but update the Orlando part. It’s NOT be going to Disney the second stop in Orlando will be Orlando convention Center/ Universal.

A decent amount of Japan’s trains are privatized and they are absolutely spectacular. The government should’ve never gotten the majority control of railway/train services, the government can’t run anything right.

Brightline is doing a fantastic job helping eliminate car use on Florida's congested roads. Unfortunately, this is achieved by Floridians choosing Brightline as their lead autodarwination option.

Would be pretty cool if we had a Brightline style service in Texas. San Antonio to Waco is 4 metro areas lined up next to each other with a combined population a little less than Greater Miami.

Great video! I’m very happy you’re still active on this platform and you deserve so many more views than you get. This is a great insight on Brightline and if I have to go to Florida then I would be excited to ride it.

A great Video and I'm happy that you raise these concerns, as most are just amazed by the whistle and bells for what need to be a basic service. A train should look good, be comfortable and get you to your destination on time - the rest, like a lounge and a free bar is not important if you provide the basic. A train station is not an airport. I can get on the fast train in my city 2 minutes before it's departure and I don't seat around in the station waiting for it. I just have a few corrections. 1. An 18 month closure is not "a brief pause" 2. Japan is unique and their system works well for them. It was privatized but "private" in Japan is not the same as in other places and each company has a monopoly in a specific area (for the most parts, there are some correlations and lines that cross areas of different operators but that is the general idea and different operators of different lines, like intercity and city lines and different transport means). As for The EU, all EU members had to separate the rail infrastructure from the rail train operation so the infrastructure (rail and stations) is owned and operated by a state that needs to allow open access for both the national operator (like DB in Germany, SNCF in France or RENFE in Spain) and new privately owned operators (many are operated by other countries national operators, but not all). Italy was one of the first adopters (in Sweden it exists for much longer, even before the EU decision) but this now works all over. In Spain OUIGO (low cost brand of the French SNCF) and AVLO (the new low cost brand of the national Spanish operator RENFE) compete on a few lines and in November they will be joined by IRYO (owned by Trenitalia, Italy's national opertaor, and Air Nostrum, a Spanish airline working that operates the regional flights for IBERIA). In France Italo, the private competitor of Trenitalia in Italy, operates a line from Paris to Milan, FlixTrain operates trains in Germany and Sweden and more. This is possible only when the network itself is owned by the government. 3. For a good intercity train service you must have a good local public transport service.

As someone who's been on European trains and brightline, coach in both is great, cleaner on brightline

You're absolutely right. We're more focused on subsidizing highways whereas other developed countries have shown high speed train travel has proved more useful and pays more dividends in terms of the total time traveling from point A to point B. America better get its head out its ass. We're being left behind. Quickly.

West palm beach to Coco can be 110mph, its still on the FEC ROW. from coco to Orlando airport it can be 125mph given its fully grade separated new line. grade separating this freight line will be nearly impossible, you can't viaduct the whole thing and given how close it is to most roads they can tunnel under or bridge over. electrification is being avoided because because they don't view it as needed yet and that would mean getting the FEC onboard. (which arguable would be a good federal test and showcase of what electrification can do for freight ops.) it will be interesting to see how Brightline West ends up being combined with California's push to connect almost all the state by hourly or better rail or bus. We've got an updated statewide rail plan due out this year. NC is at least finally getting some new cars and locos. 26 cars and 6 locos isn't too bad. Hopefully as Amtrak California orders a new fleet you can take some of our 130 California and surfliner cars rebuild them.

You can take tri-rail from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm

Good video and very astute observations. Liked your comments on the view held by many when it comes to funding for Amtrak. No one complains about roads not turning a profit, but they want rail to do so. However, roads are "public" while much of the actual rail is "private" (owned by freight companies) - that may need to change for public rail travel to succeed. It will be nice when Brightline not only goes to Tampa, but Jacksonville as well.

To each his/her own opinion. But it seems to be working so far, and looks promising with that extension to Orlando. This is what they should have done in Texas instead of that bullet train project, which seems pretty dead and buried nowadays.

Agree with just about everything except for wanting Amtrak to take it over. That's about the worst possible scenario. Maybe Amtrak can learn from Brightline and copy their business model - perhaps first along the Piedmont route.

I live in Massachusetts and our MBTA Commuter Rail service, while decently accomplishing its main purpose of public transport, leaves lot to be desired. Old carriages from the 70s, underfunded services, and slow travel times in relation to the importance of a city like Boston. It would be great to even have hand-me-downs from Amtrak once they retire their current diesel engines that run in New England.

I wish they could have a station in St. Augustine

We really need this in the Midwest. Many of us travel more than thirty miles to work and cost and traffic can only improve from here.

As both a Miami and Raleigh resident, I'm digging this content! Keep it up. You're doing a great job and you deserve more subs! Both south Florida and Orlando are filled with European tourists, and I am guessing that linking the two areas is going to be a huge win for both markets since international tourists will fly into one and are more likely to explore by rail.

This was a really well made video, and I hope you get the attention you deserve for it!

Had not Amtrak been chronically underfunded it may well have already been servicing key sectors with high quality, high frequency, fast passenger trains. I'm sure other potential private operators are watching Brightline very closely. If Brightline is a success other operators are sure to copy it elsewhere. If Amtrak don't, or are not allowed to get in on servicing the profitable sectors with a premium service, they will be left with the sectors that the private operators won't touch

The reason that the private operators are doing this is *because* the government is too stingy and cheap or the government-run systems are too incompetent to do so on their own.

Damn congrats on getting this video to pop off! You deserve it! Hope to see a mix of content about transit around the country and local developments back in Raleigh.

Brightline has free transfers to / from the major airports and cruise terminals. As far as I’m aware, you only need the 2 hour advanced reservation if you specifically want the Tesla ride.

I would love to see a Houston to New Orleans line with stops in Beaumont, Lake Charles, Lafayette and Baton Rouge. A further extension to Pensacola with stops in Gulfport and Mobile would be excellent and at the end link up with a Brightline extension northwest from Orlando.

OK thoughts, comparing private operations in the UK is very much a oranges and apples comparison. UK rail operators were having to pay a large franchise fee just to get off the ground, then more to the rail operator, and then try to make a profit. Brightline may have to maintain the rails themselves, but well, they get don't pay many of the other fees. Secondly, you want to take a currently well operated private system and then merge it back to the public one? Unfortunately almost always when that happens it's the case of the better service gets dragged down t othe standard fo the rest of the system. Not vice versa. Anyway the big issue I understand from the outside looking in is the one thing Europe has recently started to get right and honestly it's just not going to happen there in the US. The KEY issue is having 'neutral' rail ownership. That is the companies who own the rails are independent of everyone running trains on them. In the US that would involve some form of nationalization/forces divestment of the rails from their current owners. (Who are I believe almost all cargo rail companies) Only then will passenger rail get half a chance at competing.

I took a commuter train from Amsterdam to Brussels while working in Europe. It was old and noisy and made so many stops. At the stations the loud speakers were set to max and you could not even have a mobile conversation. The stations did not have lounges so I would say this looks to be levels above what most routes in Europe are like.

I would like to see the Piedmont train extended down to Wilmington. That can help unlock more potential for tourist coming to the beach. We just finished a new bus terminal near the new proposed station sight to get people too and from the station

While it's a nice idea of having a train being treated as public transportation, keep this in mind it has to be supported by fees and taxes from the public who uses it. Much like the road maintenance is supported by taxes and fees, public transportation such as train has to be treated as such. You want private? Private will charge you. Either way you get gouged. Nothing is free, nothing.

I wonder, does it provide disabled access, say for a person in a wheelchair or mobility vehicle ?

This analysis is wonderful. The trains and stations look amazing. Great video!

A few thoughts: First 79mph is not fast. Where I live (Southern England), the slow trains run at 100mph, and the fast ones run at 140mph. Hourly is not frequent. At peak times, we have 12 fast trains, 4 semi-fast trains (110mph) and 4 slow trains per hour. Off-peak, it is 6 fast, 2 semi-fast and 2 slow. A lot of people say that the USA can't have trains because the country is too big for them to make sense. That is probably true, but Florida isn't too big to have trains, Texas isn't too big to have trains, California isn't too big to have trains. Trains need to be planned on a more regional level, either individual states, or a few neighbouring states, and the Federal Government should just be setting national standards for things like track and loading gauge, power supplies, signalling standards and so on, so that you can have cross-border rail trips between the different regions. The best country in the world for rail is Japan, and it has lots of competing private rail companies. The difference between Japan Rail and the failed British model is that each company has its own stations and tracks, and there is actual competition on individual routes. For example if you are in Osaka, and you want to go to Kyoto, you can go to the Japan Rail station and get a train there, or you can go next door to the Hankyu Railway station for an alternative train service. The distance is about 55km (35 miles), Hankyu run trains about every 3 minutes, ticket price is ¥410 ($3). Japan Rail is also about every 3 minutes, ticket price ¥570 ($4), trains are a bit faster than Hankyu's.

Your title on the video says "privatized". Private and Privatized are two different things. It was always private as it did not replace anything public that needed to be contracted out or "privatized".

Brightline is absolutely amazing, I use it fairly frequently between WPB and MIA, and I can’t wait for Orlando!

One point of information: do the Brightline trains run on the same physical tracks as Florida East Coast freight trains, or are there tracks running side-by-side, respectively dedicated to freight and passenger traffic? The Orlando extension under construction suggests the first option.

first time seeing a video of yours and for such a small channel your audio is crazy good. Keep it up man!

USA prefers and glorifies individualism over social benefit, so USA will never have decent public services (public transportation, healthcare...) like Europe has.

I was actually in the Raliegh-Cary area over the weekend and used Amtrak to get there from Florida. I'm SUPER excited for Brightline because my Amtrak experience SUUUCKED. But it sucked in a "Not Amtrak's fault" Kinda way. I could just tell that they were under-staffed, under-funded, and under-supported. The trains were still packed. So there IS a demand for inter-city/state rail in the US. Once Brightline gets hooked up to Orlando it's going to be a ground-zero for how much it's going to used. There's a tone of people who in Orlando that are 'From' other parts of the state who moved for business, retirement, and schooling. Going from South Florida to Orlando via rail will be a huge boon for a lot of them. On top of that, the planed expansion to Disney will greatly benefit a lot of people in the city, because it's going to be much easier to hop on Brightline than having to fight the Mad Max experience that is I-4 and Disney parks. I hope Orlando sees the Boon from this and starts to expand the Sun Rail, get an East-West going. Plz.

Cool video! And congratulations on 1000 subs!

I would argue that profitability shouldn't be downplayed, and that the idea of allowing for perpetual money loss is the biggest flaw with the idea of a government-run system. Profitability is also a good measurement of operational efficiency and the overall value of a service; an unprofitable service may either be wasteful and inefficient, or simply not in demand. Allowing a state-run system to continually lose money is a horrible idea, especially if nobody is even using it. It takes money away from the budget that could be used better, and only provides a benefit to a handful of people.

You are quite right to mention Japan and Italy as two countries where private operator harmoniously compete with the national ones. In Europe, you also have the Czech Republic as a great and successful example of this (with Leo Express and RegioJet), plus Austria (with RegioJet and Westbahn), just to mention the two most striking examples. In addition, Italy's State operator Treintalia is weirdly enough profiling itself as a "private competitor", challenging RENFE and SNCF in Spain and Italy on their own turf, and it may expand to more countries. Last but not least, a private operator of night/sleeper trains is being born in Belgium and the Netherlands: it's called European Sleepers.

One thing that Brightline has is a great relationship with the Florida East Coast Railway, on whose right of way Brightline travels. FEC hauls the freight which provides the money to keep up the ROW, maintain it and pay the property taxes. Only the brand new section between Orlando International Airport and the Space Coast along SR 528 is brand new, from West Palm Beach to the junction with SR 528, the route uses the FEC corridor. Hopefully they can negotiate with CSX for the route to Tampa instead of using Interstate 4 ROW. It helps to have a freight RR paying the maintenance bills.

who owns and/or manages the easement? what are the particulars of that?

North American rail will never be fully grade separated as they run on freight tracks.

With the added security at airports, and the other hassles of air travel, it is surprising how far people will drive. I live in Chicago. My wife worked for a company based in Cincinnati. After 9/11, many of my wife's co-workers starting driving to Cinci for business trips. It was just as fast as flying, if you have to get to the airport 90 to 120 minutes before departure. Even if high-speed rail existed, I bet people would still drive, simply because they control their schedules. This is probably why the private sector is skittish of putting money into high-speed passenger rail.

Do you realize how much full grade separation would cost? My prediction is certain very busy at grade crossings would get separation, but forget about the full line . And your comment about speed is arbitrary, the locomotive is capable of I think 120 mph more or less, but how can it run faster will all those grade crossings you mention. Why step you criticizing it for not being public transit when it's a private company. Also you conveniently fail to mention Brighline is a subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries which owns the the tracks this train runs on , as it was always a private railway dating back to when it was the Florida East Coast Railway . Why would they allow now a competing train service to use its tracks, ie Amtrak , Trirail etc.

This is a reminder how a shame It is that roads and airlines are put on a pedestal far above Public transit, bus, train etc I think Brightline is a great thing along with similar rail Alternatively in spite of its issues More DC WMATA Metro-Rail type rail systems scattered throughout the US / North America Would be super amazing as well

Private for-profit rail companies operate passenger train service across Europe. Some routes have four different operators competing on the same line.

ive seen people being somewhat negative towards the fact that this is a privately run system but its ultimately a good thing that the private market is getting involved the private market is one of the reasons why we had soo much rail in the US government does a horrible job at managing things and should be the least involved when possible

Rail in the US, even though its inefficient, and never even goes to where you want it to. Is still so fun to travel on. There's so many upsides to it. As someone in the Denver Metro, I've taken the Commuter Rail system to Denver a couple times. And it's just such a nice experience. It's faster (They go from like 55-80mph). And you get to see scenery while not dealing with traffic. It's also better for the environment, because they use electric lines. Such a shame that the US, even when we try to build highspeed rail *cough cough California*, we are not able to due to lack of funding and unsupportive politicians saying it's a waste of money and taxpayer dollars. Then we go spend billions on Automotive infrastructure.

Japan has tons of private rail lines, and America historically was almost all private rail lines.

That immaculate station and excellent experience would be a thing of the past if brightline wasn't private. Airports are an excellent example of this, especially looking at those that get the majority of their finding through the state vs private

That entire train/futuristic railroad gives me a GO! Transit vibe tbqh. Didn't even know it existed until i discovered this train in Orlando. But it's possibly one of the most cleanest, & distinctive trains in the USA.

Highly interesting report about a highly interesting service. That said, what's the point of beating cars in terms of speed between Miami and West Palm Beach if you have to arrive 1/2 hour or more ahead of departure because of stupid airline-style stuff like check-in, security checks, lounges, boarding etc.? Seen from Europe, Broghtline looks very promising for the future of passenger rail travel in the USA (at least in Florida) but, if they want it to be competitive against car travel and to be a real train service, they'll need to drop the airline-style fuss. Let people who really want to enjoy a lounge, snack, drink, enjoy it if they want but please don't impose the fuss of airports on all rail travelers. Other than that, thumbs up for this very bright line!

I can’t wait until brightline gets to Orlando. I would love to do a weekend beach getaway to south Florida without the stress of driving or expense of flying.

Brightline is privately owned but not privately funded. They get both cash subsidies and indirect subsidies in the form of real estate that they sell for cash. They're basically funding rail service from real estate sales that the state made possible for them.

You bring up a good point about getting from the FLL airport to the train station, which introduces missing local transport (dedicated bus, or light rail), something that isn't an issue for Miami's station, but will be an issue elsewhere. As long as the state isn't willing to explore those options, it will be a truly lost opportunity to have last-mile transport in the communities that Brightline serves.

I wonder if there are any lessons Amtrak can take from Bright Line and use in their current and future routes? As far as private vs. public, I know what you mean, but I think most local, regional and national rail lines started out as private entities, so maybe that’s just the way the US rolls. The one good thing about Bright Line being high end is that it may help raise the reputation of intercity train travel in the US.

I regularly ride the Amtrak Capitol Corridor in NorCal. Would love to see some of these features along that line. Trains are often late and there are large gaps in the schedule. Better than nothing, like you said, but room for improvement!

Interesting. Actually, passenger rail was all private enterprise operations less than 100 years ago, except for subways and such. I do wonder how much of this is subsidized.

Brightline is fine for now because it's mostly a novelty. But if it ever became a necessity for commuting it will be a disaster, just like privatised rail in the UK has been a disaster.

I took TriRail when I visited in 2017; at that point it was still better than most commuter rail I’ve taken. I’m curious how the two systems compare, aside from ownership/management. How different is their target customer base & service area? You highlighted some important distinctions between a customary public operation vs a private one, albeit probably for a limited time to develop a market.

Having ridden both tri rail and brightline I have to say I agree with most of this video. Although since I was curious I wanted to find out the top speed of tri rail which does reach 79 mph. It does go slower because it has alot more stops. The brightline stations and train are beautiful and definitely give a premium feel over tri rail. Although I do prefer tri rail because of it affordability and flexibility. Mainly you can show up at the station, get a ticket and ride for the same price. Whereas with brightline there is a penalty for booking less than 2 days before your trip. Although I have though about doing what you said, namely getting a premium ticket and getting my moneys worth in food and alcohol 😅.

How would eliminating grade crossings be accomplished? Do you mean shutting off multiple crossings in a row so that cars can only cross every mile or so? Are there too many crossings now? Or do you mean lowering or raising crossing from their current grade?

Sorry, did someone say they wished Amtrak would take it over? 😐

I am glad it is there. I can fly into MCO and go to a cruise in Miami. I dont drive since I am disabled.

The problem with the UK’s privatization was that they didn’t privatize the infrastructure, so there was no incentive to improve the service. The Brits were also convinced that it made sense to require the rail operators to continue running inefficient services to all these tiny villages for political reasons. Basically, they didn’t actually privatize the rail network. They just hired private companies to run British rail and hoped it wouldn’t be as shit as actual British rail was. To be fair, it was objectively better, but it still wasn’t as good as it could have been. They tried to make the rail system have the efficiency of private enterprise without letting it do all of the things that private enterprise does to make it more efficient.

It's difficult to imagine that as recently as the time of our grandparents (or parents for some of us) private rail travel in the US was pretty much the top of the mark, with railroads and even specific trains competing for luxury, timeliness, speed, food, and more. Unfortunately we could never recreate that golden age of passenger rail simply because there is almost no way for a private entity to get the land and rights of way needed to establish a new line, much less re-establish many old lines. And it would be prohibitively expensive for government to do it in the current age of cutting government services (just the legal battles over obtaining the necessary land would be never-ending). If the FEC Railroad didn't already own the current route, Brightline wouldn't exist. The original FEC passenger service died in the 1960s, so I honestly hope they can keep it running today - and into tomorrow.