Brightline Orlando to Miami Inaugural 

I learned two things from this video: 1) Danny never makes a bad video; and 2) Danny is never quite sure if he’s looking at hummus!

From 1893 to 1895, Stuart was called Potsdam. This name was chosen by Otto Stypmann, originally from Potsdam, Germany. It was renamed Stuart in 1895, in honor of landowner Homer Hine (Jack) Stuart Jr, who owned 160 acres around the railway station. The St. Lucie River got its name from the Spanish. They first called the river, Rio de Santa Cruz, river of the Holy Cross, as the river is cross-like. Later, they re-christened the river Rio De Luz, river of light, for the lighting on the water is heavenly. Eventually, the Spanish called the river, Santa Lucea. The English then taking over, “anglicized” the name Santa Lucea, to what we know today, as “St Lucie,” the church’s saint of the blind. The story about the two wives named Mary (he also married a third named Ida) that Flagler married is interesting. Mary Harkness Flagler was the mother of his three children. After Mary died, Henry married her nurse-caregiver, Ida Alice Shourds. Ida Alice, called Alicia by her husband, was much younger than Mr. Flagler. After being declared incurably insane, Ida Alice was hospitalized. Flagler obtained a divorce and married Mary Lily Kenan, who was with him at his death in 1913 and inherited his wealth, and she suddenly died in 1917, with people believing foul play was involved.

Exactly, having a station at such an important hub like MCO makes a lot of sense! Not just for those going to downtown Orlando and the theme parks, but also for those heading to the cruise ports! The McCoy of the former McCoy Air Force Base was Colonel Michael N. W. McCoy to be specific! He was killed in 1957 in the crash of a B-47 Stratojet which suffered wing failure northwest of downtown Orlando while taking part in a practice demonstration. The Air Force Base was Orlando's biggest employer and economic backbone before Walt Disney World opened in 1971. The Air Force Base shut down in 1975 after the Vietnam War and was thus redeveloped as Orlando International Airport! Ghirardelli is pronounced GEAR-ar-deli! As its logo states, it was founded in San Francisco in 1852 by Domingo Ghirardelli, hence the name! Domingo was born in Rapallo, Italy in 1817, first learned about chocolate trade by being a candymaker's apprentice as a child, sailed to South America in his 20s, and after his neighbor in Lima moved to San Francisco in 1847, he decided to move himself in 1849 after hearing about the California Gold Rush.

So cool seeing them go 125mph now. I got some shots by the airport last week. Can’t wait to ride it.

We all love it when Danny posts❤

I love your voice! I can't quite remember what it'd be called, but it sure feels American. Enjoy your fancy new train! -your far-northerly neighbour

I love this Distant Food channel. And the train stuff is nice also.

So glad to see private rail coming to the USA! Maybe it’s the start of something bigger!

It's good to see such an option in place and hopefully people will take advantage of it. It should be your voice aboard the train making the announcements

Took a while but it looks like they did it right. Brightline West is slowly moving forward. Not surprising in California. Can't wait to ride it. Regional routes are the future of getting rail travel back on the menu. Things would be better if freight rail would cooperate. Thanks for showing us around.

Now that’s real passenger service! Maybe AMTRAK should watch this video! Gracias🚂🚂🚂

It’s great to finally see new passenger trains here in the US, we’ve got some catching up to do! Hopefully people see how well this works and it spreads throughout the country

Never disappointed with Danny’s videos. Watching from the narrow iron of NZ

LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE OPENING RU-vid TO FIND DANNY UPLOADED A NEW VIEW 10 MINUTES AGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I watched a few other videos from the content providers that you mentioned seeing, but no one does it like you!

Looks like a fun trip between Orlando to Miami (and back) by rail and perfect to get away from one big city to another and not have to worry about traffic

Now we NEED Brightline level trains in 47 more states!!!! Thanks for your great video as always. Thanks

Brightline. Smart thinking, good decisionmaking, and a wide open throttle. May trains reign again.

What a great segment! Thanks for the video. Nwxt bucket list item for sure.

Excellent re-cap, Danny! I hope we do see a resurgence in the US.

Thanks once again for taking us along.

Excellent report... Will be interesting to see if, 5 years from now, Brightline is just as clean, speedy, and relaxing, and its personnel are so helpful and friendly... I'm old enough, 90, to remember railroad systems that started the same way and ended up veritable cesspools of dirty and broken equipment and very bad personal service...

I believe that the USA had the greatest rail service BEFORE the mergers (ie when the PRR & the NYC merged). I rode the PRR from Chicago to Johnstown, PA. and back many times. The Broadway Limited route was wonderful. Not so great when it merged into the Penn Central, but still WAY better than the AMTRAK that we have today. I remember bar cars on the PRR that had piano's bolted to the floor. Restrooms back then had toilets that emptied onto the rail tracks (that kept the reff raff off of the rails for sure). Porters were ready to help anybody no matter how well (or not) they were tipped. So many of the routes that made so much $ in their hey day are gone forever. Now, most routes have you make overnight stops to continue on to the next leg of a trip because the trains barely follow their schedule ontime (you can't make a reservation for a segment the same day as they expect delays). We had the best rail service and then with deregulation and all of the woes of the rail industry (ConRail included) strangled our wonderful railways.

Thanks for sharing this "bright" video. Greetings from Australia.

Another amazing informative episode 👍 Thank you sir! Watching from Pahrump Nevada 🇺🇲

HE POSTED WOOOOOOOO. Love the content Mr. Harmon!

I was an engineer out of Paddington station in the 1980s with what was then pretty new HST (High speed trains) 125mph with a front/rear power cars and 7 passenger coaches (cars). Nice to see the USA finally getting some high speed rail away from the NE corridor

Thanks Danny I can't wait to ride it one day. I wish they had a stop out near the cape for us cruisers. I also heard the CEO for Brightline said they are investing in right of ways for a brightline route on the west coast. We will see how they grow the business... good first step!>

Very excited about the next terminal being built in Tampa and the new, recently announced planned terminal near Port Canaveral. These will be a boon for the cruise community.

Cant wait until they get to Georgia! it seems far off but I wait for the day I can take a train to go on vacation in Florida!! Go Dawgs!!

Awesome video Danny! As a television producer for over 3 decades, you’re killing it! I live in the high desert of Southern California between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I hear Bightline will be breaking ground soon for passenger rail service from the Inland Empire (East of LA) to Las Vegas, starting with service from the Victorville/Apple Valley area. The Cajon Pass is the challenge for bringing it to the main population in the IE and LA basin. The Cajon Pass presents many geographical challenges and is already a bottleneck for freight. I’m excited for the possibility of Brightline coming to the west coast. There certainly is a need as the I-15 is jammed almost every weekend with LA to Vegas traffic.

I haven't even watched the video yet and I know it is going to be great... Always top content from Danny! 👍

Hey nice to see that you were also on my train! I'm even in the video at 1:32 on the platform haha

Thanks for this, Danny. Brightline's connection to Orlando is a game-changer. If they can make it work, financially, there are tons of other point-to-point pairings that can also work.

Henry Flagler would have been very proud of this service!

Thanks for the ride. I live in LasVegas and waiting for our Brightline to California.

I’ve said this on many videos. I can’t wait to ride this train. And I hope Brightline trains come to Jacksonville soon.

It's always a great day when Danny uploads

The stations look beautiful !! Let's keep them that way. Minus the urine, cigarettes, spit, bubble gum...you name it.

I’m never ever disappointed by your videos, I want to thank you and your wife for taking us on your trip around Florida on a sunny Friday! Looking forward to seeing you again on the Train Aficionado or The Scanner Guys, I hope it’s real soon! Thanks again Danny 🤗

What a great service! Hopefully, we'll see more of this across North America.

Danny, as always you come through for us with a great and informative video. Thanks!!

Thank you so much Danny , really appreciate your vlogs! Keep em coming! Jim ( Fairport Ny)

Brightline... it's what the California high speed rail project wishes it could be... 15 years later, and there is not a single mile of track laid, with the original 9.8 billion price tag escalating towards an estimated 88 - 128 billion for completion, in who knows when. I'm very envious of you Floridians.

I see Brightline heading out every morning as I'm heading west on 528 to MCO....

I wait patiently for new content from you, because each and every vid is a real treat. Imagine my surprise when I was watching late nite TV, and I heard your voice advertising for Muddy Mat. Very professional job. Anytime I can hear your voice, it becomes a good day!

Once again I always love when danny uploads! Great introduction to the bright line rr danny! wooohoo to this!!

Hi Danny, another worthwhile video. Thanks for sharing your trip.

Waiting hard for the Brightline push up to St Aug and Jax. Great video again.

Thanks Danny! I'm been waiting for you to make this video for some time.👍😃

I live in Juptiter Fl, and would travel ( add trip fuel cost $ 50.00) to ORL to catch direct flights to destinations that were not served at WPB airport. I would spend 2.5 + hours on the trnpk ( provided no traffic issues), then find parking and pay for it for the time away ($75-100). So now I drive or Uber to Brightline WPB and get delivered to ORL. Much better solution. I hope the ridership holds up.

Great video! Thanks for uploading this experience...you brought the goods

Very cool to see Brightline up and running, thanks for sharing. Hoping to make it down that way soon to travel on the train

Excellent Work once again Danny, Brightline has set the Benchmark for Passenger operations, love to see them do well and maybe expand further into the future. Thanks Again !

Wonderful review, Danny Harmon! Thanks for another great video adventure.

Obviously you both had a great trip,thanks Danny,safe travels ,👋👋🙏👍🇦🇺

One of the NICEST people I had the pleasure of meeting when I worked at WTVT-TV. Seeing that you love trains shouldn't be a surprise. Most rail fans are the nicest people on God's green earth. I stumbled across your channel as I viewed the news of California's Brightline project announcement. You can never have enough railways! Blessings to you and your family!

Thanks for posting Danny. Fun and informative as always!

Looked like fun. Thanks for sharing your experience!

As a theme park fan, I am very excited that Brightline's Orlando airport station is now open, because it means they can begin planning for the next phase to Tampa. There has been a great deal of debate regarding how Brightline will route their tracks west, and I am very curious to see whether an Orlando Convention Center/Universal Studios station takes shape.

Very nice. I hope they can sustain that level of service.

I can’t wait for the Tampa-Orlando run… I will drive from Pinellas to Orlando to ride!

Love ❤❤❤❤ The glory days are not gone....

Taking bright line next month, cant wait

Very cool way to travel indeed! For those who have never been to Florida yet this is certainly a good incentive to visit. This will also help reduce traffic congestion. 👍👍

Woo hooo! Another Distant Signal video, great video Danny!

I have followed this Bright line Railroad since it began. I have heard reports about expanding to Jacksonville, Florida And Tampa, Maybe a Disney station too. I am guessing in the Future it Might go to Fort Myers & Naples, then return across those bottom of Florida to Miami to complete the Circle, maybe years from now.

Really excited for you but even more excited for Brightline to start construction here near my hometown of Victorville for the high-speed line to Las Vegas!

What an experience! Definitely a resurgence of rail travel. Greatest thing for tourists, especially to cut out hours of driving or taxi service and use the convenient Brightline service right at the airport.

Nice hat. The next time I am in FL, I will be taking this route.

Now, Florida Man just has to learn to stop for the lights, bells and gates and stop getting creamed by Brightline.

Fantastic video of a fantastic service! Thanks for filling us in until we can ride!

Great to see you back.

Thanks! Danny great video...

Good to see you again, Danny!

Thanks for the ride Danny!

Great video, I am very excited to visit Florida again and to ride this train.

A little different this time, but not in the least less interesting. As always, thanks again, Danny.

Looks Awesome ! I'm looking forward to checking this out some time ! Hope you enjoyed your trip !

Boy the ride back was way better visually. Free windows!

Kia ora from Aotearoa ( Hello from New Zealand ❤

Greetings from Sebastian! Hope you liked it here for the Fourth.

Thank you Danny. Great Job. Love your videos!!

Nicely done, Mr. Harmon! I wish it had been open a couple of years ago, Ash and I would have loved to make that ride.

Glad to see Brightline is still doing well! I rode on the service a couple years ago while I was working in Miami. Took Tri-Rail from Miami to Fort Lauderdale to go to Primanti’s (I’m from Western PA. That’s our place 😁), and again up to West Palm. Spent a little time there, then took Brightline back down to Miami in the evening. It was winter time so they had polar express stuff on board.. I got a little bear. It was such a fantastic ride! Can’t wait to see their west coast electrified service open up.

This is the best Brightline review.

Wonderful video very informative

Looked like a nice ride. Thank you for sharing. Have a great day and stay safe.🙂🙂

Great video. Thank you.

My wife and I are taking a cruise out of Port Miami in December, so we are driving from Tennessee to Orlando and doing the Premium service to Miami and back when we get on land again. I'm very much looking forward to it!

Always good to see passenger Expansion anywhere in the USA.

One of the things I liked most about JFK airport was the rail service to the city. People can say whatever they want about the subway but it’s efficient and was fairly cheap when I went. I think all major airports should have rail service for those who want it. It’s not always efficient to take a car in big cities.

A great addition to your 1st video Danny. Well done. I always love the history

Very cool. Thanks

That's awesome, can't wait to try that!

Beautiful , thank you... :)

Looked like a lot of fun!!

Danny, you are the best narrator in your videos and always enjoy watching, even way over here in northern CA. And us Californians do enjoy some Ghirardelli’s chocolate, pronounced Gear-ah-deli. Don’t worry it takes us years to get it right. Anyways, love the videos! ~Peter

Very enjoyable 😊!

I thoroughly enjoy each and every one of your videos Danny, but I especially enjoy the ones where you (and Liz on occasion) will take us along on an adventure where you are on the train, versus filming/chasing it! These two Brightline videos, along with your Auto Train trips and the journey you were invited to attend with the then VP of CSX in his rented Private Varnish were such a hoot! Keep on Keeping on sir! Best, Rick out on the Nampa Sub of the Union Pacific High Iron here in southern Idaho.