Brightline: Trips around the state of Florida made easy. Brightline is the new “bullet train” that many have been whispering about, but no one seems to know when it will finally open. There has been many rumors about how fast it actually goes, where it goess and the prices, so I decided to do some investigating of my own to see what was fact and what was myth.
These brand new state of the art trains have been seen doing test runs from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach on the newly built tracks. Brightline’s current status of when the trains will begin running fully from Miami to Orlando and vise versa is still undetermined, but the train’s website has began advertising trips from Ft. Lauderdale to West Palm Beach, so we can assume that this is a big step toward a safer and more environmentally friendly train ride.
Some of the many benefits of taking this train include its environmental standpoint and how it is run strictly on electricity instead of gas, like the Tri-Rail, Metro-Rail and Amtrak trains do. This will hopefully promote the state of Florida to get rid of the gas run trains as they don’t service as much of an environmental purpose as Brightline does. The timing of the rides will benefits many business men and women from Miami to Orlando who travel a lot, equally saving many gas, miles on their car and most importantly time.
One of Brightline’s biggest assets is how fast their train goes. From 80 to 120 miles per hour, one can get from Miami to Ft. Lauderdale in thirty minutes, Miami to West Palm Beach in one hour and from Miami to Orlando in approximately three hours. Comparing these new Brightline times to the amount of time it currently takes to get to Orlando from Miami in a bus, train, car, or even plane (which is no less than approximately five hours and by plane almost one hour), they have predicted to make the ticket pricing much lower than it would take to fly from Miami to Orlando, so Brightline is trying to make their rides as affordable and convenient as possible.
As for location, Orlando’s station is still currently under construction and working on their “phase II,” which includes laying over 40 miles of tracks, and it is located on the Southside of Orlando’s International Airport. West Palm Beach’s station is over 60,000 square feet and located wihtin walking distance from the Waterfront, Clematis District and CityPlace. Fort Lauderdale’s station is located just steps away from the Broward Center of the Performing Arts, Museum of Science, and the F.A.T. Village Arts District. And of Course, Miami’s station is located in Miami Central, which is said to be a new hub opening soon full of food courts and shopping, and is in walking distance of the Business District, Museum Park and American Airlines Arena. This station is not open yet but construction is well underway and Brightline’s website says they will open very soon.