A ride on Brightline

[thelakelander]

A virtual tour of Brightline. Operating between Miami and Orlando with a goal of potentially expanding to Tampa and Jacksonville, Brightline is the first privately funded intercity passenger rail system built in the U.S. in over a century.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/a-ride-on-brightline/

[jaxlongtimer]

Meh... all these foolish south and central Florida cities drooling over Brightline when they could have had U2C for so many more dollars and no riders.  JTA knows best.

Sad, how backwards thinking Jacksonville is while the world passes us by.

[thelakelander]

We were told years ago but a representative of an unnamed transportation agency that rail is a 19th century technology.

Very true! But also proven that it works.

[Charles Hunter]

How was the ride on the Brightline? How does it compare to Amtrak?

[thelakelander]

Brightline is pretty nice in comparison. Definitely, a more luxury/business travel type of service. The stations are designed more like mini-airport terminals than traditional rail stations. IMO, its not a real competitor to Amtrak. Instead, they compliment each other in that the more diverse range of people you can attract to transit, the better off it is for all transit related services.

[marcuscnelson]

Nice article, keep meaning to get down there at some point.

Brightline fulfills many, even if not all, of the promises that high speed rail offers for many regions. Fast, frequent, convenient rail to urban cores and major activity centers has proven itself as both in great demand (indicated by recent stories of the need to limit capacity between Miami and West Palm Beach in order to preserve seats to and from Orlando) and a broader economic tool (as this article demonstrates in the development at and around these stations).

Jacksonville is very different territory from South or Central Florida, but many of the same promises can be realized if our leaders are capable of the same thinking as those elsewhere in the state. That is to be determined.

[Ocklawaha]

We were told years ago but a representative of an unnamed transportation agency that rail is a 19th century technology.

Very true! But also proven that it works.

How quickly these highway geniuses forget that a highway called the Via or Appian Way was built in Rome in 312 BC.