How Brightline's $5 billion passenger train project has to change the minds of Americans

A key challenge for Brightline's pioneering passenger service is to chip away at the very ethos of Americana, to turn the steely independence of four wheels and internal combustion into a community of train travelers.

To do that, it has reinvented what it means to ride the rails, infusing stations with a Brightline signature scent of vanilla and citrus, inventing a uniform wave for greeting customers, and serving themed cocktails such as the vodka-spiked mule skinner, a nod to a time when transport was four-legged.

Brightline is sexy and streamlined and serene with amenities that hearken to the man himself, Henry Flagler, a preacher’s son turned oil tycoon turned father of Florida’s East Coast Railway.

But is it all a $5 billion folly, as was said about Flagler’s ultimately calamitous reach to Key West? Or can Brightline —the fastest moving intercity passenger train service in the southeastern United States — churn a profit by converting Americans and catering to Europeans more familiar with train travel?

“This makes sense to the rest of the world, the train and airport together,” said Brightline Vice President of Guest Experience George Edwards, at the unveiling of the Brightline station in the Orlando International Airport. “It’s not just the destination, it’s the journey.”

Brightline estimates 35 million people travel between Central Florida and Miami each year.

It would like to have at least 4.3 million of them on its trains, and anticipates most riders will be domestic travelers, including Florida residents and tourists from other states. Just 15% of the "long-haul" passengers traveling the full Miami to Orlando route are expected to be international, according to a March revenue and ridership report. In total, between Brightline's six stations, its goal is 6 million riders annually building to 10 million over the next few years.

Executives hope Brightline's attention to detail and glammed up experience will bring repeat customers, enticing them to trade express lanes on I-95 for express trains that take less than three hours to travel the 235 miles between Miami and Orlando.

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In the Orlando station, a roaring 20s-style bar glowing with neon lights is named Mary Mary for two of Flagler’s three wives, Mary Harkness and Mary Kenan. A 1940s-style split-flap message board like old bedside flip clocks changes every few minutes, spinning a new message and stirring nostalgia.

In March, Brightline reports it carried 180,000 riders, a 68% increase from March 2022. Ticket revenue, the company said, was up 106% during the same time period. It was enough for the company to break even that month, according to Brightline President Patrick Goddard.

“We expect to be profitable pretty soon after we launch the long-haul service (between Miami and Orlando),” Goddard said in an April interview. “We’ve really hung our hat on the experience. It’s not just about the commodity of transportation.”

Brightline train beginning: Rocky road from first stirrings as All Aboard Florida to Orlando station

When the Orlando station was unveiled April 20 to a crowd of 300 people, it had been just more than a decade since the 2012 launch of Brightline.

In the early throes of development, Brightline was known as All Aboard Florida, a Florida East Coast Industries entity backed by megalith hedge fund Fortress Investment Group.

As plans for the unique rail line evolved, it was mostly applauded by Miami-Dade and Broward counties whose congested roads were only expected to worsen. Palm Beach County was also in support, except in its northern reaches where boaters feared long waits at the nearly 100-year-old Loxahatchee River railroad drawbridge. Brightline has since virtually rebuilt the bridge to improve its safety, speed and operations.

Treasure Coast counties dug in with lawsuits to fight the project. Groups such as Florida Not all Aboard and Citizens Against Rail Expansion chartered buses to Tallahassee to denounce Brightline's plans.

Millions of dollars were spent in legal fees by Martin and Indian River counties. Both eventually settled with promises of a Treasure Coast stop and upgraded safety measures. However, a new legal fight emerged on April 28 when Martin County marine businesses filed a lawsuit in federal court with concerns about how long the railroad bridge over the St. Lucie River in Stuart will be closed each day to accommodate train traffic.

Meanwhile, All Aboard Florida was doubling its tracks and installing heightened security at crossings to allow for quiet zones where the trains, which will expand to 32 every day, don’t have to blow their horns. Freight trains also are silent under the new safety precautions.

"I don't think we lost in the long run," Indian River County Commission Chair Joe Earman said in a February story by the Treasure Coast Newspapers. "Since we got the safety upgrades, we got something for it."

Train project gets rebranded Brightline until Richard Branson comes along

In November 2015, All Aboard Florida was rebranded Brightline.

In 2018, when train service began between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Brightline was rebranded Virgin Trains USA after a partnership was forged with the Virgin Group founded by Richard Branson.

Branson made an appearance at the Miami station to tout the partnership and the new signage, logos and color schemes — in the Virgin's trademark red and white — at the Miami station. He later boarded one of the trains to West Palm Beach to sample the experience.

"Interestingly in America, rail has not really been something that has worked particularly well if you go back over the last 100 years," Branson observed. "The car has sort of reigned supreme."

Less than two years later, that partnership was scrapped and Brightline was Brightline again.

Robert Poole, a Fort Lauderdale resident and director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, said he was optimistic about the train service when it was first envisioned and remains optimistic as it readies to launch its novel route to Orlando.

Unlike other higher-speed rail projects nationwide, Brightline was in the unique position of already owning the tracks and being privately backed by a massive hedge fund. All but 35 miles of new track from Cocoa to Orlando was already owned, Poole said.

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“Put all those things together and this is a plausible business,” Poole said. “To me, they have found a sweet spot between driving and flying between the big cities in South Florida and Orlando.”

Brightline is benefiting from federal grants, including an August award of $25 million from the US Department of Transportation to enhance safety measures along the tracks between Miami-Dade and Brevard counties.

The company has also relied on a series of revenue bonds to fund its operation. In August, it was approved by the Florida Development Finance Corp. to sell up to $1 billion in tax-free debt to help pay for the final push to Orlando. According to the March revenue and ridership report, a Brightline affiliate entity closed on $770 million of bonds in late August. In early March, another $250 million offering of private activity bonds was closed.

Is Brightline a commuter train? Monthly passes still pricey

Poole said he knows people who live in Fort Lauderdale and work in Miami who take the train every day. About 1,350 riders had Brightline commuter passes in March, a 265% increase from the previous March.

A “build your own” monthly pass costs $339 for 40 rides from West Palm Beach to Miami.

One-way tickets from Miami to Orlando will be start at $79 for economy seats and $149 for premium, but prices will change depending on routes and departure times, similar to airline tickets.  As of the Orlando unveiling, Brightline had not set prices for West Palm Beach trips to Orlando. A one-way ticket to Miami from West Palm Beach can cost between $15 and $64 depending on time and seat request.

"I think the price point is key to long-term success but the more pain you suffer sitting in traffic on the interstate the less painful that price seems," said Sally Patrenos, president of Floridians for Better Transportation. "It's a balancing of convenience and pleasure."

Patrenos believes Brightline prices may go down when riders are added on the Orlando to Miami leg. She said it would be naive to think the state's roadways can continue to handle the influx of new Florida residents.

Florida drew a record 138 million tourists last year. And it was the fastest-growing state in 2022 with a population that grew by 1.9% to nearly 22 million people

It was the first time since 1957 that Florida has been the state with the largest percent increase in population, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released in December. The state Demographic Estimating Conference is expecting a population growth through 2027 of 294,756 new residents per year. That's about 800 people per day.

"I don't think the growth will ever slow down or stop," Patrenos said.

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The stations in Boca Raton and Aventura, which opened in December 2022, generated a total of 48,459 rides in March compared to 37,963 rides in February.

When the Orlando route opens, Brightline expects 47% of the ridership will be South Florida residents traveling from Miami to Orlando, 18% will be Orlando residents going south, 20% will be visitors from other areas of the country riding between Orlando and Miami, and 15% will be international travelers.

“The power of the Florida economy is its diversity,” said Brightline CEO Michael Reininger in an April interview. “Every month that goes by we are running more and more trains that are at capacity.”

 Higher-speed passenger trains struggles in other parts of the country

A 2013 report from the Congressional Research Service notes that there are multiple definitions of high-speed and higher-speed rail. The Federal Railroad Administration says a high-speed rail is one that is competitive with airline or car travel for the time it takes to reach a destination. FRA also considers there to be three categories of high-speed rail from "emerging high-speed rail" with speeds up to 110 mph to "express high-speed rail" with speeds of at least 150 mph.

Brightline trains will travel at a maximum speed of 125 mph between Cocoa and Orlando International Airport.

Although plans for higher-speed commuter trains have launched in California and Texas, they are stalled or dying, Poole said. Poole called California’s taxpayer-funded project approved by voters in 2008 a “boondoggle” that has laid about 120 miles of track in the middle of the Central Valley, basically “no where to no where."

The initial cost estimate for the Los Angeles to San Francisco route, which will include trains traveling at up to 200 mph, was $33 billion. A reanalysis this year put the cost at $128 billion, according to the California High Speed Rail Authority.

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A March report from the Reason Foundation said a proposed Texas commuter rail line between Dallas and Houston “appears to have finally accepted reality.” By late June 2022, the company’s CEO and all of its board members had resigned, according to the report.

“Brightline has a better chance of success than any other passenger rail service that I’ve seen in my career,” Poole said.

It still faces hurdles, however, including increasing awareness campaigns after at least 88 people have died on the tracks through February. Suicides, distracted pedestrians and people trying to beat the train are blamed for the deaths.

It also has to complete major reconstruction of the St. Lucie Bridge, finish testing on the route and get a final certification from the Federal Railroad Administration before opening the Orlando leg.

Brightline's future is Tampa, increasing rider convenience

Brightline has already made a push to get service to Tampa.

When asked when the Treasure Coast may get a station, Reininger said "soon." A stop in Cocoa is a possibility to tap into cruise ship passengers at Port Canaveral. And a connection to SunRail, Central Florida's commuter rail service, is also in the works.

Reininger said the company is evolving as it reaches milestones and responds to customer needs, such as increasing transportation options from stations to end destinations. It has been "laser focused" on getting the Orlando leg open.

“There is no future until the present is completed,” Reininger said.

Kimberly Miller is a veteran journalist for The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA Today Network of Florida. She covers real estate and how growth affects South Florida's environment. Subscribe to The Dirt for a weekly real estate roundup. If you have news tips, please send them to kmiller@pbpost.com. Help support our local journalism, subscribe today.