Brightline, South Florida’s private-sector passenger railroad, is adding service, both in terms of frequencies and a new station. On Dec. 4, the number of trains between its southern terminal in downtown Miami and its new station at Orlando Airport was expanded to 16 in each direction. Another change will be coming, but it will take time. That will be an additional station north of West Palm Beach, and Brightline is already soliciting proposals to build it.
The private-sector passenger railroad recently expanded its line beyond South Florida’s home territory and into central Florida, opening its new station at the Orlando airport on Sept. 22. Until then, Brightline only ran between downtown Miami and West Palm Beach, and does not interfere between “WPB” and the new airport station at the end of the expanded route. All Brightline trains head north through the Treasure Coast domain and into Cocoa, then west on a new high-performance right-of-way to Airport Station. Brightline has announced plans to build a new station along the Treasure Coast, and the process to opt for a location is underway lately.
On Oct. 26, Brightline announced a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a new station along the Treasure Coast, a region consisting of Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River Counties. The region is named after a 1715 storm that sank Spanish ships carrying gold and other treasure from the “New World” to Spain, after which some of the treasure washed up on local beaches (and occasionally still does). The Gold Coast (Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties, where Brightline started and Tri-Rail trains run) lies to the south. The Space Coast, which includes Cape Canaveral and Cocoa, where the new railroad branches off from the historic Florida East Coast (FEC) main, lies to the north. Until scheduled passenger service on the FEC was discontinued in 1968, trains stopped at Stuart in Martin County, Fort Pierce in St. Lucie County, and Vero Beach in Indian River County.
Brightline seems to be in a hurry to decide on the site for the new station. The railroad announced the new RFP on its website in a statement titled Brightline Announces Treasure Coast Station Selection Process. “Proposals under this RFP would likely come from private or public property owners who have housing along the Brightline/FEC rail corridor in St. Louis counties. Lucie or Martin and they qualify,” Brightline said. CEO Michael Reininger was quoted as saying, “Brightline’s expansion into the Treasure Coast region will make Brightline one of the most available transportation features in Florida, offering access to nearly a portion of the state’s residents. »
Brightline imposed a deadline of Dec. 22, which at the time gave proposers less than 60 days to prepare and submit their plans. There were meetings held in St. Lucie County on Nov. 28 and Martin County on Nov. 29, which the release describes as “not a public meeting.” Brightline’s announcement also said: “Brightline will host one-on-one meetings for eligible proposal applicants in each respective county. After receiving submissions, Brightline will begin evaluations with a goal of entering negotiations with the property owners in the first quarter of 2024.”
Ben Porritt, Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs, told Railway Age: “We have been encouraged by the reactions to our tenders and even more so by the continued reaction of the local network willing to see Brightline on the Treasure Coast. “
Brightline’s original project also includes a link to the RFP, a 12-page document with details, and a drawing outlining how Brightline needs the station track and platform to be constructed. Proposers will be required to own or contract the assets that would be used for a station and related car parking, with the final number of sites expected to be ready by the end of the first quarter of 2024. Brightline plans to start service at the new station in the first quarter of 2028 (in 3, which also includes a schedule of tasks).
Division 2 of the document (6-12) requires proponents to submit a letter of intent, criteria (map and features, adding at least two acres with two hundred parking spaces), monetary terms, and transaction process. In the Financial Terms section, Brightline discussed that the newly constructed stations in Aventura and Boca Raton were funded through public entities that owned the land and leased the completed resorts to Brightline for $1. 00 per month or year. The document also specifies detailed regulations related to the content of proposals and how they can be submitted.
At this time, Brightline is looking to add only one additional station in the region. Porritt told Railway Age, “Our priority is on identifying the best location for one station. As we look ahead, there may be other stations to consider in Brevard County, but you have to take one step at a time and sequence those projects.” He aded, “We have a five-year commitment to the counties that we solicited and are excited to be gearing up to find the right home for the next Brightline station.”
Brevard County is on the Space Coast, north of the Treasure Coast. It includes Cocoa, where the new railroad built through Brightline branches west of the main FEC. Until passenger trains were closed in 1968, the FEC made 3 stops in the county. : Cocoa, Melbourne in the south and Titusville in the north. Nowhere did Brightline mention a possible station in Indian River County.
Relations between Brightline and the counties along the Treasure Coast, namely Indian River County and Martin County to a lesser extent, have not been harmonious. For much of Brightline’s history and before, there have been disputes. CALIFORNIA. Bridges presented a timeline of railroad-related events (including descriptions of fatal accidents) over the 11 years and 8 months from March 22, 2012, to the start of service to the Orlando airport, in the Sept. 21, 2023, issue of Treasure Coast. According to this timeline, the assignment litigation was ongoing for approximately part of that period.
Indian River County filed its first action on March 31, 2015 against the U.S. Department of Transportation over the use $1.75 billion worth of tax-exempt bonds to finance the project, which was undertaken at the time by Brightline predecessor All Aboard Florida. Martin County filed on similar grounds on April 27, less than one month later. Brightline later changed its financing plan, and the case was dismissed in 2017. After an unsuccessful appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case on Oct. 5, 2020. In response, Porritt was quoted by the Treasure Coast papers as saying, “The Supreme Court’s decision to deny Indian River’s petition closes out the county’s repeated and baseless attempt to disrupt our efforts of connecting Florida by passenger rail.”
The two counties and another group filed suit against USDOT and the FRA over environmental and safety issues on Feb. 12, 2018. Martin County settled for safety improvements and the promise of a future Treasure Coast station in November of that year. Indian River County fought on, over issues of improving and maintaining 32 grade crossings along the route. That matter was settled on June 8, 2021, when Brightline agreed to pay $31.6 million for safety improvements at the grade crossings. Colleen Wixon reported the proposed settlement for the Treasure Coast Newspapers, saying that county officials praised the deal. Wixon also reported that some residents were unhappy and quoted one, Ted Robinson, as saying: “The more trains you have, the more traffic around the trains that you have, you’re going to have an explosive situation all over the place.” Scott Sutton and John Shainman reported on the settlement for WPTV-5, noting mixed feelings among residents). They quoted Chris Baker saying, “I think it’ll be good for public transportation. It’ll be interesting to see the speed of it.” They also reported: “Trish Tomsic and Muriel Holdsworth can only wonder what’s next for their Roseland neighborhood as Brightline trains are on the horizon, adding to the existing freight train traffic. ‘There’s a lot of little streets, a lot of communities with houses right on the rails, and they’re flying by,’ Tomsic said.”
The controversy isn’t just about protecting border crossings and the discomfort of drills speeding across the county at 110 mph. While protection is the main fear of some citizens, the challenge is also that the exercises did not prevent them, meaning that local citizens would not have easy access to them. On June 21, 2022, after visiting the affected spaces on the Treasure and Space Coasts, I updated Brightline on recent progress and informed them that the railroad is serving the spaces they planned to cross without impeding it (Brightline: Progress, Potential and a Whole New Market). In reporting on the controversy that had been resolved last year, I wrote: “According to Ruth Stanbridge, Indian River County historian and former county commissioner, local citizens’ objection not to the exercise itself, but to having to live with the hassle of structure and operation, when the exercises would not prevent them from taking place in their local area. In other words, “locals” would face the disadvantages of having a high-performance exercise pass them and would not gain access and mobility advantages. “While security is an issue, local citizens may not even participate in the exercise. “
At the time the agreement was reached, Brightline had suspended its service due to the COVID-19 virus.
George Andreassi reported on the deal on June 10, 2021, for the VeroNews. com news network. In addition to his full summary of the actual terms of the agreement, he concluded his report by stating, “So far, there is no station planned in Indian River. According to Brightline’s RFP, this scenario is not going to change.
Andreassi reported the latest development in the Nov. 11 edition, a story headlined To no one’s surprise, Vero out of mix for a Brightline station. He began his report by saying, “While Brightline has stirred up some excitement in St. Lucie and Martin Counties to pick one as the site for a new Treasure Coast rail station, exclusion of Vero Beach from the RFP process for the new high-speed train stop comes as little surprise here.” The report mentioned the litigation and quoted Vero Beach Public Works Director Matt Mitts as saying, “We inquired with Brightline two or so years ago and they were unresponsive to a discussion. The biggest impact we’ve noticed is calls and complaints regarding train horns.”
Recent reports imply that traffic between the Orlando airport and Brightline’s original service domain in South Florida remains strong, and Brightline has increased its service point necessarily on time. Meanwhile, Brightline still plans to expand westward, to Disney World if possible, and to Tampa. There are also plans to connect the Brightline station to the airport with Sun Rail, the local commuter service in the Orlando domain that serves places like Winter Park, Kissimmiee and downtown Orlando. That initiative is the Sunshine Corridor, a public-private corridor. partnership (P-3) between Brightline and Sun Rail under the auspices of the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT). We’ll have more to report on those developments as they happen.
Brightline could eventually expand all the way to Jacksonville on the historic FEC main, as well. In a statement for Railway Age, Porritt did not rule out that possibility: “It’s absolutely feasible and we do own the passenger rights to Jacksonville. Jacksonville like the rest of the state is experiencing significant growth. It’s not something we’re focused on today but certainly is a possibility in the future.”
Until a long strike ended its operations in 1963, the FEC introduced this service as part of track exercises between the North and Miami. This address is faster than the ones Amtrak uses today. A little more than 20 years ago, John Robert Smith, chairman of the board of Amtrak. at that time, he proposed to conduct an Amtrak exercise at the FEC, in addition to the directions in use lately through Orlando and Tampa (there were 3 daily exercises in each direction between New York and Miami at the time). This proposal was never implemented, however, time will tell if Brightline will eventually repair service statewide.
In the meantime, I plan to return to Florida next spring, after service to and from the Orlando airport has been running for a while. By the time you do that and post a report, we’ll deserve to know where the new Treasure Coast station is. Be.
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