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April 2017
— By Julie Sneider, Senior Associate Editor
For the past 18 months, All Aboard Florida’s Chief Marketing Officer Julie Edwards has been on a speaking tour of sorts to promote Brightline, the new privately financed and operated express rail service slated to begin transporting riders between West Palm Beach and Miami this summer.
Edwards has been meeting with chambers of commerce and other members of business and community groups to provide them with updates and answer questions on Brightline’s progress, as All Aboard Florida officials prepare to launch the service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale in July, and between Fort Lauderdale and Miami in late August. Eventually, the express railroad — operating up to 110 mph — will transport travelers from Miami all the way to Orlando in about three hours. It will be the only privately owned, higher-speed intercity passenger-rail service in the United States.
The main point Edwards tries to drive home is how Brightline will make life easier for South Florida residents, commuters and tourists when they want to travel between the cities. Trip times from Miami to Fort Lauderdale will be about 30 minutes; from West Miami to West Palm Beach, about 60 minutes. By car, those trips on Interstate 95 can take hours longer, especially at peak drive times.
“Brightline will offer the very, very congested southeast region of 5 to 6 million people a better and more productive way to spend their time between Miami and Fort Lauderdale,” says Edwards. “With free Wi-Fi and convenient locations in city centers, it will be a smarter and less stressful way to travel.”
The most common question Edwards fields during her public talks?
“How will I book it?” she says. “And I tell people that a very productive way to book your tickets is through the Brightline mobile app, which you can download and then pick your train and reserve your seat.”
Setting up the ticketing app is just one of myriad tasks that Edwards and other Brightline officials are focused on as opening day nears for what they’re calling the “introductory” period of express service.
Since January, All Aboard Florida — a unit of Florida East Coast Industries (FECI) — has:
• shored up its executive and management team, including the hiring of former sports executive Dave Howard as Brightline’s chief executive. Howard replaces Michael Reininger, who now leads new development and growth as executive director of FECI. Additionally, the company promoted Brightline Executive Vice President of Operations Patrick Goddard to chief operating officer. Together with Howard, Goddard will oversee the day-to-day operations of Brightline trains and stations.
• received two completed trainsets — BrightBlue and BrightPink — from rolling-stock supplier Siemens’ manufacturing plant in Sacramento, Calif. As of mid-March, static testing and commissioning had begun on BrightBlue.
• begun hiring, training and certifying middle managers; and
• announced this summer’s service-launch timeframe.
As Howard and Goddard pay attention to Brightline operations, Reininger will move to FECI’s headquarters to focus on development, including the potential for expanding Brightline beyond its Miami-to-Orlando line. Moreover, FECI parent Fortress Investment Group is exploring the possibility of replicating the Brightline model of operating privately run express passenger-rail service in other U.S. locations.
“There is an unprecedented opportunity to replicate the remarkable success Brightline has built over the last five years in many other places,” Fortress Co-founder Wes Edens said March 8 in a press release. “We have proof of concept for delivering private-sector led transportation projects that can be created efficiently, quickly and profitably. As we see the impact of Brightline take hold in Florida, we’re going to look to translate our success across the country.”
For now, the Brightline venture calls for running the passenger train on the Florida East Coast Railway (FECR) corridor between Miami and Orlando. Brightline’s targeted base of riders will be tourists hoping to visit key destinations in Orlando and Miami, as well as leisure, commuter and business travelers seeking an alternative to driving on I-95.
While Brightline is scheduled to launch revenue service on its southern Florida segment in July and August, service to the station that will be built at Orlando International Airport is now slated for a later opening, possibly in 2018. The cost to get Brightline up and running has been estimated at $3 billion.
It’s been All Aboard Florida’s responsibility to upgrade rail infrastructure to accommodate passengers. The project has entailed double-tracking 66 miles on FECR’s right of way, enhancing grade crossings, upgrading signals, building the stations and “looking at how we can share the corridor without compromising what the freight business is doing,” says Goddard.
FECR’s pending acquisition by Grupo Mexico, which operates Ferrocarril Mexicano (Ferromex), will not impact the passenger-rail service, Brightline officials say. Ferromex is Mexico’s largest railroad.
“Brightline is a separate company that has dual ownership of the corridor and the right to operate passenger service,” Brightline spokeswoman AnneMarie Mathews said in an email. “We have all shared operations-related agreements in place with the Florida East Coast Railway for us to fully build out and implement our passenger-rail system.”
As of early to mid-March, Brightline’s southern segment infrastructure was about 80 percent complete, according to Goddard.
“We’re feeling like that is in very good shape and will be timely,” he says. “What we refer to as the inline Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations are in excellent shape, and we hope for a mid-April turnover from construction to operations on those. The Miami [stop] will be a bit later, so we are finalizing the last components of rail that will reach that station.”
The Miami station, which will be elevated and is under construction, will be part of MiamiCentral, an 11-acre downtown development that will feature retail, offices, apartments and transit service. In addition to Brightline, the site will connect to Miami’s Metrorail, Metromover and Metrobus, as well as to the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority’s Tri-Rail service. Brightline will be headquartered in 3 MiamiCentral, a 12-story building with 90,000 square feet of office space and 35,000 square feet of ground-level retail.
As for Brightline’s rolling stock, Goddard anticipates the remaining three trainsets will arrive in Florida from Sacramento by mid-May.
“All eyes are are focused on testing BrightBlue over the coming weeks,” Goddard says. “We feel very good about that. Siemens has been a great partner and is working hard to meet their [completion] dates.”
Siemens was chosen as the train builder after a “detailed process” that required All Aboard Florida officials to travel domestically and internationally to interview manufacturers, visit their plants and ride their trains, Goddard says. Siemens was able to meet All Aboard Florida’s vision of a modern, high-speed train that offers passenger comfort and amenities that raise the bar on U.S. intercity travel, he adds.
“Our goal here is to be that crossroads between transportation and hospitality,” says Goddard. “We really look at this service as the first first-in-class rail service with all the trimmings.”
Brightline officials’ attention to passenger-comfort details exceeded what Siemens previously built for European passenger trains and is unlike anything seen in the United States, according to Raymond Ginnell, manager for the Brightline project at Siemens’ Sacramento plant.
For example, Siemens is building coaches to offer two levels of amenties: One coach will be designated “select” for riders interested in a first-class service with roomier seats, dining and beverage options that are included in the ticket price. The other cars will be designated for “smart” service, which provides more seats, offers space for bike storage, and features food and beverages at an additional cost.
Both coach styles will have large windows that provide views from every seat; free Wi-Fi with power outlets; seats designed to recline without invading other passengers’ space; and restrooms with “touchless” technology.
At Brightline’s request, Siemens also redesigned its model of the train air conditioning system by moving A/C units and ducts from underneath passenger seats — as is the case on Siemens’ European trains — to outside and on top of the cars, Ginnell says.
Moreover, the aisles and connections between trains are spacious enough for passengers in wheelchairs to move about the train without obstruction during their trip. Additionally, plate devices will extend from the car over the gap between the train and platform so that the wheelchair-bound can roll on and off seamlessly through any train door. That innovation is a new feature on Siemens trains, Ginnell says.
The trains are built to be extended to up to nine or 10 coaches, as Brightline expands its service over longer distances. Dining and deli cars are expected to be added in time for the Miami-to-Orlando service launch.
Although excitement has been building among many business and community members anxious to ride the service, Brightline officials have continued to face some citizens and community groups that are opposed to higher-speed passenger trains operating along Florida’s southeast coast. They continue to try to stop the project through lawsuits and proposed legislation.
Goddard declined to comment on pending litigation. On the legislative side of the opposition, the company dodged a bullet last month when a proposed state law to regulate high-speed rail operators stalled in a legislative committee.
Brightline officials claim the bill, introduced by State Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R-Melbourne), is aimed at stopping Brightline from operating an express passenger-rail service in Florida. The bill calls for high-speed rail operators to install safety features such as positive train control and fencing along certain areas of the route. The proposed legislation also would require operators to agree to fund signaling and maintaining safety technology at crossings unless contracts with local governments state otherwise.
Brightline has noted that the federal government already regulates many requirements in the state bill. Company officials also have said that the legislation is targeting one company — theirs — and could threaten Brightline’s plans to expand to Orlando.
“The ‘Rail Safety’ bill … should be viewed for what it is: the latest installment of a strategy of roadblocks designed to delay and drive up the cost of [Brightline] in hopes of breaking the company. Only in this chapter, clever opponents of the project are attempting to deceive legislators into taking a poison pill that will kill the future of passenger rail in Florida,” FECI’s Reininger wrote in an op-ed that appeared March 20 in Florida newspapers.
Mayfield denied in local media reports that her bill was aimed specifically at Brightline. But Reininger responded that longtime opponents of the project who live in the “Treasure Coast” counties of Martin, Indian River and St. Lucie and are organized under the name Citizens Against Rail Expansion are supporters and backers of Mayfield’s bill.
That the Florida House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee dropped the bill from its agenda last month is an indication of the project’s support, Brightline officials say.
“We have been saying this bill is not about safety, but an attack against private property rights and is targeting our company. Legislators are comprehending these facts, and we are appreciative,” said Brightline Vice President of Government Affairs Rusty Roberts in a prepared statement.
For now, Brightline’s Goddard anticipates the service will appeal primarily to business travelers looking for an alternative to driving when it launches this summer.
“In round numbers, our expectation is to stabilize around 3 million passengers over the next couple of years,” he says. “We expect to lean more on commuters to begin with for this first southern phase, with a good measure of tourism that will tip the other way once we get into phase II service to Orlando.”
Adds Edwards: “Brightline will be a smarter, more productive and relaxing way to travel. It will take the stress out of your trip: You know you’ll get there on time. … There’s a lot of excitement about this service because there’s nothing really like it in the United States.”
Email comments or questions to julie.sneider@tradepress.com.
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