The SunRail hold up in getting to the airport is partly because it's still run by FDOT for another 3 years and partly because the ROW for the Brightline extension to Tampa isn't settled yet. In any case, the tracks from the airport to the SunRail mainline already exist. The issue is where the transfer station gets built based on which way Brightline goes.
@@ShaunCampbell-j7u That's not how the contract is written. Besides, no one would willingly take over an otherwise unfunded service. We voted on a transit tax last year, it didn't pass. We'll vote on it again in 2024. Eventually yeah, highly likely that Lynx & SunRail merge.
Great video dude, I completely agree that while it's not true highspeed, it's certainly a big step up in quality and service compared to most of the rest of the US. But fgs train operators... STOP BLOCKING THE WINDOWS!And great to see it pretty well used even this early on, oh and one thing, wtf is 'Brightpink' 😂
Such a cool, reliable rail line!!! No frivolous “pod” technology, just something tried and true that works really efficiently and effectively!! Florida definitely needed this!
The train cars look really nice. It also looks like there was a decent number of passengers for mid-day mid-week, mostly in smart class. Grade separation should be a standard today for "higher" speed and HSR trains. The grade crossings are one big reason (tracks being the other one) why train service is so slow in the US compared to the rest of the world. Yes, it costs more but it saves lives and it adds value to the service. CAHSR will also have 70 grade crossings in the Bay Area which is unfortunate. I agree with you that Brightline West will be the real innovative step forward and that it will be in service long before CAHSR. What I hope is that the success of Brightline West, I think it will be, might increase public support, as many Southern Californians will get a taste of HSR, and accelerate funding and the completion of CAHSR.
Grade seperation in broward county especially needs to be a priority, as that's where the majority of the brightline deaths have been. That's crazy the California HSR is going to gave grade crossing with the amount of money and time for construction.
@@Thom-TRAI agree with your point about the security when boarding the train which is bizarre, which is only required when crossing an international border - I live in the U.K. (England) and I pass through Holyhead (in Wales) on SailRail to get home to family in Ireland near Dublin by a 3 hour ferry crossing across the Irish Sea and we don’t have any major security between the U.K. and Ireland (except when flying) as we are in a Common Travel Area, even post Brexit, where my native Republic of Ireland is still part of the EU - what does drive me insane though is that there are very few direct trains from Manchester Victoria or Manchester Piccadilly to Holyhead and we have to change trains at Chester or Crewe (via Stockport) from Manchester Piccadilly (platform 13, that I hate with a passion) to reach the Welsh border and the trains on Transport for Wales are tiny - even in Wales, the tracks are operated by Network Rail in the U.K. - the other thing is that these services from Piccadilly don’t call at Deansgate/Castlefield which offers better connections from Manchester’s Metrolink Trams and on arrival at the Irish Ferries/Stena Terminals in Dublin Port (North Wall) there are very limited onward travel options into Dublin City Centre, even for ferries arriving from Liverpool, despite Dublin Ports expansion to take cruise ships - compared to the River Mersey (Liverpool) Dublin’s River Liffey is very narrow and ships/ferries cannot sail upstream to Dublin’s Custom House because of very poorly designed bridges over the Liffey, plus most lines around the Port are geared to freight, where there is not even the Dublin LUAS Trams to connect the ferries into Dublin Busaras, which is very silly
This looks like a good time! I think 2 streamiled diesels with a few brand new shiny coaches on uprgraded track is the way foreward for now on Intercity trains. Sure, there are a lot of problems like you mentioned (not being electrified, not grade seperated) but i like to think of this as a proof of concept and a test bed for their ideas in faster private rail services. I thoroughly enjoyed your video. Thanks!
I'm glad you mentioned that he actually had three wives because I've seen others simply assume he had two because of the bar! The story of his wives is so interesting. Mary Harkness Flagler was the mother of his three children. After Mary died, Henry married her nurse-caregiver, Ida Alice Shourds. Ida Alice, called Alicia by her husband, was much younger than Mr. Flagler. After being declared incurably insane, Ida Alice was hospitalized. Flagler obtained a divorce and married Mary Lily Kenan, who was with him at his death in 1913 and inherited his wealth, and she suddenly died in 1917, with people believing foul play was involved. And to be more specific into the Acela's distance vs Brightline's: The Northeast Corridor covers 457 miles or 735 km while the Brightline journey between Orlando and Miami is 235 miles or 378 km. Is it a nice and fast intercity service? Yes! Is it HSR? Not really, but it's still a fast intercity service competitive to driving and that's the point! Not every new rail service in North America has to be HSR! And speed isn't the only thing that makes an intercity service great, it's also frequency, which Brightline still excels at! Rail is part of the US's heritage, and the more transit options that people have as an alternative to driving, whether it's Amtrak or something like Brightline, the better!
If you look at the board at 8:34 there is a train scheduled every two hours up until 6.54 pm. Only someone who lives in a country that has been starved of decent passenger railways for over half a century could possibly think that that is an exceptionally frequent service!
@@michaelafrancis1361 That service IS frequent for that corridor! And that is before they get more trains, so with more trains, it won't be every two hours!
@@thekalosian3098 No I didn't obviously. I was merely commenting that only in a country with an exceptionally bad rail service would a train every two hours be considered "exceptionally" frequent. It is a comment underlining the generally poor state of passenger rail ways in the USA. Perhaps you ought to try reading a comment properly before getting your pantyhose in a twist.
Thanks for trying Brightline Thom. Having lived in Ft. Lauderdale during the 1980's and 90's, the reason Brightline has so many incidents with cars is due to how the FEC ran prior to Brightline. The FEC freight trains were slow movers. Being stuck at a FEC crossing for 20 minutes was not unheard of. Or a train never passed the crossing you were stopped at because it was shuffling cars onto a siding a couple of blocks up the line. So the old idea of having to beat the slow FEC freight train is still ingrained in the local drivers. And I will bet that if you asked local drivers about the higher speed Brightline trains, probably half of them don't even know it exists. Or they think Brightline operates on the CSX tracks that run along I-95 where most of the road crossings are already bridged from the construction of I-95. I knew these incidents would happen because the FEC did not want to spend the super amount of extra money it would cost to elevate the tracks from Miami up to the new Orlando section that heads west from Cocoa Beach.
Unfortunately, many of the incidents are intentional, which is just tragic. Grade separation would be a huge improvement, especially for those types of situations.
Maybe someday they will build a viaduct over the freight tracks. I mean, that viaduct over the streets at the Miami station is what they should've done over the entire length to Cocoa.
20:46 I feel like it doesn't really matter how fast the train goes, just don't cross the tracks when the gates are down. It's a stupendously dumb idea. Trains are really heavy and won't get slowed down by any road vehicle. I unfortunately made the mistake of seeing the Mary T. Wojtyla video (don't go looking for it, you'll forever regret it) and even before then I was aware it was dumb but seeing that made me realize it's not just you or the train it affects, it affects everyone who sees it.
The publishing of the videos, there have been many, is actially smart for FEC/Brightline because it is a great edicational tool to help Floridians respect the flaching red lisht, bells and the down gates. However, I saw one criticize a situation where a car was sort of engaged but stuck in slow moving traffic but insisted on waiting for traffic to move to complete crossing. There are situations where the vehicle SHOUDL complete the crossing, even if it means crashing through the gates because you are overtaking cars stuck in traffic). The gates are made to handle this. There is a crossing near where I live that has had many incidents. They connected the traffic lights to the rail systems such that the light at other end of crossing is always green (blockking transferse traffic) to ensure cars stuck in middle fof crossing always have a path to exit when gates are coming down. (and the traffic lights before crossing will turn red prior to the gates/bells activate to help crear cars from crossing.) One problem with crossings is that there is no standard between time coming down and train passing, and car drivers thing there is. One crossing in more rural area on a road that handles some trucks from industrial area will have the lights starts flashing well before the gates start to drop because it gives truck drivers going at speed some distance from the crossing a warning to start to slow down and be ready to stop. But this is not applied at other crossings. Some crossings give longer delays before calculated time of passing of train than others depending on visibility/conditions. (modern crossings send a frequency pulse on one rail such that when a train is coming, its wheels will pass frenqency to other rail. (not 100% sure, but I think some units also look at Doppler shift of that pulse). If one is used to slow freight trains, and a barrier that drops 30 seconds before train passes , you would be used to seeing lights from freight train as the barrier drops, but for Brightline trains, that same 30 secodns of warning happens before the train is visible which would explain why so many cheat and cross with barriers down. One problem with slow moving north american freight trains is that thet are also very long and slow moving, so if you don't cheat and cross the tracks, you may have to wait 10-20 minutes for train to pass.
So at the time this video was recorded, MCO uses two different types of rolling stock for their People Mover system. Airside 2 and 4 uses Bombardier CX-100s (or now the Innovia APM 100; also used on Miami's Metromover) while Airside 1, 3, and the Intermodal Terminal uses Mitsubishi Crystal Movers, which is what you ended up riding. Crystal Movers are the ones used by the Macau LRT, Singapore's Punggol LRT, Changi Skytrain, and Sengkang LRT, Tampa's SkyConnect, Tokyo's Yurikamome Line, Dulles's AeroTrain, and MIA Mover and MIA Skytrain. The voice heard is Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer. Aventura station exists for the Aventura Mall, which is one of the biggest malls in the US with 2,800,000 square feet of total retail floor area. The station will have a pedestrian bridge to go across to the mall but in this video, they provide shuttle service. And it is definitely interesting that at one point in time, you could've gone all the way to Key West by train, there was once a route called the Havana Special that ran from NYC to Key West and had connecting ferry service to Havana. The Overseas Railroad is an engineering feat, as while 40 miles of track was washed away by a 1935 hurricane, every bridge survived it, and it became the Overseas Highway, which would be replaced and the old trackbed became a trail!
Can confirm as a Floridian that Floridians don’t know how to drive near railroad crossings. The only trains we’re really used to in the majority of the state are very slow moving freight trains and people think they can get through the crossings in time 😐 I’m excited about this, it’s so needed here and I hope they can expand it along the west coast as a loop!!
Great video, like the honesty about the service including not being high speed. I regularly travel on the highest speed domestic service in the UK, 140 mph from London which shares the line with the trains to France that go via the Channel Tunnel. There are no surface crossings on this line, and signalling is delivered in the driver's cab, an essential for these faster services. Look forwards to hearing when the Las Vegas service will open, a proper high speed line indeed!
@@Thom-TRAAnother view from the UK: I know everywhere has NIMBYs (Not In My Backyards) but we recently tried to build a new high-speed railway and the current ruling party has absolutely cannibalised it, seemingly as a middle finger to the next administration. The bar for a successful project is, comparatively, in the sand surrounding the I-15.
I took brightline from Fort Lauderdale to WPB. It was a nice and solid service with great amenities. The included Tesla pick-up/drop-off was a great bookend.
It would be nice if they built a branch going directly west from Miami to the Gulf (Naples, Ft. Myers, Port Charlotte, Sarasota, Tampa). It could branch off at Ft. Lauderdale and parallel I-75.
They do plan on adding a Tampa station. It will be next and run from Orlando to Tampa. I believe it’s anticipated to be completed in 2027 and will run along I-4
I love this. It looks pretty much like the Amtrak Capital corridor intercity trains I commuted on for over a decade, and they were good, too, although the passenger cars were no where as nice as these brand new ones. The staff, employees of Amtrak, were absolutely the best. No doubt this is a great addition to that route in Florida.
US law uses 125mph as the cut off for high speed rail, and the FRA uses 110mph. I understand that you don't want there to be confusion comparing this to the very fast trains elsewhere, but I think it's reasonable for Brightline to advertise "high speed" rail service: they need to make it clear that this is a different thing than the slow and infrequent intercity trains everyone is used to here.
Reaching 125mph for 2 minutes on a 3 hour journey doesn't qualify the service as "high speed" no matter what the treshold is. In fact, no diesel service should be considered "high speed" on freight lines. The last fast train in North America was the United Aircraft Turbo Train which didnt last long in USA, but lasted over a decade in Canada. It did break the speed record for North America (which I beleive is still standing, but the new Avelias may break it on a trest run). However, on CN/VIA service, it was limited to 150kmh due to tracks and freight traffic. It was replaced by the LRC which while it maintained modern aluminium shell, had conventional bogies and diesel locomotive and didn't brag about speed once in service. (it's active tilting system was quicky turned off after introduction as it didn't allow increased speeds but made people sick, especially when it malfunctioned and made car tilt left and right repeatedly). The correct nomenclature for Brightline marketing should be "fast and reliable" or "Fast, comfortable, reliable".
I understand your opinion, however 125mph is the comercial speed of high speed rail and not the top speed. The top speed of the hig speed rail in Europe is nowadays about 200mph. And of course a high speed line is a dedicated line with no railwaycrossings at all, and this, not even the Northeast Corridor sastifies the expectations. For european standards, Brightline is a reasonable intercity service. Look at this good exeample of high speed in France: th-cam.com/video/OtotJm-OFdc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=7yfqT4rPnlAUzTCV
@@jfmezeiI don’t understand the hate for brightline. You’re hyperbole isn’t relevant. Brightline doesn’t go “125 for 2 minutes”. It goes 125 from Orlando to Cocoa. It’s also not finished. The Orlando to Tampa leg is next which will be 125 for an hour the entire way. So it will be running at 125 across the entirety of Florida from east to west.
Youre absolutely right that day to day operations are infinitely more telling of the quality of service than opening day commotion. Thanks for providing a unique perspective on train travel youtube
I think the train from Miami to Orlando and vise versa is for sure more for people who don’t drive or for couples/pairs of people going to and from the Orlando theme parks. That won’t have to worry about making sure the driver stays awake when you are both tired. It’s a safe trip you won’t have to worry too much about. You won’t have to stop for bathroom breaks or needing a food stop. It’s something you know will get you where you are planning to go without to much trouble. Is it probably too much money? Yeah but it could be worth it.
I love how the automated onboard announcements have to explain to passengers what happens at intermediate stations 'We will only be stopping at this station for a brief moment'. Bless their hearts....
Yea, unfortunately people are not conditioned on efficient boarding and de-boarding processes in Florida yet. It's not unusual for people to remain seated even as the doors are open.
@@dynasty0019even in cities that have extensive rail networks have this problem. Where I live in Sydney I have seen multiple times where people stand up after the doors open, on double decker trains mind you, and exit right as the doors close
We NEED a Cocoa stop. There are thousands of cruise passengers a week that struggle to get from Orland to Cocoa, but there is no stop there. I had a bad Lyft trying to get from Orlando to Titusville, was terrified that we would get dumped on the side of the highway because the driver didn't want to go out there. I asked if it was ok and he said yes, then I asked if he was sure and he took my suitcase and put it in his care then he huffed and puffed all the way out there. I would really prefer Brightline. I love your videos and rely on them when researching travel. I am more likely to use local public transportation when I don't have my kid with me. In Baltimore we noped the heck on out of the light rail service. I might have tried it if I were alone. I really like your attention to detail.
Nice video, really nice without all the Grand Opening stuff! I’d like to see an honest, high speed (possibly Mag Lev, possibly auto train accessible ) from Bangor, ME to Miami FL on private rail. I’d be at least happier to see it from DC to Portland ME.
Great video! I saw myself in your video a lot throughout since I was riding on the the same train as you! The wrap was very upsetting to me as well as I was trying to get a trip report as well, my camera thankfully was able to focus on the outside rather than those annoying dots, but my train back to Orlando wasn’t wrapped, thank goodness! Anyways, great video!
I definitely agree with your praises and criticisms of Brightline, it's frustrating how overhyped the new extension is when the Acela is faster and has been running for a few decades now. Looking forward to checking it out for myself the next time I visit Florida!
as someone from the NEC i think we're a bit used to public transit being a lot more fleshed out compared to places like florida. from what ive seen brightline can reach a top speed of 125 which is pretty solid but is held to 79 mph in a lot of places bc of saftey restrictions (Floridian drivers trying to beat train crossings/not being used to this kind of infrastructure). Brightline is getting a lot of hype mainly bc they are the new kids on the block with shiny new toys. Prices need to come down a little imo and cities should try to pedestrianize the surrounding infrastructure when wanting to have a brightline station.
@@beedoggs I definitely agree that cities, especially Florida, should try to make areas more friendly to walkers and also make it illegal for cars to turn right in places where there’s many walkers. I almost was hit several times being a walker in a crosswalk, and I had the signal and a car turning right did not stop and look at almost hit me. !!
@@beedoggs The NEC is true HSR only on a few miles on the northern section. The rest is a lot of 79 mph too. Specifically the infrastructure in the Greater New York region often is a 100 years old and requires low speeds. Between Newark and Baltimore it is limited to 125 mph, even with the Acela trains. I rode both Acela from New York to DC and Brighline from WPB to Miami, and Brightline trains have a much better travel experience. There is no direct competition between Acela and Brightline though, and maybe that's exactly what is missing on the NEC. Remember the days when New York System and Pennsylvania Railroad were bitter rivals on the North eastern rail services - they pushed each other to the limits and beyond. That's the very reason why Amtrak gets away with it's poor quality of service and they like never came up with a real successor of the 20th Century Limited, or Broadway and so on. Or why there's no plan to build a HSR line from Chicago to New York, or whatever. Insofar I hope Brightline will be a game changer to US intercity rail
Nice review of the Brightline extension to Orlando! I also cannot wait for Brightline West to enter service from California to Las Vegas, NV. The Amtrak San Joaquins is getting the Siemens Ventures to, and a new Siemens Venture cab car for the San Joaquins CDTX 9301 has been built, and will get tested and enter service after testing is completed and if it goes well. I can relate to having the issue of seeing dots on wrapped passenger cars. I remember riding on one of Metrolink’s and Coaster’s wrapped cars and I had that issue of seeing mostly dots instead of the view as well. The Pacific Surfliner also wrapped two cars in the X-Games wrap in May 2023 and they had that issue from seeing them on the outside, even though I did not ride on those two cars, but I can tell it is happening on those 2 cars as well. I would love for Brightline to be electrified, but at least Brightline West is being electrified thankfully. I would love to see Brightline one day and Brightline West when it enters service if I am able to.
Gotta admit, I think the best part of all it this is the punctuality of the trains. Never have I ridden a train, metro system, or bus that had such perfect punctuality.
RE: ticket prices (8:50) a bus ticket from Orlando to Miami costs between $25 and $60 on RedCoach. Smart class tickets are not so far out of that range. The real pain in ticket prices comes when you are traveling in a group. Can't think of a family of four would take the train (or bus) rather than drive.
Still, it seams like a lot to me. In Italy, where I live, you can get a business class ticket from milan to naples (4h20 of proper high speed rail) for as low as 45€ (obviously booked in advance). Now i know this is a bit of a stretch since in Italy prices are generally lower than in the US, but I thing they could really do much better. With prices like these most people here take the train instead of driving 7/8 hrs or taking the plane.
@antoniovitellaro I was taking trains through Italy just this summer. Thank you for putting up with me and my fellow tourists. I know there were a lot of us. Brightline is definitely catering to upscale customers. The national train service, Amtrak, also provides service from Orlando to Miami. It costs half as much, takes twice as long, and runs only twice a day. It's not even as convenient as the bus.
Brightline has a 25% discount for 4+ tickets. Other benefits for families: novelty of a high speed train, ability to walk around while travelling, more space for games and internet-connected devices, and not worrying about finding a restroom for miles and miles. Although business travellers would probably prefer a quiet atmosphere.
@joealmoni4018 I just checked the cost of going to Miami by train with the family. Round trip would be $714 for four people with the 25% discount applied. We'll be taking the Camry instead.
So, it seems all the train people are triggered by Brightline et. al. calling this high-speed rail, but I think that completely misses the point in regards to why people see this as a game changer. The speed is *not* the game changer her and never really has been. Rather the game changing nature of this is that it's a proof of concept that passenger rail service can be a potentially profitable enterprise in here in the heavily car dependent US, even in a place that's a sprawling as Florida. That's why Brightline is a game changer. Edit - just wanted to add that I appreciate the "normal day" video - should give a better idea of what regular folks can expect vs opening day.
No one is triggered. My critique is that they shouldn’t use the word high speed if that’s not what they are. It doesn’t really sound like you listened to much of what I said. And why do trains need to be profitable in order for people to see them as valuable to society? If neither price nor speed can convince people to abandon their cars, I don’t understand how game-changing it really is.
@@Thom-TRA To a private company, it does need to be profitable otherwise it becomes too expensive to run at a loss. If it was publicly-owned, then it would be considered a service so it doesn't need to be profitable, but should at least try to break even.
@@Thom-TRA Oh, people are definitely triggered - a huge number of comments (perhaps even the majority of what I've seen) on *every* Brightline Orlando video I've watched have been something along the lines of "It's not really high speed!" "Why are they calling it high speed rail"? etc. Anyway, as far as profitability goes, you're putting words into my mouth that I never said. Trains don't need to be profitable to be seen as valuable, that's true, but it's also entirely irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make. Profitability proves something is a *worthy investment*, and as a result more will be invested. So, Brightline is a game changer in that this will getting the ball rolling on *actually building more rail in the US*! Privately funded inter-city passenger rail in the US is a game changer regardless of speed because it proves false one of the key reasons a lot of people oppose funding rail projects - that they're a waste of money. IMO Brightline overcomes one of the biggest hurdles that US rail expansion faces, and that's why it's a game changer.
@@Spudeaux I agree with you that some people are triggered by the words, high speed when comparing Brightline and I see on other videos that some people spend a lot of time arguing about that. Course Brightline is not high speed compared to some definitions of it, but it definitely shows a progress being made in Florida with my higher speed compared to the United States of what it normally has. . Progress takes time and may be in the future do United States for meet high speed, real definition.
Appreciate the vid and your balanced view. I agree its really nice and great proof of concept between city pairs. However i also agree thats it not HSR. As you pointed out, Acela covers a similar distance much faster. Hopefully the speed can be improved and ticket prices lowered in the future
I am a frequent train traveller and imho what passengers do not expect is the railroads cut the schedule for much higher fares. What they need though is acceptable comfort and reliabilty. Comparing the cramped cabin of a B737, the ineviitable fight for space for your hand baggage even to Brightline's smart class, climbing over other passengers just to get to the bathroom, this is quite a difference. Then let's find out how Brightline does after the next hurricane, which will come for sure in Florida. Not running on electric power may be an advantage then, remembering the long power outages we had in the Sunshine State. What they definitely should add on a train running for more than 3 hours is a dining car or at least a cafe car. If you take a train at lunch time or in the early everning, you would want to have lunch or dinner onboard. They might not want to bring back the glory days with Pullman dining cars, food served on china and made by real chefs, but to beat the airlines here is easy. Just serving booze and cookies did on the southern leg, not on this longer route. That could be a pro as well when passengers compare air travel to train travel. If you don't book the expensive business class, today on a one-hour flight you can call yourself happy to get at least a cup of water, if any. Word is Brightline has ordered such equipement with Siemens already.
Another very informative video and very thorough with the detail. I would be far more scathing about the 'dots', but you are very gentlemanly in your comments...and commendably so. 🙂
Although high speed networks like in Europe are faster and electrified, the quality of the customer facing experience on this line is really on another level to what we see here, from the ticket machines, the trains, and the lounges - looks great imo 👏 promising, hopefully this will just be the start
A lot of buses here in New Zealand (more specifically, the cities of Auckland and Tauranga) suffer from the same problem as the coaches on 'Bright Pink'. I hate seeing advertising wrap over the windows because of that issue where you have to look through the annoying dots. As for the rolling stock itself, the coaches look decent enough, but I think the SCB-40 locomotive looks hideous with that streamlined front.
The good thing about eating all that food in premium is you don’t have to worry about finding your lunch in the city you arrive and can concentrate on where you stay and your sightseeing first
Thank you for posting this video... I can't wait for the train from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas ❤❤❤❤. Lately traveling to Las Vegas has been awful. I also noticed that you are wearing a "Shinkansen - Bullet Train". Do you have a video of the Bullet Train in Japan?
As a Floridian, I can say with certainty that there is nothing worth viewing on that trip unless you enjoy hours of flat swamp punctuated by the backsides of graffiti-riddled commercial buildings. Having the sun on blast in your face for hours at a time is no fun either. Think of the dots as a filter to soften the disappointment of reality vs expectations.
German here, with some additional information you might be interested in: In Germany we for the most part dont have a separate high speed network either. Instead we have a network of higher speed tracks with the occasional high speed section on them. They are usually grade seperated though, so basically no railway crossings happen. So going from Berlin to Munich in 4:30 in fact involves some part of the route going 200 kmh / 125 mph, followed by a long section of going 160 kmh / 100 mph. Then on a newer higher speed ready track the train goes arround 250 kmh / 156 mph for a bit. Then it enters the "Neubaustrecke" (New built highspeed track) and this is the only time where the train really achieves high speed worth the name, going 300 kmh / 187 mph for a bit. Until it leaves the comparable short true high speed track again and has to slow down to 250 kmh / 156 mph - 160 kmh / 100 mph for most of the remaining trip. This helps explaining, why it still needs 4:30 for a comparable "short" distance of only 600 km / 375 miles, it just cannot use its legal topspeed of 300 kmh / 187 mph very much and instead spends most of the trip going much slower. It was mocked as germany most expensive regional train for that reason, but the good news for train lovers like us is still, that besides being a bit on the slow side, it still helped to get a lot of people out of short haul flights. Passenger numbers exceed all expectations and more and more trains have been added as a result. If you want to experience true sustained high speed train, you have to go the France. In fact a german ICE goes to France regularly and after spending a lot of time of going slow paced through the southern west of the german heather, it finally goes over the border straight onto the french highspeed network, where it finally can put the pedal on the metal, going most of the remaining trip to Paris at 320 kmh / 200 mph. So besides the distance being often longer than on the german side, the train still spends less time on french soil overall because it actually goes very fast. From a regional political standpoint, there is still some merrit in the german system. While stops at smaller cities increase the travel time, they also bring in political support from the regions and a new connection in the south of germany actually makes this even better by - two higher speed (200 kmh / 125 mph) tracks in the middle - two lower speed tracks next to those for regional trains, greatly increasing service for the local population. This makes the trains much more popular in the countryside, because now they also benefit which they dont really do from a high speed TGV zooming by. Another cool european high speed train is the Frecciarossa 1000. Maintaining 300 kmh / 187 mph for most of the trip, it already sunk all short haul flights on the same route and also really helped with getting people out of their cars. I think that Brightline will also being comparable slow, does the right thing by offering superior service quality. You can do little about the comparable low speed infrastructure, but you can make the ride as comfortable as possible which will also draw in a lot of people.
You can get to the tri-rail by taking the metro rail to the airport. I used to get a kick out of passing the bright line while driving to work on US-1 by the Fort Lauderdale airport.
It is hard to evaluate the business side of the enterprise bevause FEC also leveraged a lot of real estate assets to allow condos to be built near stations, as well as the Miami station complex itself which is a huge real estate development above and below the actual brightline station. There has been huge capital subsidies from federal/state and municipal governments, but as a private enterprise it is next to impossible to give operating subsidies unless the government buys the service, and then gives a contract to FEC/Brightline to opeprate it. The NE Corridor is profotable to Amtrak. Other routes are not in part because Amtrak has to pay track rights to the railroad. With FEC owning the tracks, then it is much easier for Brightline to be cash neutral/positive in its operations. (unless expansion results in Brightline running on non FEC tracks). Note that internally, Brightline may be paying FEC for track rights and declare operating deficit, but the group itself would be positive when you combine both FEC and Brightline. )
Don't know of any true analysis of Amtrak NE Corridor that shows it break even when you include the capital/infrastructure requirements costs. The Brightline business model, as expressed by both their and FEC executives, is designed to be a separate (tho related) self sustaining operation. Utilizing FEC facilities is a win/win for both entities.
Once again, FEC got major funding from federal, state and municipal governmenst to build out the service. From Wikipedia: In March 2013, All Aboard Florida applied for a $1.6 billion Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan, which was administered by the Federal Railroad Administration. It then got actiual grants here and there from Florida and cities as well as FRA (for FRA, it is mostly about railroad crossing safety improvements). @@kennethhanks6712
Look for "The Brightline Saga How a privately owned Florida passenger railway received billions in taxpayer dollars, pretended to be a highway, dismisses safety concerns, and still became a media darling Johnny Renton Apr 25, 2022 It i almost entirely "opther side of coin" story without the positives of the service, but does provide an eye opener on the subsidies it got and its operating model. @@kennethhanks6712
I agree with you that it is not "high speed", but it is faster than driving and cheaper than flying. With a Tampa connections I think it will be a real winner. I really enjoyed your honesty about what is right and what you feel is wrong with Brightline. But the reason for the level crossing on the east coast section is cost. If people want to drive stupid that is their problem not Brightlines. Once you go past the gates you are breaking the law and trespassing, so not a Brightline issue. If they could elevate the tracks in the future that would be great, but the cost would be prohibitive. Although most deaths on the line are suicides, so that makes it seem more dangerous than it really is. Again great review, and remember whenever the press can screw something up they will.
I like how the bathroom doesn’t have loose soap bottles bouncing around. Amtrak Midwest do better. You have the same built in soap dispensers. Use them. Sorry for rambling Thom.
Great video and thanks for the honest review of this exciting step forward. I agree from I've seen, that the he attractive, clean and modern trainst and stations, customer service and frequency seem to be the big selling points even if the top speeds are far from world-beating and it's still diesel and has all those grade crossings. I do wish Brightline all the best in being part of growing our passenger rail network and my favorite form of travel. I can't wait to ride someday and I'm also looking forward to the Airo Sets on the Amtrak side of things and really looking forward to see what Brightline West can do.
Great as usual Thom! Can't wait to see your Zephyr adventure, I had a great time in my family bedroom for 3 days and we were even 30 minutes early into Chicago!😂😂
Looking at this from the U.K. and hearing about how plans for parts of HS2 are about to be scrapped for the North of England including here in Manchester, compared to the rail expansion plans being made by the Irish government back home in Ireland, the Brightline rail project in the US is an important development - I’m aware of other US rail expansion projects, such as in California and the West Coast, but what is crucial is to have a high speed passenger line to connect the East Coast of the US to the West Coast, which will bring the US up to the standards of the railways in mainland Europe and even in Eastern Europe - the Channel Tunnel Eurostar from the U.K. to France is struggling, which is perhaps part of the reason why the plans to build a high speed rail tunnel under the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dublin keep getting shelved, especially after bizarre extension proposals were added between Scotland, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, with a huge underground tunnel junction proposed for under the Irish Sea S of the Isle of Man - the Taiwan High Speed rail projects, along with those in Japan and in China, show us what is possible, even at local level, but the political will to put in the effort required is simply not there
This video was a delight. Thank you for making it Thom. Could you please comment on the legroom that you had in Premium? It didn't look like you had very much given the face to face tables seating. Thanks again. BTW I rode the Crescent from Atlanta to NYC a few weeks ago and we hit 112 mph sometime northward in PA.
This is a good start, and we do have a very long way to go before we have anything that resembles HSR in any major way in the US. Spain was able to cover the country in true HSR in about 15 years, and at a minimum, we should be doing the same for the Northeast corridor, as well as dramatic acceleration of the CA HSR build.
Anything over 200km/h is a high speed train and to prove it just stand on the tracks in front of a 125 mph train and see if it feels fast then let me know . Average speed on the other hand is something completely different .
Great video! Also that is interesting how in the previous video you compare the capitol Subway to “a sideways elevator” as my dad once said the subway is like an elevator that goes sideways (which sorta got me into trains) Also have you heard of Miles in Transit? You two would get along great!
If Brightline expanded up to Jacksonville, I would personally use this service alot! Maybe one day. Even if not high speed, would offer much less stress then driving on I-95
Thanks for a great video, We had the HST 125 in the 1970's which shows how far behind the American Railroad is behind Europe. Having said that the U. K. is still having problems in building proper high speed lines. Brightline seems to be leading the way and maybe it will catch up. If I was coming to South Florida I would fly to Orlando where the fares are cheaper. due to the theme parks, than to Miami and then take the train.
Check over the Brightline West Project, with a planned electrified route using the Siemens newest Electric train that will run from Southern California to Las Vegas, Nevada through the Mojave Desert, this will be true highspeed rail by today's world standards.
Great review! You make lots of good points, including your analysis about high-speed rail. Really appreciate your reviewing this train on a typical day rather than launch day, which shows what the service is usually like. Cheers!
I always send a complaint to agencies that insist of blocking the windows with wrap. I really don't understand their stupidity. Surely being able to see out of the windows should be paramount and really is it necessary to block the windows? I actually would have refused to travel on that train and demanded A refund or ticket on a following train. I get.motion sickness from those stupid dots.
Brightline is not a railroad, it's a land development company. All they need to do is make the properties they own look enticing, like exterior lighting, pretty lobbies, plants, railroad, that kind of stuff. The parent company is paying off the cost to build the railroad, so all Brightline has to do is make an "operational" profit and cover day to day operations, which they are doing before Orlando opened. Is this new? Look at the office buildings built as part of the old union stations.
Even just a dinky to Sand Lake Rd today would be enough and from there SeaWorld and Universal can provide free shuttles to their resorts with local busses to Disney Springs, City Walk, and the I-Drive District (from there, there are shuttles to Busch Gardens Tampa and Legoland Florida-I at least know the former is still active), maybe with extensions to Lynx Central a few times a day
I wouldn't describe the drivers that get hit by Bright Line as "bad drivers" as much as I'd simply state that they are narcissist. People that get hit at crossings, knowingly drive past the gates since they think rules don't apply to them. We all know the dangers of doing this, but when a person has a self centered and entitled attitude, the consequences of their actions make the 6:00 PM news. There's no way a few trains can get them all. Their numbers are increasing.
I think Keisei Skyliner express service serving Tokyo to Narita Airport is the only non-Shinkansen train that operates above 80mph. Operates almost nonstop between and is completely grade separate in the Sky Access trunk.
Great job with the video. Brightline takes a little bit longer than a flight but it is ten times better than a flight. Cheaper, you can get work done, faster internet connections, friendly staff, so much food. They are competing against planes rather than driving your car and surely winning.
Cheaper to take the train to Miami for the day than it is to go to Magic Kingdom. Here's another fun fact, Aventura is the name of one of the Universal Orlando resort hotels.
Question for anyone, do you actually feel the speed while you’re sitting? Does it feel like you’re going 125mph? I’m not good with coasters and I’m afraid this may not work for me but I’m trying to get some thoughts/opinions.
It is very different from a roller coaster. It’s like going fast in a car, but less bumpy. You can just get up and go to the bathroom like you were in a building.
I'd like to see them run between Atlanta and all three cities of New Orleans, Tampa and Orlando. They need to elevate their tracks or build dedicated crossing-less rails like Europe. Can't wait to see your California Zypher video. I was yesterday old when I learned there's a live Amtrak train tracker! Have you covered that?
Thank you for the thorough review! I am booking a ride next month and was trying to determine if I should splurge on the premium and I am pretty sure you convinced me!
At the end of the day a 125mph train with a diesel loco at each end is something we kind of invented here in the UK over 40 years ago with the HST or intercity 125... Trains that are all but retired now
What can be done about the level crossings?You could build bridges and tunnels at them all but that would be very expensive.They should have cameras on them and those that drive onto them when the warning lights are flashing banned from every driving or owning a motor vehicle for life.While generally trains demolish cars and only kill the idiot who drove it onto the crossing but occasionally the car gets struck under the lead locomotive bogie thereby derailing the train frequently killing the train driver and some of the passengers.
Very well done. Probably the most accurate coverage from someone outside of the project. No, it is not "High-Speed" but the HSR canard has taken firm root into the lexicon and all trains are tagged "HSR" by the great unwashed masses. It's an FRA tier 1 speed railroad. Electrification is $1M/track mile so add another $1 billion to the price tag if you really want it. Spot on about Orlando: that last mile to those places in the metro area still needs to be ironed out. How? Well, the Orange County fathers stuck their thumbs in the pie and now have no idea how to pull them out. In the meantime Brightline will hone their operation to maximum productivity. At that point, if the county still has their heads not screwed on straight, Brightline will figure out how to make it happen...with or without the county. (And the Brightline coaches do not resemble the MidWest Venture cars. The MW cars resemble Brightline's! We were FIRST.)
The SunRail hold up in getting to the airport is partly because it's still run by FDOT for another 3 years and partly because the ROW for the Brightline extension to Tampa isn't settled yet. In any case, the tracks from the airport to the SunRail mainline already exist. The issue is where the transfer station gets built based on which way Brightline goes.
Sun Rail needs to be taken over by either Brightline, CFX, or Lynx so jobs can get done faster
@@ShaunCampbell-j7u That's not how the contract is written. Besides, no one would willingly take over an otherwise unfunded service. We voted on a transit tax last year, it didn't pass. We'll vote on it again in 2024. Eventually yeah, highly likely that Lynx & SunRail merge.
The only reason people complain about sunrail is because it doesn't run on the weekends
@@ShaunCampbell-j7u yup. I wanted to take SunRail to a soccer match and was disappointed to learn that that wasn't an option.
@@ShaunCampbell-j7u I wish it would run on the weekend since many people try to find parking places when they go to festivals
Great video dude, I completely agree that while it's not true highspeed, it's certainly a big step up in quality and service compared to most of the rest of the US. But fgs train operators... STOP BLOCKING THE WINDOWS!And great to see it pretty well used even this early on, oh and one thing, wtf is 'Brightpink' 😂
All the trains have colors they name them by. Had we not had our lovely wrap, you would have seen a big pink stripe over the windows.
Such a cool, reliable rail line!!! No frivolous “pod” technology, just something tried and true that works really efficiently and effectively!! Florida definitely needed this!
The first thing I did when I got to Miami was get on a pod! Haha
The announcement coming into Miami really felt more like Southwest Airlines than Amtrak, it's fun to see!
Now that you mention it, it does!
The train cars look really nice. It also looks like there was a decent number of passengers for mid-day mid-week, mostly in smart class.
Grade separation should be a standard today for "higher" speed and HSR trains. The grade crossings are one big reason (tracks being the other one) why train service is so slow in the US compared to the rest of the world. Yes, it costs more but it saves lives and it adds value to the service. CAHSR will also have 70 grade crossings in the Bay Area which is unfortunate.
I agree with you that Brightline West will be the real innovative step forward and that it will be in service long before CAHSR. What I hope is that the success of Brightline West, I think it will be, might increase public support, as many Southern Californians will get a taste of HSR, and accelerate funding and the completion of CAHSR.
I share your optimism and your thoughts on crossings completely!
Grade seperation in broward county especially needs to be a priority, as that's where the majority of the brightline deaths have been.
That's crazy the California HSR is going to gave grade crossing with the amount of money and time for construction.
The CAHSR crossings are on the slow suburban section section shared with Caltrain. Which have removed some crossings, but not enough.
theyre planning on quad gates for CA HSR which will help but only goes 110 in peninsula, 220 for the valley tho@@Thom-TRA
@@Thom-TRAI agree with your point about the security when boarding the train which is bizarre, which is only required when crossing an international border - I live in the U.K. (England) and I pass through Holyhead (in Wales) on SailRail to get home to family in Ireland near Dublin by a 3 hour ferry crossing across the Irish Sea and we don’t have any major security between the U.K. and Ireland (except when flying) as we are in a Common Travel Area, even post Brexit, where my native Republic of Ireland is still part of the EU - what does drive me insane though is that there are very few direct trains from Manchester Victoria or Manchester Piccadilly to Holyhead and we have to change trains at Chester or Crewe (via Stockport) from Manchester Piccadilly (platform 13, that I hate with a passion) to reach the Welsh border and the trains on Transport for Wales are tiny - even in Wales, the tracks are operated by Network Rail in the U.K. - the other thing is that these services from Piccadilly don’t call at Deansgate/Castlefield which offers better connections from Manchester’s Metrolink Trams and on arrival at the Irish Ferries/Stena Terminals in Dublin Port (North Wall) there are very limited onward travel options into Dublin City Centre, even for ferries arriving from Liverpool, despite Dublin Ports expansion to take cruise ships - compared to the River Mersey (Liverpool) Dublin’s River Liffey is very narrow and ships/ferries cannot sail upstream to Dublin’s Custom House because of very poorly designed bridges over the Liffey, plus most lines around the Port are geared to freight, where there is not even the Dublin LUAS Trams to connect the ferries into Dublin Busaras, which is very silly
This looks like a good time! I think 2 streamiled diesels with a few brand new shiny coaches on uprgraded track is the way foreward for now on Intercity trains. Sure, there are a lot of problems like you mentioned (not being electrified, not grade seperated) but i like to think of this as a proof of concept and a test bed for their ideas in faster private rail services. I thoroughly enjoyed your video. Thanks!
Exactly. It’s a good experiment and stepping stone forward.
I'm glad you mentioned that he actually had three wives because I've seen others simply assume he had two because of the bar! The story of his wives is so interesting. Mary Harkness Flagler was the mother of his three children. After Mary died, Henry married her nurse-caregiver, Ida Alice Shourds. Ida Alice, called Alicia by her husband, was much younger than Mr. Flagler. After being declared incurably insane, Ida Alice was hospitalized. Flagler obtained a divorce and married Mary Lily Kenan, who was with him at his death in 1913 and inherited his wealth, and she suddenly died in 1917, with people believing foul play was involved.
And to be more specific into the Acela's distance vs Brightline's: The Northeast Corridor covers 457 miles or 735 km while the Brightline journey between Orlando and Miami is 235 miles or 378 km. Is it a nice and fast intercity service? Yes! Is it HSR? Not really, but it's still a fast intercity service competitive to driving and that's the point! Not every new rail service in North America has to be HSR! And speed isn't the only thing that makes an intercity service great, it's also frequency, which Brightline still excels at! Rail is part of the US's heritage, and the more transit options that people have as an alternative to driving, whether it's Amtrak or something like Brightline, the better!
Couldn’t have said it better myself
If you look at the board at 8:34 there is a train scheduled every two hours up until 6.54 pm. Only someone who lives in a country that has been starved of decent passenger railways for over half a century could possibly think that that is an exceptionally frequent service!
@@michaelafrancis1361 That service IS frequent for that corridor! And that is before they get more trains, so with more trains, it won't be every two hours!
@@michaelafrancis1361What an utterly pointless comment, did you think it was going to go from 0 to several times an hour overnight?
@@thekalosian3098 No I didn't obviously. I was merely commenting that only in a country with an exceptionally bad rail service would a train every two hours be considered "exceptionally" frequent. It is a comment underlining the generally poor state of passenger rail ways in the USA. Perhaps you ought to try reading a comment properly before getting your pantyhose in a twist.
Thanks for trying Brightline Thom. Having lived in Ft. Lauderdale during the 1980's and 90's, the reason Brightline has so many incidents with cars is due to how the FEC ran prior to Brightline. The FEC freight trains were slow movers. Being stuck at a FEC crossing for 20 minutes was not unheard of. Or a train never passed the crossing you were stopped at because it was shuffling cars onto a siding a couple of blocks up the line. So the old idea of having to beat the slow FEC freight train is still ingrained in the local drivers. And I will bet that if you asked local drivers about the higher speed Brightline trains, probably half of them don't even know it exists. Or they think Brightline operates on the CSX tracks that run along I-95 where most of the road crossings are already bridged from the construction of I-95. I knew these incidents would happen because the FEC did not want to spend the super amount of extra money it would cost to elevate the tracks from Miami up to the new Orlando section that heads west from Cocoa Beach.
I hope everyone you know stays safe!
Unfortunately, many of the incidents are intentional, which is just tragic. Grade separation would be a huge improvement, especially for those types of situations.
Maybe someday they will build a viaduct over the freight tracks. I mean, that viaduct over the streets at the Miami station is what they should've done over the entire length to Cocoa.
@alhollywood6486 that is very tragic indeed
@@dmnddog7417 Get out your printing press because that idea is going to take a tidal wave of $ for the next several centuries.
It's certainly a better option than driving and hopefully the LA-LV line will open in the not-too-distant future.
I’m moderately hopeful. I think that’s a good posture to have.
I have more faith in that line opening revenue service than any piece of CAHSR in the near future.
When is the LA-LV expected to be operational in your opinion?
Will probably become another tax payer subsidies like (Am-Trac)🤔
@@asullivan4047 You mean like highways.
This is by far the best video about Brightline. A joy to look.
I appreciate it!
20:46 I feel like it doesn't really matter how fast the train goes, just don't cross the tracks when the gates are down. It's a stupendously dumb idea. Trains are really heavy and won't get slowed down by any road vehicle. I unfortunately made the mistake of seeing the Mary T. Wojtyla video (don't go looking for it, you'll forever regret it) and even before then I was aware it was dumb but seeing that made me realize it's not just you or the train it affects, it affects everyone who sees it.
The publishing of the videos, there have been many, is actially smart for FEC/Brightline because it is a great edicational tool to help Floridians respect the flaching red lisht, bells and the down gates. However, I saw one criticize a situation where a car was sort of engaged but stuck in slow moving traffic but insisted on waiting for traffic to move to complete crossing. There are situations where the vehicle SHOUDL complete the crossing, even if it means crashing through the gates because you are overtaking cars stuck in traffic). The gates are made to handle this.
There is a crossing near where I live that has had many incidents. They connected the traffic lights to the rail systems such that the light at other end of crossing is always green (blockking transferse traffic) to ensure cars stuck in middle fof crossing always have a path to exit when gates are coming down. (and the traffic lights before crossing will turn red prior to the gates/bells activate to help crear cars from crossing.)
One problem with crossings is that there is no standard between time coming down and train passing, and car drivers thing there is. One crossing in more rural area on a road that handles some trucks from industrial area will have the lights starts flashing well before the gates start to drop because it gives truck drivers going at speed some distance from the crossing a warning to start to slow down and be ready to stop. But this is not applied at other crossings. Some crossings give longer delays before calculated time of passing of train than others depending on visibility/conditions. (modern crossings send a frequency pulse on one rail such that when a train is coming, its wheels will pass frenqency to other rail. (not 100% sure, but I think some units also look at Doppler shift of that pulse).
If one is used to slow freight trains, and a barrier that drops 30 seconds before train passes , you would be used to seeing lights from freight train as the barrier drops, but for Brightline trains, that same 30 secodns of warning happens before the train is visible which would explain why so many cheat and cross with barriers down.
One problem with slow moving north american freight trains is that thet are also very long and slow moving, so if you don't cheat and cross the tracks, you may have to wait 10-20 minutes for train to pass.
Dumb ways to die... 🎶 🎵
I’m so glad you were finally able to ride this Tom! It’s very convenient that this goes to Florida
Edit: I meant Thom, sorry
I had a good time!
So at the time this video was recorded, MCO uses two different types of rolling stock for their People Mover system. Airside 2 and 4 uses Bombardier CX-100s (or now the Innovia APM 100; also used on Miami's Metromover) while Airside 1, 3, and the Intermodal Terminal uses Mitsubishi Crystal Movers, which is what you ended up riding. Crystal Movers are the ones used by the Macau LRT, Singapore's Punggol LRT, Changi Skytrain, and Sengkang LRT, Tampa's SkyConnect, Tokyo's Yurikamome Line, Dulles's AeroTrain, and MIA Mover and MIA Skytrain. The voice heard is Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer.
Aventura station exists for the Aventura Mall, which is one of the biggest malls in the US with 2,800,000 square feet of total retail floor area. The station will have a pedestrian bridge to go across to the mall but in this video, they provide shuttle service. And it is definitely interesting that at one point in time, you could've gone all the way to Key West by train, there was once a route called the Havana Special that ran from NYC to Key West and had connecting ferry service to Havana. The Overseas Railroad is an engineering feat, as while 40 miles of track was washed away by a 1935 hurricane, every bridge survived it, and it became the Overseas Highway, which would be replaced and the old trackbed became a trail!
I love the Yurikamome. One of my childhood favorites.
Can confirm as a Floridian that Floridians don’t know how to drive near railroad crossings. The only trains we’re really used to in the majority of the state are very slow moving freight trains and people think they can get through the crossings in time 😐 I’m excited about this, it’s so needed here and I hope they can expand it along the west coast as a loop!!
Great video, like the honesty about the service including not being high speed. I regularly travel on the highest speed domestic service in the UK, 140 mph from London which shares the line with the trains to France that go via the Channel Tunnel. There are no surface crossings on this line, and signalling is delivered in the driver's cab, an essential for these faster services. Look forwards to hearing when the Las Vegas service will open, a proper high speed line indeed!
Very excited for the Vegas line as well. I think it will change a lot of people’s opinions on the matter.
@@Thom-TRAAnother view from the UK: I know everywhere has NIMBYs (Not In My Backyards) but we recently tried to build a new high-speed railway and the current ruling party has absolutely cannibalised it, seemingly as a middle finger to the next administration. The bar for a successful project is, comparatively, in the sand surrounding the I-15.
I took brightline from Fort Lauderdale to WPB. It was a nice and solid service with great amenities. The included Tesla pick-up/drop-off was a great bookend.
It would be nice if they built a branch going directly west from Miami to the Gulf (Naples, Ft. Myers, Port Charlotte, Sarasota, Tampa). It could branch off at Ft. Lauderdale and parallel I-75.
Especially since that area gets a lot of tourists! Just make it a loop lol
Yeah looking at the map it really should be connected to make a triangle in the state
I have email them about it. It can run in the medium i-75. Stops in Naples, RSW, Sarasota and Tampa.
They do plan on adding a Tampa station. It will be next and run from Orlando to Tampa. I believe it’s anticipated to be completed in 2027 and will run along I-4
no they should not do this and need to remove I75 and US41 from ontop of the everglades we need to stop destroying our natural resources
I love this. It looks pretty much like the Amtrak Capital corridor intercity trains I commuted on for over a decade, and they were good, too, although the passenger cars were no where as nice as these brand new ones. The staff, employees of Amtrak, were absolutely the best. No doubt this is a great addition to that route in Florida.
Amtrak California staff are great, in my experience
Last time I was this early, Brightline didn’t go to Orlando yet.
Lol
US law uses 125mph as the cut off for high speed rail, and the FRA uses 110mph. I understand that you don't want there to be confusion comparing this to the very fast trains elsewhere, but I think it's reasonable for Brightline to advertise "high speed" rail service: they need to make it clear that this is a different thing than the slow and infrequent intercity trains everyone is used to here.
The term high speed serves to classify a product, not distinguish it from competitors. That’s the job of the Brightline marketing department.
Still not as bad as Comcast claiming to have "10G internet "
Reaching 125mph for 2 minutes on a 3 hour journey doesn't qualify the service as "high speed" no matter what the treshold is. In fact, no diesel service should be considered "high speed" on freight lines. The last fast train in North America was the United Aircraft Turbo Train which didnt last long in USA, but lasted over a decade in Canada. It did break the speed record for North America (which I beleive is still standing, but the new Avelias may break it on a trest run). However, on CN/VIA service, it was limited to 150kmh due to tracks and freight traffic. It was replaced by the LRC which while it maintained modern aluminium shell, had conventional bogies and diesel locomotive and didn't brag about speed once in service. (it's active tilting system was quicky turned off after introduction as it didn't allow increased speeds but made people sick, especially when it malfunctioned and made car tilt left and right repeatedly).
The correct nomenclature for Brightline marketing should be "fast and reliable" or "Fast, comfortable, reliable".
I understand your opinion, however 125mph is the comercial speed of high speed rail and not the top speed. The top speed of the hig speed rail in Europe is nowadays about 200mph. And of course a high speed line is a dedicated line with no railwaycrossings at all, and this, not even the Northeast Corridor sastifies the expectations. For european standards, Brightline is a reasonable intercity service. Look at this good exeample of high speed in France: th-cam.com/video/OtotJm-OFdc/w-d-xo.htmlsi=7yfqT4rPnlAUzTCV
@@jfmezeiI don’t understand the hate for brightline. You’re hyperbole isn’t relevant. Brightline doesn’t go “125 for 2 minutes”. It goes 125 from Orlando to Cocoa. It’s also not finished. The Orlando to Tampa leg is next which will be 125 for an hour the entire way. So it will be running at 125 across the entirety of Florida from east to west.
Thank you for a very informative video. I agree with you about security checks on trains.
Youre absolutely right that day to day operations are infinitely more telling of the quality of service than opening day commotion. Thanks for providing a unique perspective on train travel youtube
You’re welcome!
I think the train from Miami to Orlando and vise versa is for sure more for people who don’t drive or for couples/pairs of people going to and from the Orlando theme parks. That won’t have to worry about making sure the driver stays awake when you are both tired. It’s a safe trip you won’t have to worry too much about. You won’t have to stop for bathroom breaks or needing a food stop. It’s something you know will get you where you are planning to go without to much trouble. Is it probably too much money? Yeah but it could be worth it.
I love how the automated onboard announcements have to explain to passengers what happens at intermediate stations 'We will only be stopping at this station for a brief moment'. Bless their hearts....
Yea, unfortunately people are not conditioned on efficient boarding and de-boarding processes in Florida yet. It's not unusual for people to remain seated even as the doors are open.
That's sensible for people who might not be used to proper rail, and is good in anything made for tourists (it stops at the airport)
@@dynasty0019even in cities that have extensive rail networks have this problem. Where I live in Sydney I have seen multiple times where people stand up after the doors open, on double decker trains mind you, and exit right as the doors close
@24:24 Super positive announcer, she made me happy even though I wasn't there!
She was very nice
We NEED a Cocoa stop. There are thousands of cruise passengers a week that struggle to get from Orland to Cocoa, but there is no stop there. I had a bad Lyft trying to get from Orlando to Titusville, was terrified that we would get dumped on the side of the highway because the driver didn't want to go out there. I asked if it was ok and he said yes, then I asked if he was sure and he took my suitcase and put it in his care then he huffed and puffed all the way out there. I would really prefer Brightline.
I love your videos and rely on them when researching travel. I am more likely to use local public transportation when I don't have my kid with me. In Baltimore we noped the heck on out of the light rail service. I might have tried it if I were alone. I really like your attention to detail.
25:48 Thats a Mega Millions Mike on the same train as you 😎
Nice video, really nice without all the Grand Opening stuff! I’d like to see an honest, high speed (possibly Mag Lev, possibly auto train accessible ) from Bangor, ME to Miami FL on private rail. I’d be at least happier to see it from DC to Portland ME.
Great video! I saw myself in your video a lot throughout since I was riding on the the same train as you! The wrap was very upsetting to me as well as I was trying to get a trip report as well, my camera thankfully was able to focus on the outside rather than those annoying dots, but my train back to Orlando wasn’t wrapped, thank goodness! Anyways, great video!
Dude, next time say hi!!! Lmk when your video is done
@@Thom-TRASounds good! My video isn’t nearly as high tech as yours haha but it’s coming out in an hour or so!
@@Thom-TRA I posted my video now!
0:35 Somebody is having trouble playing Geometry Dash.
(thought TBH, so do I)
They were really bad I kept watching 😂
I definitely agree with your praises and criticisms of Brightline, it's frustrating how overhyped the new extension is when the Acela is faster and has been running for a few decades now. Looking forward to checking it out for myself the next time I visit Florida!
It’s still super worth riding, just take stuff you read on the internet with a grain of salt
as someone from the NEC i think we're a bit used to public transit being a lot more fleshed out compared to places like florida. from what ive seen brightline can reach a top speed of 125 which is pretty solid but is held to 79 mph in a lot of places bc of saftey restrictions (Floridian drivers trying to beat train crossings/not being used to this kind of infrastructure). Brightline is getting a lot of hype mainly bc they are the new kids on the block with shiny new toys. Prices need to come down a little imo and cities should try to pedestrianize the surrounding infrastructure when wanting to have a brightline station.
@@beedoggs I definitely agree that cities, especially Florida, should try to make areas more friendly to walkers and also make it illegal for cars to turn right in places where there’s many walkers. I almost was hit several times being a walker in a crosswalk, and I had the signal and a car turning right did not stop and look at almost hit me. !!
@@beedoggs The NEC is true HSR only on a few miles on the northern section. The rest is a lot of 79 mph too. Specifically the infrastructure in the Greater New York region often is a 100 years old and requires low speeds. Between Newark and Baltimore it is limited to 125 mph, even with the Acela trains. I rode both Acela from New York to DC and Brighline from WPB to Miami, and Brightline trains have a much better travel experience. There is no direct competition between Acela and Brightline though, and maybe that's exactly what is missing on the NEC. Remember the days when New York System and Pennsylvania Railroad were bitter rivals on the North eastern rail services - they pushed each other to the limits and beyond. That's the very reason why Amtrak gets away with it's poor quality of service and they like never came up with a real successor of the 20th Century Limited, or Broadway and so on. Or why there's no plan to build a HSR line from Chicago to New York, or whatever. Insofar I hope Brightline will be a game changer to US intercity rail
Nice review of the Brightline extension to Orlando! I also cannot wait for Brightline West to enter service from California to Las Vegas, NV. The Amtrak San Joaquins is getting the Siemens Ventures to, and a new Siemens Venture cab car for the San Joaquins CDTX 9301 has been built, and will get tested and enter service after testing is completed and if it goes well. I can relate to having the issue of seeing dots on wrapped passenger cars. I remember riding on one of Metrolink’s and Coaster’s wrapped cars and I had that issue of seeing mostly dots instead of the view as well. The Pacific Surfliner also wrapped two cars in the X-Games wrap in May 2023 and they had that issue from seeing them on the outside, even though I did not ride on those two cars, but I can tell it is happening on those 2 cars as well. I would love for Brightline to be electrified, but at least Brightline West is being electrified thankfully. I would love to see Brightline one day and Brightline West when it enters service if I am able to.
Gotta admit, I think the best part of all it this is the punctuality of the trains. Never have I ridden a train, metro system, or bus that had such perfect punctuality.
I was very surprised about it as well
RE: ticket prices (8:50) a bus ticket from Orlando to Miami costs between $25 and $60 on RedCoach. Smart class tickets are not so far out of that range.
The real pain in ticket prices comes when you are traveling in a group. Can't think of a family of four would take the train (or bus) rather than drive.
Still, it seams like a lot to me. In Italy, where I live, you can get a business class ticket from milan to naples (4h20 of proper high speed rail) for as low as 45€ (obviously booked in advance). Now i know this is a bit of a stretch since in Italy prices are generally lower than in the US, but I thing they could really do much better. With prices like these most people here take the train instead of driving 7/8 hrs or taking the plane.
@antoniovitellaro I was taking trains through Italy just this summer. Thank you for putting up with me and my fellow tourists. I know there were a lot of us.
Brightline is definitely catering to upscale customers. The national train service, Amtrak, also provides service from Orlando to Miami. It costs half as much, takes twice as long, and runs only twice a day. It's not even as convenient as the bus.
that isn't the segment there really going for, there targeting business people who often travel or so is my understanding.
Brightline has a 25% discount for 4+ tickets. Other benefits for families: novelty of a high speed train, ability to walk around while travelling, more space for games and internet-connected devices, and not worrying about finding a restroom for miles and miles. Although business travellers would probably prefer a quiet atmosphere.
@joealmoni4018 I just checked the cost of going to Miami by train with the family. Round trip would be $714 for four people with the 25% discount applied. We'll be taking the Camry instead.
13:52 As an extrovert who loves nothing more than talking to strangers… I would demand a seat on the other side 😂 But I know I’m weird.
I had someone across from me! A very chatty abuela
@@Thom-TRA oh, that’s funny, do you speak Spanish so you can talk to her
I guess if you don’t never want to talk to someone, you can put on your earphones and put go to sleep or work on some thing
So, it seems all the train people are triggered by Brightline et. al. calling this high-speed rail, but I think that completely misses the point in regards to why people see this as a game changer. The speed is *not* the game changer her and never really has been. Rather the game changing nature of this is that it's a proof of concept that passenger rail service can be a potentially profitable enterprise in here in the heavily car dependent US, even in a place that's a sprawling as Florida. That's why Brightline is a game changer.
Edit - just wanted to add that I appreciate the "normal day" video - should give a better idea of what regular folks can expect vs opening day.
No one is triggered. My critique is that they shouldn’t use the word high speed if that’s not what they are. It doesn’t really sound like you listened to much of what I said.
And why do trains need to be profitable in order for people to see them as valuable to society?
If neither price nor speed can convince people to abandon their cars, I don’t understand how game-changing it really is.
@@Thom-TRA To a private company, it does need to be profitable otherwise it becomes too expensive to run at a loss. If it was publicly-owned, then it would be considered a service so it doesn't need to be profitable, but should at least try to break even.
@@Thom-TRA Oh, people are definitely triggered - a huge number of comments (perhaps even the majority of what I've seen) on *every* Brightline Orlando video I've watched have been something along the lines of "It's not really high speed!" "Why are they calling it high speed rail"? etc.
Anyway, as far as profitability goes, you're putting words into my mouth that I never said. Trains don't need to be profitable to be seen as valuable, that's true, but it's also entirely irrelevant to the point I'm trying to make. Profitability proves something is a *worthy investment*, and as a result more will be invested. So, Brightline is a game changer in that this will getting the ball rolling on *actually building more rail in the US*! Privately funded inter-city passenger rail in the US is a game changer regardless of speed because it proves false one of the key reasons a lot of people oppose funding rail projects - that they're a waste of money. IMO Brightline overcomes one of the biggest hurdles that US rail expansion faces, and that's why it's a game changer.
@@Spudeaux I agree with you that some people are triggered by the words, high speed when comparing Brightline and I see on other videos that some people spend a lot of time arguing about that.
Course Brightline is not high speed compared to some definitions of it, but it definitely shows a progress being made in Florida with my higher speed compared to the United States of what it normally has. . Progress takes time and may be in the future do United States for meet high speed, real definition.
Trains don’t need to be profitable. They are a public service. Highways aren’t profitable either, and they certainly don’t break even.
They should have cops randomly patrol level crossings along the FEC and pull drivers over for crossing the tracks illegally
They do, I saw them at a few
"Boarding all guests"-no, they are passengers!!! This is not a hotel.
Captain Pedantic over here worrying about the real issues
I hope this line gets up to Jacksonville...a route to Orlando and then onward to Miami would be awesome.
Appreciate the vid and your balanced view. I agree its really nice and great proof of concept between city pairs. However i also agree thats it not HSR. As you pointed out, Acela covers a similar distance much faster. Hopefully the speed can be improved and ticket prices lowered in the future
I’m glad it resonated with you!
I am a frequent train traveller and imho what passengers do not expect is the railroads cut the schedule for much higher fares. What they need though is acceptable comfort and reliabilty. Comparing the cramped cabin of a B737, the ineviitable fight for space for your hand baggage even to Brightline's smart class, climbing over other passengers just to get to the bathroom, this is quite a difference. Then let's find out how Brightline does after the next hurricane, which will come for sure in Florida. Not running on electric power may be an advantage then, remembering the long power outages we had in the Sunshine State. What they definitely should add on a train running for more than 3 hours is a dining car or at least a cafe car. If you take a train at lunch time or in the early everning, you would want to have lunch or dinner onboard. They might not want to bring back the glory days with Pullman dining cars, food served on china and made by real chefs, but to beat the airlines here is easy. Just serving booze and cookies did on the southern leg, not on this longer route. That could be a pro as well when passengers compare air travel to train travel. If you don't book the expensive business class, today on a one-hour flight you can call yourself happy to get at least a cup of water, if any. Word is Brightline has ordered such equipement with Siemens already.
Another very informative video and very thorough with the detail. I would be far more scathing about the 'dots', but you are very gentlemanly in your comments...and commendably so. 🙂
I learned that if you put your camera lens on 0.5-mode, you can sort of see outside a little bit...
Although high speed networks like in Europe are faster and electrified, the quality of the customer facing experience on this line is really on another level to what we see here, from the ticket machines, the trains, and the lounges - looks great imo 👏 promising, hopefully this will just be the start
I wholeheartedly agree
one of the only advantages I would say American rail generally has over European is customer service, and comfort.
A lot of buses here in New Zealand (more specifically, the cities of Auckland and Tauranga) suffer from the same problem as the coaches on 'Bright Pink'. I hate seeing advertising wrap over the windows because of that issue where you have to look through the annoying dots.
As for the rolling stock itself, the coaches look decent enough, but I think the SCB-40 locomotive looks hideous with that streamlined front.
The good thing about eating all that food in premium is you don’t have to worry about finding your lunch in the city you arrive and can concentrate on where you stay and your sightseeing first
Thank you for posting this video... I can't wait for the train from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas ❤❤❤❤. Lately traveling to Las Vegas has been awful.
I also noticed that you are wearing a "Shinkansen - Bullet Train". Do you have a video of the Bullet Train in Japan?
Yes, many!
I’m glad someone has mentioned the wraps on buses and trains. When you are inside you cannot see out. I personally hate them for that reason.
As a Floridian, I can say with certainty that there is nothing worth viewing on that trip unless you enjoy hours of flat swamp punctuated by the backsides of graffiti-riddled commercial buildings. Having the sun on blast in your face for hours at a time is no fun either. Think of the dots as a filter to soften the disappointment of reality vs expectations.
German here, with some additional information you might be interested in:
In Germany we for the most part dont have a separate high speed network either. Instead we have a network of higher speed tracks with the occasional high speed section on them. They are usually grade seperated though, so basically no railway crossings happen. So going from Berlin to Munich in 4:30 in fact involves some part of the route going 200 kmh / 125 mph, followed by a long section of going 160 kmh / 100 mph. Then on a newer higher speed ready track the train goes arround 250 kmh / 156 mph for a bit. Then it enters the "Neubaustrecke" (New built highspeed track) and this is the only time where the train really achieves high speed worth the name, going 300 kmh / 187 mph for a bit. Until it leaves the comparable short true high speed track again and has to slow down to 250 kmh / 156 mph - 160 kmh / 100 mph for most of the remaining trip.
This helps explaining, why it still needs 4:30 for a comparable "short" distance of only 600 km / 375 miles, it just cannot use its legal topspeed of 300 kmh / 187 mph very much and instead spends most of the trip going much slower.
It was mocked as germany most expensive regional train for that reason, but the good news for train lovers like us is still, that besides being a bit on the slow side, it still helped to get a lot of people out of short haul flights. Passenger numbers exceed all expectations and more and more trains have been added as a result.
If you want to experience true sustained high speed train, you have to go the France. In fact a german ICE goes to France regularly and after spending a lot of time of going slow paced through the southern west of the german heather, it finally goes over the border straight onto the french highspeed network, where it finally can put the pedal on the metal, going most of the remaining trip to Paris at 320 kmh / 200 mph. So besides the distance being often longer than on the german side, the train still spends less time on french soil overall because it actually goes very fast.
From a regional political standpoint, there is still some merrit in the german system. While stops at smaller cities increase the travel time, they also bring in political support from the regions and a new connection in the south of germany actually makes this even better by
- two higher speed (200 kmh / 125 mph) tracks in the middle
- two lower speed tracks next to those for regional trains, greatly increasing service for the local population.
This makes the trains much more popular in the countryside, because now they also benefit which they dont really do from a high speed TGV zooming by.
Another cool european high speed train is the Frecciarossa 1000. Maintaining 300 kmh / 187 mph for most of the trip, it already sunk all short haul flights on the same route and also really helped with getting people out of their cars.
I think that Brightline will also being comparable slow, does the right thing by offering superior service quality. You can do little about the comparable low speed infrastructure, but you can make the ride as comfortable as possible which will also draw in a lot of people.
You can get to the tri-rail by taking the metro rail to the airport. I used to get a kick out of passing the bright line while driving to work on US-1 by the Fort Lauderdale airport.
I did on my way home
@@Thom-TRA excellent, I only found out about Metro Rail going to the airport recently.
@@exoressdelivers70 South bound exit of 595 better views. Retired from the city of Dania Beach.
It is hard to evaluate the business side of the enterprise bevause FEC also leveraged a lot of real estate assets to allow condos to be built near stations, as well as the Miami station complex itself which is a huge real estate development above and below the actual brightline station.
There has been huge capital subsidies from federal/state and municipal governments, but as a private enterprise it is next to impossible to give operating subsidies unless the government buys the service, and then gives a contract to FEC/Brightline to opeprate it. The NE Corridor is profotable to Amtrak. Other routes are not in part because Amtrak has to pay track rights to the railroad. With FEC owning the tracks, then it is much easier for Brightline to be cash neutral/positive in its operations. (unless expansion results in Brightline running on non FEC tracks). Note that internally, Brightline may be paying FEC for track rights and declare operating deficit, but the group itself would be positive when you combine both FEC and Brightline. )
Don't know of any true analysis of Amtrak NE Corridor that shows it break even when you include the capital/infrastructure requirements costs.
The Brightline business model, as expressed by both their and FEC executives, is designed to be a separate (tho related) self sustaining operation. Utilizing FEC facilities is a win/win for both entities.
Once again, FEC got major funding from federal, state and municipal governmenst to build out the service. From Wikipedia: In March 2013, All Aboard Florida applied for a $1.6 billion Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) loan, which was administered by the Federal Railroad Administration. It then got actiual grants here and there from Florida and cities as well as FRA (for FRA, it is mostly about railroad crossing safety improvements). @@kennethhanks6712
Look for "The Brightline Saga
How a privately owned Florida passenger railway received billions in taxpayer dollars, pretended to be a highway, dismisses safety concerns, and still became a media darling
Johnny Renton
Apr 25, 2022 It i almost entirely "opther side of coin" story without the positives of the service, but does provide an eye opener on the subsidies it got and its operating model. @@kennethhanks6712
I agree with you that it is not "high speed", but it is faster than driving and cheaper than flying. With a Tampa connections I think it will be a real winner. I really enjoyed your honesty about what is right and what you feel is wrong with Brightline. But the reason for the level crossing on the east coast section is cost. If people want to drive stupid that is their problem not Brightlines. Once you go past the gates you are breaking the law and trespassing, so not a Brightline issue. If they could elevate the tracks in the future that would be great, but the cost would be prohibitive. Although most deaths on the line are suicides, so that makes it seem more dangerous than it really is. Again great review, and remember whenever the press can screw something up they will.
Excellent Review
Thank you!
I like how the bathroom doesn’t have loose soap bottles bouncing around. Amtrak Midwest do better. You have the same built in soap dispensers. Use them. Sorry for rambling Thom.
No worries. I actually have Amtrak soap at home because they just leave them lying around. Finders keepers…
Great video and thanks for the honest review of this exciting step forward. I agree from I've seen, that the he attractive, clean and modern trainst and stations, customer service and frequency seem to be the big selling points even if the top speeds are far from world-beating and it's still diesel and has all those grade crossings. I do wish Brightline all the best in being part of growing our passenger rail network and my favorite form of travel. I can't wait to ride someday and I'm also looking forward to the Airo Sets on the Amtrak side of things and really looking forward to see what Brightline West can do.
Great as usual Thom! Can't wait to see your Zephyr adventure, I had a great time in my family bedroom for 3 days and we were even 30 minutes early into Chicago!😂😂
We were definitely not early, but that’s okay!
Looking at this from the U.K. and hearing about how plans for parts of HS2 are about to be scrapped for the North of England including here in Manchester, compared to the rail expansion plans being made by the Irish government back home in Ireland, the Brightline rail project in the US is an important development - I’m aware of other US rail expansion projects, such as in California and the West Coast, but what is crucial is to have a high speed passenger line to connect the East Coast of the US to the West Coast, which will bring the US up to the standards of the railways in mainland Europe and even in Eastern Europe - the Channel Tunnel Eurostar from the U.K. to France is struggling, which is perhaps part of the reason why the plans to build a high speed rail tunnel under the Irish Sea from Holyhead to Dublin keep getting shelved, especially after bizarre extension proposals were added between Scotland, the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, with a huge underground tunnel junction proposed for under the Irish Sea S of the Isle of Man - the Taiwan High Speed rail projects, along with those in Japan and in China, show us what is possible, even at local level, but the political will to put in the effort required is simply not there
bro you should try first high speed train in southeast asia
FYI only you can park in Terminal C parking 3rd level and just walk into train station
This video was a delight. Thank you for making it Thom. Could you please comment on the legroom that you had in Premium? It didn't look like you had very much given the face to face tables seating. Thanks again. BTW I rode the Crescent from Atlanta to NYC a few weeks ago and we hit 112 mph sometime northward in PA.
Thankfully the lady in front of me was very friendly so it wasn't too much of an issue. I think the airline style seats have more leg room though.
19:00 Is that a All gender bathroom in florida *gasp* oh the humanity
This is a good start, and we do have a very long way to go before we have anything that resembles HSR in any major way in the US. Spain was able to cover the country in true HSR in about 15 years, and at a minimum, we should be doing the same for the Northeast corridor, as well as dramatic acceleration of the CA HSR build.
Anything over 200km/h is a high speed train and to prove it just stand on the tracks in front of a 125 mph train and see if it feels fast then let me know . Average speed on the other hand is something completely different .
Could you do us all a favor and be the first person to try out your experiment? Doesn’t even have to be high speed.
Great video!
Also that is interesting how in the previous video you compare the capitol Subway to “a sideways elevator” as my dad once said the subway is like an elevator that goes sideways (which sorta got me into trains)
Also have you heard of Miles in Transit? You two would get along great!
If Brightline expanded up to Jacksonville, I would personally use this service alot! Maybe one day. Even if not high speed, would offer much less stress then driving on I-95
Thanks for a great video, We had the HST 125 in the 1970's which shows how far behind the American Railroad is behind Europe. Having said that the U. K. is still having problems in building proper high speed lines. Brightline seems to be leading the way and maybe it will catch up. If I was coming to South Florida I would fly to Orlando where the fares are cheaper. due to the theme parks, than to Miami and then take the train.
Trains in the Northeast US have going +125mph since at least 1969.
That sounds like it would be a fun trip!
Check over the Brightline West Project, with a planned electrified route using the Siemens newest Electric train that will run from Southern California to Las Vegas, Nevada through the Mojave Desert, this will be true highspeed rail by today's world standards.
Not revolutionary from a technical/speed aspect but the business model of Brightline is truly unique..at least for the U.S.
The Brightline trains are quite powerful. Almost identical to the Class 43 Power Car.
I suspect fewer ppl will run barriers now that trains are seen running frequently, especially at high speeds.
Looking forward to my next trip to Japan, when the Shinkanzen rains suprime in my books
It’s the king of high speed
@@Thom-TRA that's right
Great review! You make lots of good points, including your analysis about high-speed rail. Really appreciate your reviewing this train on a typical day rather than launch day, which shows what the service is usually like. Cheers!
I’m glad you enjoyed!
Bright line is building a line from LA to Vegas
Yes
The dots are a travesty
it would be really expensive to remove most rail crossings because most of fec main line is beside us route 1
I always send a complaint to agencies that insist of blocking the windows with wrap. I really don't understand their stupidity. Surely being able to see out of the windows should be paramount and really is it necessary to block the windows? I actually would have refused to travel on that train and demanded A refund or ticket on a following train. I get.motion sickness from those stupid dots.
It’s sad because being able to relax and look out the window is one of the advantages of trains over cars!
Cool video, Thom.
Thank you!
❤️❤️❤️ from India. 🇮🇳
well thom I have to disagree with you tsa check points for trains and airports it’s all about safety please have a great week
It’s about the appearance of safety. If someone wants to hurt people all they have to do is plant a car on the crossings. It’s a waste.
Brightline is not a railroad, it's a land development company. All they need to do is make the properties they own look enticing, like exterior lighting, pretty lobbies, plants, railroad, that kind of stuff. The parent company is paying off the cost to build the railroad, so all Brightline has to do is make an "operational" profit and cover day to day operations, which they are doing before Orlando opened. Is this new? Look at the office buildings built as part of the old union stations.
Great video (as always), but that dot wrap drove me crazy. Hopefully, BL will get rid of it soon.
At least just off the windows
Even just a dinky to Sand Lake Rd today would be enough and from there SeaWorld and Universal can provide free shuttles to their resorts with local busses to Disney Springs, City Walk, and the I-Drive District (from there, there are shuttles to Busch Gardens Tampa and Legoland Florida-I at least know the former is still active), maybe with extensions to Lynx Central a few times a day
Hmm, there's no way to force landscape/infinity focus on iPhone?
I wouldn't describe the drivers that get hit by Bright Line as "bad drivers" as much as I'd simply state that they are narcissist. People that get hit at crossings, knowingly drive past the gates since they think rules don't apply to them. We all know the dangers of doing this, but when a person has a self centered and entitled attitude, the consequences of their actions make the 6:00 PM news.
There's no way a few trains can get them all. Their numbers are increasing.
By brightlines definition is the marc penn line high speed even though it averages less than 50mph because it has a top speed of 125 mph?
Lol MARC Penn go zoom
I think Keisei Skyliner express service serving Tokyo to Narita Airport is the only non-Shinkansen train that operates above 80mph. Operates almost nonstop between and is completely grade separate in the Sky Access trunk.
I love the Skyliner. The hokuetsu express used to go that fast but not anymore.
The skyliner unfortunately has terrible ride quality
@@sbeve7445 no it doesn’t
@@Thom-TRA Literally rode it this summer and the train feels like its shaking itself apart when doing 160 kph. At 130 its bearable though.
Great job with the video. Brightline takes a little bit longer than a flight but it is ten times better than a flight. Cheaper, you can get work done, faster internet connections, friendly staff, so much food. They are competing against planes rather than driving your car and surely winning.
I’d choose this over flying any day of the week!
Cheaper to take the train to Miami for the day than it is to go to Magic Kingdom. Here's another fun fact, Aventura is the name of one of the Universal Orlando resort hotels.
The trains you are using are the ones used on the European lines built by the same folks
Question for anyone, do you actually feel the speed while you’re sitting? Does it feel like you’re going 125mph? I’m not good with coasters and I’m afraid this may not work for me but I’m trying to get some thoughts/opinions.
It is very different from a roller coaster. It’s like going fast in a car, but less bumpy. You can just get up and go to the bathroom like you were in a building.
Noticed you got a lot slimmer of late! Good job bud. You look great
It’s amazing what spending time in the hospital with liver failure will do to your figure
@@Thom-TRA oof sorry to hear that man. I had no idea. Hope you feel better
The Wrap look cool but looking out the window Sucks
I didn't know you were passing through Port Saint Lucie either ! l😅
Was that lady on the phone the whole ride 😂
How many faster trains is possible to buy for the price of one plain?
Dots! Ugh I detest wraps that cover the view. All and all this looks like a very comfortable train.
I'd like to see them run between Atlanta and all three cities of New Orleans, Tampa and Orlando. They need to elevate their tracks or build dedicated crossing-less rails like Europe. Can't wait to see your California Zypher video. I was yesterday old when I learned there's a live Amtrak train tracker! Have you covered that?
I use the Amtrak train tracker religiously. It crashes sometimes but usually gets the job done.
Thank you for the thorough review! I am booking a ride next month and was trying to determine if I should splurge on the premium and I am pretty sure you convinced me!
It’ll make your journey more enjoyable! Thought there’s nothing wrong with the basic either
At the end of the day a 125mph train with a diesel loco at each end is something we kind of invented here in the UK over 40 years ago with the HST or intercity 125... Trains that are all but retired now
One of them is in Mexico now!
What can be done about the level crossings?You could build bridges and tunnels at them all but that would be very expensive.They should have cameras on them and those that drive onto them when the warning lights are flashing banned from every driving or owning a motor vehicle for life.While generally trains demolish cars and only kill the idiot who drove it onto the crossing but occasionally the car gets struck under the lead locomotive bogie thereby derailing the train frequently killing the train driver and some of the passengers.
Very true
I wonder why no one wants to use trains in the us when you have to go through airport style security
Very well done. Probably the most accurate coverage from someone outside of the project. No, it is not "High-Speed" but the HSR canard has taken firm root into the lexicon and all trains are tagged "HSR" by the great unwashed masses. It's an FRA tier 1 speed railroad. Electrification is $1M/track mile so add another $1 billion to the price tag if you really want it. Spot on about Orlando: that last mile to those places in the metro area still needs to be ironed out. How? Well, the Orange County fathers stuck their thumbs in the pie and now have no idea how to pull them out. In the meantime Brightline will hone their operation to maximum productivity. At that point, if the county still has their heads not screwed on straight, Brightline will figure out how to make it happen...with or without the county.
(And the Brightline coaches do not resemble the MidWest Venture cars. The MW cars resemble Brightline's! We were FIRST.)
They resemble them to me since I’ve been on the MW cars over a dozen times, and that’s my frame of reference
@@Thom-TRA We were still first...and MW Venture wasn't supposed to have happened.
I hate the dots too. I got them when I've ridden a bus once. Hopefully Brightline will get rid of them.
I rode the train three times and so far no wraps. :)