Overbooked Ride from Brightline's NEW Boca Raton Station
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ก.พ. 2025
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Answering YOUR Brightline questions: • Answering YOUR Brightl...
Special thank you to Brightline for providing the tickets so that I could experience a ride to their new Boca Raton Station. Hopefully they can square away the overbooking issues.
More on Brightline Boca Raton: www.gobrightli...
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Class act by you giving up your seat for the paying customers. Great video.
i AGREE 100%!!!
Something you do when you're young, like I did. But not anymore.
@Repent and believe in Jesus Christ So look, I agree with spreading the word but in appropriate places.
WTG, Jo👍🏼
You definitely did the right thing by giving that guy a seat, but it's too bad that some customers are facing that issue with Brightline. Hopefully by now, Brightline has gotten their bookings straight and sorted everything out. Thanks for sharing this and the new station!
That's bad on brightline double booking, let's hope it's a temporary glitch , perhaps they should have added another carriage to the train
I had a lovely trip.. even a few cups of champagne
Only in Amerikaaaaa. Lol 😅
@@maly2ts408 I believe they planned to eventually expand the trains from 4 to 6 passenger cars eventually, but don't know if or when that'll happen.
@@Biglmpact if the profit is good they expand it.
When you thanked that guy for his hard work & he went from a default thank you to a sincere & genuine one you can tell that meant a lot to him especially since he probably gets a lot of crap from angry customers when it isn't his fault!
Yeah, Brightline is like sent from heaven, for us who only have our national rail operator to choose from.
Growing pains. They'll work this out. Glad to see people using this.
I live round the corner from Boca station and have watched it go up. I could not believe how fast they finished it and how good it looks. This is a really excellent application of rail travel. I95 between Boca and Miami is a total nightmare with endless construction, constant backups, accidents, super narrow lanes and the most reckless drivers I have personally ever witnessed. I will definitely be using this. Interestingly there is only one platform for both directions - I filmed them installing the switch to allow both northbound and southbound trains to use it.
90% of the funding came from government sources and ultimately taxpayers like you! So you better like it, even though Brightline is the one who got this "gift"! You paid for it!
@TohaBgood2 well it's a better use of taxpayer money than most of the other things they do with it
I commuted to Boca from Miami for a month before I moved here. It is unreal how insane and reckless these drivers are down here in South FL… and the locals baselessly blame NYers… I’m from NY and extremely few people up there drive like they do down here.
@@richardclarke376 You're right on this! Still, very concerning that Brightline constantly mentions that they are privately-owned, but never a peep about being mostly publicly funded.
I understand that this is advantageous to them in a mostly red state. But it does hurt future publicly funded projects. I really wish that they would just stop lying already.
@@TohaBgood2 I believe there is a misinterpretation here. It is not true that most of Brightline is publicly funded. The contrary is true, most is private. According to my following of this stories, The controversy is that it used to be said they were 100 percent privately funded, which wasn’t true because they did get reduced interest in loans through government subsidies plus other details. Example of other details is that some of the maintenance (like traffic signals) is responsibility of local governments. Also, I understand some stations are not owned by Brightline, but reports is that they are being charged market price rentals for those facilities (which in my opinion is different than Brightline itself being publicly funded).
Overbooking on Brightline? Never would have thought this could happen in a million years. There was a time a few years back when the trains were mostly empty, with more staff than passengers on most trips. Good to know that Brightline is finally catching on.
I know right! Good to see increased demand.
I never thought I'd see the day that we care about passenger rail in the us again
@@runlikehell4180 It works when the company realizes what customers want and they build routes that actually make sense
@@RedNuii yeah but I mean, companies actually seeing potential and building a proper system. Of course if you build the route the people will come, but it seemed like noone wanted to.
I thought I heard Brightline was going bankrupt a few years ago, now they’re doing better than ever. Once the Orlando connection opens it will be bigger than ever.
I go to disney every year but have never been south of orlando. I cannot wait until brightline orlando opens and I can visit south florida.
A car.
@@Mytimenow123 some people don't enjoy driving across the state of florida
@@Mytimenow123 it’s just for me too much stress to drive a car on the busy toll roads. I will appreciate the train when it starts in Orlando!!!!!!!
@@Mytimenow123 One of my friends when she got into a car wreck is too scared to drive anymore so she will appreciate the train also to see friends further south in Miami.
Don’t forget about central SW Florida! Brightline bypasses a good chunk of us. A lot of state parks and good barbecue an hour so from Tampa. Hopefully the Tampa station goes up
It's unfortunate to see the booking situation, but I'm glad to see that there is such strong demand for trips along the corridor. Hopefully they can increase the frequency of service to meet demand soon!
Well they are doing better than amtrak, that’s for sure, hourly from ungodly early to midnight is great, but I think 30 minute is the dream scenario. But right now that doesn’t make financial sense
me too. Ive been on Sunrail & it was dead when I road. I think there are plans to connect Sunrail & Brightline. Get things ready for the people!
I hope the brightline expands and grows and can move more people up and down the coast, and help maybe alleviate some traffic to the dade and broward county metro areas, I-95 is literally a nightmare nowadays no matter what day and time, too many people moved down here during the pandemic.
Every road in every town is overwhelmed with the increase in auto traffic and accidents. Florida is no longer a place to relax and retire to. I feel like I’m living in NY again with Rt 441 traffic as bad as the L.I.E.
Hope that Brightline can manage the booking issue by adding more trains to their fleet because once that station opens for Orlando, their trains are going to be "FLUSHED" with train commuters.
I think part of the issue might be due to the fact that others have booked seats on these trains in advance (talking like weeks or months) before they’ve added these infill stations, but hopefully they will fix this issue soon
They need to change the algorithms so the software bengi implemented is NOT allowed to double book seats.
It’s nice to see people finally filling up Brightline trains
But what of Tri-Rail?
this is the first video of yours i’ve seen. immediate sub and like for the way you treated the fellow passengers and the staff on the train who have to deal with the mismanagement above them. great video, keep up the good work
I think "mismanagement" seems a bit harsh. Patrick Goddard, Brightline's CEO, is a very hands-on person. He will sort the current glitches out as soon as he reasonably can.
The Boca Raton station is literally 2min away of my home can’t wait to try it out. Thanks for the video and classy move by giving up your seat.
Full trains are a great thing! Hopefully this means they'll be profitable!
I really hope bright line expands more on the west coast, it would be awesome to have every major city connected by them one day.
Tampa, Saraota, Naples, Spring Hill , Tallahasse and Panama city I hope bright line conncets them one day
If they would add a Ft.lauderdale Airport stop then that would be a home run. People can get off the cruiseships in Port Miami and jump on the brightline to FLL.
when the west coast main line in the UK upgraded the train and service provider and later on the track and signals that had an effect of so many more customers wanting to ride the train they had to order more trains and the trains they had they added more carriages, it looks like bright line could be having the same issue - also if you build it they will come
They're set up to add passenger cars to their trains - there's locomotive power to spare and their platforms can accommodate more than twice the current number of passenger cars. The question is how long will it take Siemens to deliver more cars once demand is proven and the order is placed?
@@daniellewis1789 they still need testing before passneger service can take years
@@NickyD Brightline is already doing test runs along the Cocoa Beach portion of their line. They should reasonably finish construction and begin service sometime in 2023. Testing longer trains, if they order them, shouldn't be difficult either- they use a very standard design of car.
@@NickyD Once the new construction for the double track is finished and cut over on the FEC and the Coco to Orlando IA accepted the line is open. The passenger cars are usable in any combination on any train because of their design. It is the same as Amtrak in the use of equipment.
I'm pretty sure that they plan on adding more coaches to the trainsets with the full build-out to Orlando :)
Depends, are the platforms long enough?
@@edmundanderson657 I believe someone stated that the platforms are long enough to house 10 passenger coaches vs the current 4 which is the max length Brightline can expand to.
First of all, classy of you to give up your seat for the paying customer.
Secondly, I am going to guess the booking system got glitched or messed up by the number of people traveling on the in-fill stations, and also did not account for the free tickets. Hopefully they fix this issue soon. Nevertheless, station, trains, and the free car shuttle/Lyft style ride look great!
Thanks for show us Brightline! My husband and I drive down to Miami for cruises from Lakeland and we are looking forward to Brightline being in Orlando. It is good to know that this is an issue. Hope that it is worked out before we need to make our first trip down there.
I hope they fix this before they open Orlando. I'm happy the demand is high, surprised I saw a huge amount of people, Miami can become a transit city.
That was so nice of you giving up your seat. I hope Brightline fixes this mess
i know i shouldnt be happy about an overbooked train but considering this is passenger rail in the US, this is an amazing sign. the orlando-miami trains will be incredible
So weird that trains like this finally exist in Florida! Work in Ft. Lauderdale every so often right by the station. Can't wait for Orlando to open so I can take the train to work!
Once Orlando opens I suspect a shit show because of Disney travelers
So this just looks like a simple busy day really. I live in the UK and used to use trains a lot to get around though have only used them for one trip this year which was to a friend of mine. The ride to and from London to where I live was great, but the ride to and from London to where my friend lived was packed. I was basically stood in a doorway. The general answer is that I didn't mind on the fact I was going some 100mph + and the entire ride was around 20-25 minutes.
It's quite common on busy trains to see people sat on those benches in the vestibules at either end of a coach in truth over here. Though we do have quite a few problems with our rail system, mostly called the government refusing to pay the maintenance workers properly currently, but they are still well used and pretty decent over all.
It looks like Brightline might want to start going up to the 8-10 coaches per train that they sooner than they planned to do in the future. As well as maybe more trains. Certainly if it's going to be that busy from now on. Well done to the Brightline staff for being able to deal with all the chaos though.
Though one last thing that confuses me is the baggage check. That's just not a thing here. I simply couldn't imagine going to a train station and not just simply walking in, checking my ticket at the barrier and then walking on to the platform and the train really. It's only the larger stations that have lounges and even then it's generally a long distance service sort thing. Otherwise there's plenty of seating and food stalls around the station to have and use. But yeah baggage check is weird. Did you have to have your backpack scanned or is it just for big suitcases?
That’s true, the baggage checks son’t make sense, but the security scanners do, when operating in the US, where everybody owns a gun.
@@ncard00 most people in US don't own a gun
Why doesn't the government pay the workers properly ?
@@apluto12-z3e So basically due to the high rate of inflation, the government which has final say on railway staff be they working for Network Rail or a private Train Operating Company.
So the unions asked for a pay rise at least close enough in line with inflation to help their members get by. The private companies were willing to do this and then the government stepped in and said that there wasn't enough money because the previous Tory Prime Minister had fudged the economy in a record short term of 45 days and the current Tory government could no longer afford anything.
Thanks!
Thank you for such a thorough video. I was looking at booking an experience with my daughter and son today. I wanted to understand the premium vs. the regular seats and this video just changed my mind entirely about the experience. I don't need another headache. I will rather uber to Boca from Miami and have no issues.
Regular (Smart) class does not have access to the premium lounge, snacks and drinks on board come at a cost, 19 inch seats vs 21 inch in premium. Smart also doesn’t have single seats like Premium does.
It can be pricey but I do recommend trying at least once. Hopefully the issues are squared away by now.
Damn lol
**UPDATE further in the comments**
That's weird about the seat bookings. I've seen this in Europe before with the different 3rd party booking systems. You wouldn't think it'd happen with all the bookings going through 1 system.
I do love how more and more are people are taking Brightline. Frequencies can be increased as well as the number of passenger coaches (can have up to 7). I'll be taking it once again this weekend for New Years down to Miami. Fortunately getting on at WPB so I'm not giving up my seat. 🤣
brightline can pull up to 10 coaches per train, thats what they designed the stations to hold. they probably dont have the coaches to do that yet.
@@slumpdogyt They do, its just they would have to pull apart other train sets to do it. Remember, they have 4 more sets in Orlando..
@@kennethduke6859 yeah but they also have a bunch of cars on order from siemens
So currently on the train as we speak and it happened to me. Someone had booked from West Palm (an elderly couple) so I wasn't any to split them up. They put me in another single seat and 10 seconds later a lady came to it, they told her to go find any open seat. Most unfortunate.
@@kennethduke6859except those sets don’t have a clue easy way to get to Miami soon since they are in the Orlando maintenance facility and the line to coco is still under construction so they would have to go on longer alternate ways and even if they did that then the sets wouldn’t be available for the start of Orlando service
When Brightline started (in '17, I believe)-the trains seemed to be largely empty.....While nobody should have a bad experience-nice to see people are using it.
I cannot wait for the Boca station to open! Thanks for filming
Boca is open! Did you mean Orlando?
I enjoy your video. Earlier this year I took brightline from ft.lauderdale to palm beach stations. It was a holiday and the train wasn't full. Seeing this new demand tells me bright line is a hit. I can't wait to travel all the way to Orlando. I think the train seating need to be reorganize like amtrat airlines seats. We can't have people standing on long distance rides.
Amtrat? Is that a new railway service? New to me.
❤you’re a great man for what you do and did! Thanks also for staff(on the train)for the professionalism and customer service and treating you and everyone else with respect!
Yo yo got a new subscriber for being such a considerate content creator. That was very kind of you! You’re being the neighbor Mister Rogers knew you could be.
I lovee brightline! Hopefully they fix this issue and you such a sweetheart for giving up your seat , great video 🤍
I subscribed to you my man for being a bang up human and offering your seat to a paying customer. We’ll done!!!
I am quite excited about Brightline. I hope they are so successful that this service is eventually available throughout the entire State of Florida!. Amazing what can be accomplished when the government is not involved!!
I think they are working on the extension from Cocoa Beach to Orlando expected to open in 2023. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Bobby…if you believe government isn’t involved in the bright line project, you are clearly an idiot.
I found this video by accident and I wanted to tell you it was really good! It makes me want to ride the Brightline!
New subscriber. Thanks for the information and review. My husband and I were going to take a ride but we'll wait a few weeks.
I look forward to riding from Aventura to west palm.
Great video. I hope they get the double booking situation straightened out before the expansion to Orlando. I’d hate for that to happen on a trip from a Orlando to Miami. I’ll just drive for now.
all of their trains should be longer is my feeling on it
Brightline intends to add carriages [coaches] to their trains as soon as more equipment arrives from Siemens in California.
@@jslasher1 the original plan from my understanding was to only run longer trains if they’re going to Orlando I hope they have adjusted this after seeing the lack of space just in the MIA area.
I live in Orlando and was looking forward to someday taking Brightline to Miami to catch a cruise. I drove that once and that was enough! I hope the ticketing is fixed by then! Enjoyed your video!
that looks like a nice train. I hope they figure out their booking. Your so nice for giving up your seats. I'll subscribe and check out your adventures. Nice video.
Thanks!
I’m surprised how busy it is. I didn’t expect Florida would use this since majority in my area is against having trains.
How can people be against having trains? I'm from the Netherlands and never heard anyone complain about a train.
@@MaartenvanderVeeke It's because the auto/airline industry did a great job since the 1950s convincing the American public that mass transit wasn't needed. So you have a generation or 2 of people who think the only ways to travel are by flying & airplanes and see trains as "outdated". Fortunately we are seeing a trend of people shifting back to mass transit for various reasons (high gas prices, less people getting their driver's license, etc.)
@@MaartenvanderVeeke Sadly, the Yanks have been indoctrinated into believing that railways are antiquated, a relic of the past. Brightline offers a ray of hope, a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.
I live in Miami and I use the brightline atleast once a month. Its nice.
@@MaartenvanderVeeke In California we are building a high speed rail system. The right wing politicians and their supporters were against it before it even started construction. They've always been anti mass transit.
Glad I found your vedio I didn't realize Both Boca and Aventura now have active stations. A friend and I took brightline from Fort Lauderdale to Mia and was impressed. I live within 5 miles and they came and picked us up. There was a hiccup with the GPS Which took the driver to a different location I was OK with actually driving to the station but they insisted they come and get us which was funny because the 2nd driver also had issue with the GPS when everything was finally taken care of they could not have been nicer. It's hard for somebody to take the train when they're so used to driving. I kept saying I was going to West Palm but then don't. With the extra stations open maybe I will now be more inclined to ride Brightline?
Looks like they have a software issue. Boca Raton station looks beautiful. Cant wait to try it. Very informative video. Good job. Also, gave up your seat.... character makes a good man.
I guess they usually don't get this busy haha. Love to see this kind of ridership though!
Subbed for being a brightline fan. Seeing how full the train was a first, normally these trains are totally empty. Once more stations open ridership may or may not go up.
It would be nice if in the future, Brightline extends service to Jacksonville.
This is part of my issue with how some people on this side wanna Americanize private rail. It should not be having the same issues as traditional air travel. That nearly defeats the purpose. Don't very much care for having a premium option unless it was a super long haul service. The over-booking is a huge red flag that they need to sort out asap. But it's better than not having any new rail, at least for this country.
Very narrow station! Thanks for the tour. We will be heading that way in couple weeks to tour both new ones. Hopefully they will figure out the overbooking issues.
It’s a small station, with not that many people using it at a time, and probably space restrictions were an issue too.
That was so nice of you to give up your seat, you get so much respect for that. I just happened upon your channel and subscribed
Great video my friend! One time for the 954. Happy New Year!
Brightline goes through my former town of Vero Beach with no stops because the town fought it. I never could understand why, but now I realize how crowded the little town would have become with all these people converging on it daily!
Its good to see there is demand for ridership with Brightline, but they gotta get this system fixed especially before Orlando comes online. How seats per car?
TY, good info! ... and you sure are easy to look at!
I hope I get to meet you someday in Miami! Props for giving up your seat! You have my respect! :)
Nice to see it is full!
That can be fixed
Are the benches padded?
I can tell you are cheering for Brightline. I am too; but the overbooking is really a problem. I think it’s particularly concerning since we do want Brightline to succeed. We desperately need better train options in the US in general. And personally, I’ve been looking forward to it going to Orlando since it opened and just hoping it still happens. In your trip, it was Ft. Lauderdale-Miami where people had no seats; and as you indicated, that’s maybe a minor irritation because the trip is really short. BUT if it happened with Aventura-Orlando, Ft Lauderdale-Orlando, WPB-Orlando, or Boca-Orlando, it would be a much bigger problem! So yeah, they need to fix before they add Orlando and Tampa so it can’t happen again. Still, you’d think they should designed the ticketing system so this couldn’t happen in the first place.
😂😂😂 these are wonderful issues that they’ll work out. Currently laughing in New England rn where extremely over booked trains is the norm 😂
Thank you. You see that anymore.
Also, did you see if they have a area for people that is disabled in a wheelchair or power chairs.
Thank you.
Wow nice video I live in Boca Raton I didn’t know of the existence of this train or where
This station was thank you keep showing us ❤️
Fortunately, you were on the one Brightline that didn't kill a pedestrian this week. ;)
Suicide by train?
I wouldn’t be able to trust that electronic lock, I’d be afraid they double booked the restroom too 😂
Wow, that is a change from when I took it last December. We were the only ones in the car.
Brightline, update your website, so the 2 new stations don’t say “under construction” anymore on your Florida map!
I love watching everything, I want to go once but I'm visually impaired and that just looks very overwhelming do they offer ada service's? Can you show those perhaps?
I'd very much like to see many more of these features on future lines across the country.
When will they add Space Coast stop?
Do you know if the Orlando station opened yet? or do you know when it will?
That's actually a very big station--there are train stations that go between states which have a ticket window, benches and restrooms.
Really good video. I think Brightline is demonstrating a bit of a lack of vision when it comes to demand. There is appears to be far more demand than they have seating capacity to support. Seems like they should be running 6 passenger car trains. When Orlando comes online, they would likely need to boost those to 8 passenger car sets. Correct me if I am wrong... I don't think they have the cars available nor cars on order to meet the demand. Because of the shortsighted thinking with the single tracking run between Cocoa and Orlando, they cannot add enough frequencies to meet demand. I suspected this might be a problem and it is appearing to be the case.
The double booking is certainly an issue, I saw that first hand on my first ride with brighline from Orlando to Miami.
Located in Orlando...im planning on doing a trip down south...will see how I fair...
Would they benefit from just booking with no assigned seat like Southwest Airlines?
Kudos for your generosity! Crazy situation, but I'm glad to see RIDERSHIP... people *could* be boycotting because it's a sin against oil and cars. Exhaust is the smell of freedom! *cough hack*
But even americans get tired of sitting for hours stuck in traffic, and all of them don’t have to switch to brightline, just enough to ease congestion, so the roads max speed can be utilized.
The train is very much needed.!!!! Not everybody enjoys driving and some people can’t drive on toll roads because of medical reasons. One person I know can’t drive on highways because she had a bad experience so she doesn’t drive on them anymore.
Another older person I know just lost peripheral vision so it will be good that he can take the train instead of being the other peoples way. I myself am too stressed driving on busy toll roads in Florida so I will definitely appreciate and take the train when it comes to Orlando.
I hope The Brightline starts up service to Orlando before the holidays.
Can’t wait to ride this from Orlando!
@joel Franco how fast was the ride from Ft Lauderdaul to Miami. Does it stop by Ft Laurderdale and
Miami Airport?
Very nice of you !!!
Wow, first time seeing this channel. Brightline is what caught my attention to watch the video. I’m glad you gave up your seat (twice) but do you think brightline would have refunded the money to those customers? I’m sure, with enough complaints and brightline refunding money, brightline will work on resolving the problem with “overselling/overbooking” seats as soon as possible.
I'm not sure but I can imagine they would refund and/or provide a credit for future ride if the rider reached out to them later that day.
This is the next big channel. I'd love to team up with you!
Is this to Orlando?
Wow hope they get their act together!
are the rail cars wheelchair friendly
You're a good dude man good for you!
This goes to show that their is demand for faster regional rail
Dang, I hope they get the booking sorted out. I would love to take advantage of the trains but if I paid for a seat and didn’t get one it would be a huge issue. I look healthy but I have a medical condition that makes it so I cannot stand for long periods of times.. you’d find me sitting in the aisle lol
Thank you for sharing your trip..
Reminds me of riding the trains in Germany when I lived there!!
Station looks great. Would be informative & cool to see what Boca Raton is like for a visit.
Boca people can be rude and materialistic.
I drove past the aventura station, it looks smaller or as small.
How much is the parking garage in boca?
Looks good hopefully they will get the rail from Vegas to California built. I doubt they will offer the free shuttle in Vegas that would be insane
I left Boca June or July 2001. I remember passing by people waiting for a train in the open air. No real station to speak of.
Awesome video. Success ! 🗝️👏🏻
Let's be honest, they are far from premium meals. They are premium snacks.
Yeah, currently, but they should get real premium meals once the orlando line opens, cause then travel time will be 3 hours instead of 1 hour 12 min.
Not to mention that they don't look in the least bit appetising.
They look disgusting. I will be brown-bagging it! Lol
Hopefully when they open the matinence depot they will add more trains and more passengers cars
Overbooking is good news for BrightLine as there has been so many naysayers. Overtime they will get the system straightened out, they just need to get the whole thing double tracked and hopefully they can get to Tampa without too many grade crossings, the biggest problem with the southern run of this trip. Once people get hooked on the train they will never go back, cause driving in Florida sucks bad.