A quick note I want to add after the fact: Although Brightline invited me to Florida and paid for my roundtrip tickets between Orlando and Miami, all of the opinions expressed in the video are my own. Also another HUGE Thank you to Brightline for allowing me to be a part of railway history!
The brightline trains do not show up at all on google maps when searching for trips with public transportation between all the different stations/cities where Brightline has service. Please share this information with Brightline leadership and staff and people you know, so this issue can be fixed quickly.
Fortress does not own FEC. It owns BL and FECI (real estate biz, mostly). Grupo Mexico owns FEC (freight railway). But they seem to get along. Historically it was all part of Flagler’s business, which developed a lot of South Florida. SoftBank recently sold Fortress to Mubadala.
Great video of the Orlando to Miami Brightline train. The building of Brightline to Orlando & soon to the Tampa Bay Area is a very smart moved and also North to Jacksonville and also Brightline West as well.
A selling point is if you're going from Orlando to Miami Central and you're going to places where you don't need a car and you don't need a car to get there you don't have to rent a car, you can take the -T- Metrorail.
I like trains but ticket from Orlando to Miami is $79, same as flight ticket. And for flight it would take around 2 hours with pre check, when train is 3+ hours. So what is the point?? Train has to be much cheaper than flight or faster.
Homecoming CANCELLATION I canceled my Brightline trip to Miami at the last minute and got a refund after learning all trains today are wrapped in crap that blocks the view and makes photgraphing Florida's less than spectacular scenery damn well impossible. Brightline Customer Service told me the wrap is coming down in January so maybe I'll fly down to the Sunshine State later next year to ride Florida's fastest train.
Brightline actually ordered 20 extra cars instead of 4 sets. They will be added to all 10 sets in service. They also have 10 Cafe cars on order for all the trains. So every train will have 7 cars. 7 cars trains will be expected by 2024-2025. Edit: I was wrong read in the comments.
Great review! As an American with a lifelong visual impairment, I think too many people forget that not everyone chooses not to drive, but some of us simply never can in the first place. Although I see where more stations would be great along the current route that would slow down the train, so maybe they could use some of their passenger vans to shuttle people form their origin point to the nearest station and vice versa. Hope Brightline West can start construction, especially as we in the US have been car dependent for far too long. I'm only in my mid-20's, but it's going to be interesting to look back on in retrospect in the few decades.
I love how I can see Miles in Transit by the escalators on the right in the background at 5:52 doing his thing, on top of you watching him get yelled at for running at 0:08 😂. The accessible seating is great! A little touch I appreciate at the MCO station is how the screens at 1:31 say Hello, Hola, and Olá, especially how it acknowledges all Latinos in Florida, not just the Hispanics like the many Cubans and Puerto Ricans, but also the Brazilians who of course speak Portuguese, which Orlando has a growing amount of Brazilians. The Mary Mary Bar at Brightline stations is in reference to Florida East Coast Railway founder Henry Flagler’s first and third wives, Mary Lily Kenan and Mary Harkness Flagler! And it's so nice to see communities like those at Stuart so passionate for the Brightline! From 1893 to 1895, Stuart was called Potsdam. This name was chosen by Otto Stypmann, originally from Potsdam, Germany. It was renamed Stuart in 1895, in honor of landowner Homer Hine (Jack) Stuart Jr, who owned 160 acres around the old Stuart railway station. Fort Lauderdale on the other hand is named for a Second Seminole War fortification built on the banks of the New River in 1838, named after Major William Lauderdale.
From Simply Railways video, some of the carriages seemed to have wheel flats already, the noise of which would get tiring rather quickly over time. Hopefully they resolve those quickly. Hopefully America will continue to reinvigorate its railways.
brightline bought a wheel truing machine (something like that) to make the wheels perfect. its placed in orlando, maybe that trainset hasnt been fixed up
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957more likely the crossing were upgraded with quad gates and small gates to prevent people entering this allows for them to receive a horn exemption and make the area a quiet zone
Brightline will NOT have a station on Disney World property. Brightline is still building a station near Disney World, but it won't be on Disney property as while Disney and Brightline once had a partnership to build a station right at Disney Springs, Disney pulled out in June 2022 after Universal and International Drive businesses got Brightline to change the alignment in their favor instead of a more direct route to Disney. And Fortress doesn't own the FEC as FECI under Fortress sold it to Grupo México in 2017, though they still own FECI and Brightline. Brightline definitely isn't perfect, it's still a fast and frequent intercity service that fills a much-needed gap! The demand for this is very much there. The more train options that people have in the US whether it's Brightline, CA HSR, big regional or commuter rail projects, or Amtrak, the better! Miami was named after the Miami River, which in turn is derived from Mayaimi, the historic name of Lake Okeechobee and the Native Americans who lived around it. Mayaimi meaning "big water". Miami is noted as the only major city in the United States founded by a woman. Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower and a wealthy Cleveland native, owned the land that Miami was built upon at the time. Julia Tuttle has a statue erected in her honor at Bayfront Park
Ye, that's the way to solve that. Commuter trains that stop every stop and express trains that can blast through stops on a thru-line to their final destination.
@@valeriekautz436 It doesn't have to be all or nothing when it comes to stopping along the route. There are probably some stops along the way which are popular enough to have just about every train stop. Mostly likely these places would be the ones currently set up as stops today. I don't know how many times per day the train is scheduled to run. There are probably clusters to handle morning and evening rushes, for people making day trips. Once the number of trips is more frequent than once an hour (or something around there). it would be possible to start having every train going to all of the mandatory stops plus a number of other stops. The number would depend on how often the company would want to have a train stop in each station. I'd suggest at the very least once in the morning and once in the evening for both directions. Then depending on ticket sales extra stops could be added. Stops would be spread out equally throughout the schedule. Busier stations would get more trains stopping and at better times. Lesser used stations would have fewer trains stopping and those stops would be at less attractive times but there would be at least one good time to access the train in the morning and to get back in the evening for every stop. If a train doesn't have any passengers to depart, or packages to leave, at a non-mandatory station and if there are no passengers to pick up at that station at 10 minutes before the train is due then the train would be free to skip the stop. They would wait until the scheduled departure time at the next station they stopped at. This would be to save wear and tear on the braking system and other equipment and to save energy. No use stopping at a station for no nothing.
I can travel I4 faster than this dressed up pig of a train to any connecting locations using my own car. No stops means no wasted time. Also, this thing isn’t anywhere NEAR bullet train times. I don’t know why they’re excited. I can get home faster in my Prius.
As a British/European (who already have 125mph and faster train) I am truely impressed and well done Brightline for getting this done! I hoep the general public see this and more such projects come to fruition. I always believed that when the high speed rail bug hits the US, that the US could quickly lead this, as the country is actually more suited to this form of travel, and most objecttions seem to be more just unfamiliarity and genuine. Will definatly be using it on my next trip there!
Wow, it’s actually hilarious how many people are sayin “Oh LoOk ThE Us HaS HiGh SpEeD rAiL nOw” when by essentially no worldwide standards is 125 mph even close to the low end of the HSR spectrum. Also hello Acela, sure it only goes 150 mph in little areas but it still reaches that speed.
Exactly. Brightline is a step in the right direction but its waaay overrated with it's level crossings, slow speeds near the major city centers and its a diesel train. The Northeast Regional does 125 mph while the Acela does 150mph---rarely has at-grade crossings and is fully electrified between Boston to Washington DC.
@@dante6563 also speaking of grade crossings, the absolutely insane number of car wrecks which happened with Brightline trains on their grade crossings
@@IGuessIDoThings Hopefully that will improve with time, because if they have less grade crossing’s, then the train can go faster. A large segment of the journey from Orlando to the country side has its own track that does not have crossings that was newly made
It’s not just higher train volumes, but better trip times that are needed. Even though they tout themselves as high speed rail, they only hit 125mph on that short section. Considering that a lot of their traffic is in the Miami to West Palm Beach area, they should really focus on getting their trains to hit 110mph on that portion rather than 79mph. In the far future (15+ years), maybe they’ll electrify the route and get themselves some tilting trains that could better manage the old FEC tracks. Only time will tell, but it’s nice that we finally have a system in this state.
Brightline will have to significantly lower their prices to compete with flying or even driving this Florida corridor! When the Euro-Star Train first started, they charged high prices from London to European destinations! Then, they realized that they needed to charge varying rates for off-peak trains to maintain profits! Brightline will eventually do the same! If you are a single traveler, it might make sense, but a family can still save hundreds of dollars, by driving!
To add something simpler… driving between them means they don’t stop for passengers and a lot of us Florida drivers speed on the highways. Totally not worth it.
Simply Railway's review on Brightline was the problem of the window's being covered, where yours were clear..I assume the covering was to show off the great color scheme and would be removed later...looks like a great train ride....thanks for the review...🌞🌞🚂🚂
Texas would benefit from a privatized rail system like this. A HSR mainline connecting Amarillo->DFW->Downtown Dallas->Waco->Austin->San Antonio->Houston Intercontinental->Downtown Houston. DFW and Houston are global hubs while the other cities have limited flight options and would benefit from HSR. Given the fact all these cities are seeing a major population boom and real estate investment, now would be a great time to build it.
Final Travel Time: Miami: None, Orlando: 30 mins - 1hr One of the huge downsides of the project, the Orlando station has the same stresses of getting to the airport, with little to no benefit, this needs to be addressed more by people like you, cause it’s insane the lack of good transit connections at MCO for a true car free ride between miami and Orlando, id rather take Amtrak instead cause of this, 2 hours longer raw travel time, but more like 1 hour longer
The whole point of high speed rail is to get from city centre to city centre, not airport to airport. May as well take an airplane, which is cheaper AND faster..
I was just in the train station a few days looking around, but I couldn’t go on it yet because I was going to the north for a family event. . I hope to take the train in about a month for the first time since I would never fly to Fort Lauderdale or Miami from Orlando and I don’t enjoy driving the toll road at all and will not so I definitely need the train. !!! :)
Nice!! I really hope that train is a success and shows car dependent America that a different form of transport is possible. The trains look amazing, I get a feeling that more and more trains in the US move away from that "we couldn't afford the paint job" metallic look. Which is really nice! It may be barely scratching the high speed rail definition (over here that would be 200km/h for upgraded lines, but 250km/h for newly built ones) but I guess this speed is pretty much the best you can do with diesel. I'm really excited for Brightline West, now that will be true high speed rail! Imagine the people in cars being like - "Was that a train just passing us?" - "Don't know! It was such a blur!" 😅
I hope I’m still in the content creator scene so I can be a part Brightline west as well. The future certainly looks bright for rail travel here in the US.
I doubt that that Americans will ever take to the train as an alternate mode of travel. They may ride it once or twice for kicks but then they will go right back to their SUV's. You see American clutch to their SUV's as much as they clutch their Smartphone. Nice try though.
@@jackjules7552 If I'm travelling that trip by myself, then the train wins. If I'm taking my family, now it's 4 tickets instead of 1, plus I still need to move them at the destination. SUV wins hands down just on cost. If they offer a lower total cost family ticket, the train gets more competitive.
Hopefully the United States will keep progressing. I say we are far behind the UK and Europe, and some of Asia with our train infrastructure and progress is greatly needed since we can’t keep building and adding more and more lanes to our highways\ motorways is all the time it takes away from the countryside.
Im hoping that more people will see and experience high speed running and want it in their local area too. Plus once Brightline west opens, everyone will want proper high speed rail everywhere.
On the 140 mph service from London to Kent using the Hitachi (Javelin) trains the ride quality is excellent but I did note the 125 mph service Edinburgh - London was less comfortable (but stil OK). Possibly a track issue.
Just from looking at this video, the UK 125mph ride quality that I've experienced on the GWR main line seems generally better or at least on par with Brightline's. I suppose it's hard to tell from video alone but it looks like there's a lot lateral wobbling going on.
This looks great, but I really hope the cost goes down as the line matures. $160 for a round trip seem a bit steep for the cheapest tickets. I recall that a London to Sheffield train fare when I last looked was around 60 GBP round trip. The price difference there is staggering to say the least! Given the options, I'd almost certainly drive myself. It's not like the "high speed" train even saves you any time between Orlando and Miami - most car trips will take about 4 hours with typical traffic as long as you're not driving during rush hour. Also, regarding your claim that flights are more expensive to Miami from Orlando, that's not always true. I found plenty of flights for about $148 round trip as early as 2 weeks out, which is cheaper than Brightline. Unlike Brightline though, the prices fluctuate for the flights. In that regard, if you are inflexible with your travel dates or are booking on short notice, then perhaps the train would be cheaper then.
Why is the ride ' louder than normal'?? Yes, I agree: the food selection is VERY DISAPPOINTING. It would actually discourage me from riding premium!! Wouldn't the issue with more intermediate stations be that would add significantly to the trip time?? Enjoyed the vid.
Brightline's maximum operating speed is 125 mph (201 km/h), the lowest speed to qualify as high-speed rail by international standards. Trains cover the 235 mi (378 km) route in as little as 3 hours and 25 minutes, which is an average speed of 69 mph (111 km/h).
Not even close. The international shresold for high speed train is 155mph or 250 kph, and multiple lines in operation run as fast as over 217mph or 350 kph.
No one will consider top speed to be qualified as a high speed rail. The average is used to qualify it. The narrative and the way media reporting it is just a joke. Only shows how inarrurate they are
Well that doesn't matter. Yes it's basically high speed rail light. only barely fulfilling the minimum requirements for HSR , but you know how incredibly expensive HSR is to build, right? And especially in a anti train country with no real ambition to support trains/HSR, it is not that easy to get enough financial support.... The only chance is to build a waayyy cheaper HSR light and hope to get a lot of media coverage, general hype and success, brightline did this, succeeded and now it is way easier to secure needed finances and they can build a real (and expensive) HSR: LA - las vegas with promised (320 km/h) :) maybe that will kickstart a new train era in the US....
And when they eventually do, they'll use a separate SunRail platform only, just to remaind SunRail users that they're an untouchable inferior caste. Gotta love the "land of the free".
They probably won’t for awhile initially the plan was a joint line as part of the Tampa expansion that both brightline and sun rail would use but the government got greedy and wanted brightline to pay for it while giving sun rail full control of the line hence the Orlando representatives push for the route by the convention center but brightline seems to have smartly left that idea and gone for the southern route towards Disney springs that avoids this
@@LonestarTrips "Relatively" being the key word here. SunRail will need a total reconfiguration from the status quo: seven days a week instead of M-F for a start. Brightline isn't exactly known for being patient so waiting 10 for Orange County ain't happening.
Yaehhhhh cheer the suits as the people of Florida are run over by a high-speed bullet as they play Russian Roulet to cross the tracks. Sad day for coastal Floridians and wild life!
Why is it recommended to be at the station 30 minutes before the scheduled time? I don't get it, on average when I use the train I only go 3-5 minutes before.
Expensive and not very fast. Are there good supporting transportation options at the trip's end points? If not, then it is just an expensive and not very practical choice.
Faster faster faster! Brightline is getting close to announcing the Phoenix to Rancho Cucamonga segment, stops at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, downtown Phoenix, Goodyear, Gila Bend, Yuma, Indio/Coachella, Palm Springs, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga... Connections to LA. Right of way is there... Could be the quickest construction and can be pushed to 225+ mph.
Great video! And nice to meet you on this trip (I was in 3A). My flight home afterward connected in Orlando and from stepping off the train in Miami to stepping off an American Airlines plane into MCO airport was about 3 hours, 5 minutes, inclusive of ground transport to terminal, airport transit, and flight. Had enough time to eat lunch in the Admirals Club. But, I fly 1-2 times a week and with no checked bags, PreCheck, etc., my airport time is usually sub one-hour if I have my way. I will be curious to see if Brightline does any discounting by day of week peak/offpeak in the future when schedule is at full plan. I can get a ticket on Spirit one way FLL-MCO for $14.91 - $0.01 plus taxes (plus baggage, if anything over a backpack is needed, but Spirit typically carries a lot of day-trippers on this route). It's definitely a competitive marketplace. I would hope Brightline finds a balance in its schedule as additional infill stations come online, as each stop adds journey time, and maintains some limited stop services, but I also don't know enough to know the feasibility with the tracks used as this would require some level of leap-frogging trains.
Thanks, and it was a pleasure to meet you too! That's interesting that the flight's travel time was right about what I expected it to be, though I don't think they'll be able to beat Spirit's fares (Well not without standing room only lol). My anticipation is Brightline operates with the current fare structure for a few months to see community feedback/revenue in general, and then make an adjustment from there. The addition of new stations will be an interesting thing to watch for sure. My guess is they'll do with those like what they currently do with Boca Raton, and build a single, side platform on one track, and run through trains on the mainline.
I commented to you on another post a few days ago about the reducing of trains from 16 to 8 until October 24th & wondering if 16 was too many roundtrips. I don't know what their profit margin is on a 240 passenger train but would be surprised if they could meet it on an hourly basis. I think an airline would have started that service like the hourly air shuttle for decades between Washington, NYC, & Boston if the numbers were there. I pulled up the trains for this Sunday, Oct. 1 to see if I could possibly get on an earlier train than the one they rebooked me on at 2:54 since they cancelled the 1:50 train I booked in July. If my flight into MCO is on time, I should be able to get the 12:54 trip. Anyhow, I noticed they really upped the fares for Sunday. I paid $149.00 for Premium & some of the trains are up to $269.00 one way Premium. One of the train trips is charging $134. Smart fare one way. If they up the fares like that, I think they will price themselves to low passenger counts. I think most families of 4, for example, will drive, pay a turnpike toll, a couple tanks of gas & have their own transportation instead of paying several hundred dollars for the train, parking, & local transportation when they arrive at their destination. I hope Brightline will rethink the pricing structure in order to get full trains or at least full enough to manage a profit..
2:02is that the normal kind of ticket? It looks like a piece of paper that you have to make sure is just exactly so that the pernickety scanner will read it. I can see that causing a few delays
Unfortunately, reality will hit. That train racing thru intersections , with guardrails down. Is disaster waiting to happen. Sooner than later. It's coming. In southern Florida the so called Tri-Rail service going fraction of that speed is constantly in collision with dumb car drivers. Hope Bright line been tested, WHAT HAPPENS when 125mph, train, full of swell passengers hits car or truck. Massive disaster. Bright line closed for Good. Ashame. Designers, zoning should have made either elevated or elevated over major inter sections too. Built on the Cheap. Multi- billion, billion dollar lawsuit will follow, bankrupting Bright line. Too bad. The hype, the drama. Could ot will be future Titanic.
The 125 mph portion is completely separated from the road with the 110 mph portion having grade crossing guards. Improvements have been made throughout the line for all of the intersections that the train passes through. This used to be a problem before, but it's not one now.
Clearly nothing but an ad for BRIGHTLINE. Whole video could have be done in a 5 minute video. The narrator acts like high speed rail was invented in Florida.
Why are these not electric trains? Can Florida not provide the infrastructure for them? If they add more stations along the line it's just going to slow them down and make the trip way to long.
On some of the trains, Smart seats are $99.00 one way between Orlando & Miami, according to their website. When I bought my Premium seat in July for this coming Sunday, Oct.1st from Orlando to West Palm, I paid $149.00 but some of the trains have the fare at $229.00 one way (my Akron to Orlando flight in Business class is $224.00 one way). Of course, whether you're flying or taking Brightline, you have to go to Orlando airport. If your destination isn't the city, you still have added time; so that equation is pretty tricky to estimate. The Premium food offering does look pretty basic & disappointing. They should also offer a hot food option like Amtrak's Acela trains.
Looks good so far, though for use as a commuter service, I would like to see a better price option, maybe like some kind of monthly or weekly pass. Especially if they open that Tampa - Disney Springs line.
Nice video! So exciting that brightline is a higher speed rail service in the US. Definitely need to head down to Florida sometime this year or the next to experience this! Super modern too.
Did you just say brightline is a higher speed rail in service in the U.S. lol, obviously, only in Florida, not the U.S. and Amtrak is actually the higher speed rail in service Amtrak trains can go up to 130mph for a long time then goes 150mph ones it gets to an area obviously it's short but that's is some speed that brightline can't even get to and what I'm talking about from D.C to new york and what's crazy is that Amtrak newer train that they have been testing can go up to 160mph to 220mph and I'm not lying look it up to me 125mph isn't nothing.
@@apollospace9804 i know that’s why I said higher speed rail the Acela is the fastest in the US but brightline finally upgraded to 125 mph which is the HSR standard across the globe
@@apollospace9804 and yes I’m aware of the new Avelia Liberty sets that are set to arrive next year, they’ve been pushed back so long with maintenance issues and from Monmouth junction to Trenton will reach speeds of 160 mph on the high tension catenary, although the area in Hamilton is yet to be completed
@AcelaRailan2150 ok cause I was about to say lol Like i know, brightline is more modern looking, but they could have upgraded the speed of 150mph. i think when Tampa is completed and reached to Jacksonville, Florida, I know brightline West will go up to 180mph in California when they complete their tracks and stations, but I should say about time America should have high speed trains so we can finally catch up our technology just like other countries.
We rode brightline from west palm to miami and back earlier this year and we absolutely loved the experience. So much better than dealing with traffic down there on the freeways. so excited to see it now open to orlando~!
I forgot to add... thanks to Thibault @ SimplyRailway for providing that video clip of Bright Orange II leaving the Orlando station. And, I just became a Patreon sub for your content. 😎
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Quality video & oration presentation. Wonder when it'll become another tax payer government subsidy like (Am-Trac) -???🤔.
Great video!!! Congrats to Brightline! I remember watching them build the station at MCO as my plane taxis to the terminal. As the service gets more popular, Brightline is going to improve line between WPB and MCO. To all the "Its not high-speed rail, 125mph isn't nothing", would y'all be saying the same thing if it was Amtrak? It took them 20 years to get to 110mph in Michigan and Illinois. Brightline has done it in less than half the time.
Also, amtrak's fastest train NEC is too expensive when you book tomorrow tickets, brightline is much more affordable compared to that. More than $200 dollar from NYC to Boston just push people driving or taking bus. Pricing policy shouldn't be like this when it comes to train.
I've been watching Brightline videos (especially construction) for a couple years and they seem to run a very nice operation. The ride looked so smooth. I am really looking forward to Brightline West because driving to Vegas from SoCal is a nightmare.
Florida High Speed Rail didn't "fall through". It was cancelled the governor Rick Scott -- who then invested heavily in Fortress, the investment fund that owns Brightline.
I really hope Brightline creates a full circle in Florida by going SOUTH from Tampa, connecting Sarasota/Bradenton airport, Venice, Punta Gorda airport, Ft. Myers, Naples then across alligator alley back to Miami. They have straight line access along the I75
It would be nice, but our railways have been sabotaged from the beginning. The big oil people didn’t like the economical dream of a bullet train from Tampa to Orlando. Rick Scott is a major blow to having that as a reality. Yet people still vote for him. I’ll never know why.
It’s NOT “swampland” between Orlando and Cocoa. It is marshland (St. Johns) which has a flow and eventually turns into the St. John’s River to the north.
In order for Brightline West to be profitable, they HAVE TO take the train into LA proper! Going just to Rancho and then boarding regular rail is a complete turnoff to the concept. I've suggested they should partner with CHSR for their right of ways and split costs and profits for that section. It'd be ideal as Brightline then would ACTUALLY go station to station from Vegas to LA, and for CHSR they'd start generating SOME revenue and get butts in seats before 2030 most likely. It's by no means a perfect situation for either party, but the reward would vastly outweigh the negative.
I've driven the planned route for brightline west, and there is no way they're achieving 225mph, let alone anything above 125mph. That route is just too winding and hilly, unlike Florida.
First time from Aventura to Orlando and was VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!. We got STUCK in traffic, Yes!!!, you would think on a train you avoid traffic!!!: well NOT in this one. They stopped several times for LONG PERIODS of time without any explanation at all!!! And they don’t even let you know what is going on!!!. A trip that was supposed to take 3 hours….. more than 4!!!!. Very disappointing!!!. EXPENSIVE, LONGER than driving and I also forgot how UNCOMFORTABLE the seats are!!!. Stiff and impossible to lean back not even a bit!!!
It doesn’t travel at 125 mph. That’s just the maximum possible speed of the locomotive. That’s like saying a car with a maximum speed of 145 mph travels at 145 mph.
So lucky. Those of us in the Northeast are stuck with Amtrak. I hope it is successful. But I disagree about more stops. That will slow the time down. Can't stand it when I take a train with a million stops.
From the FEC website: "Florida East Coast Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary Grupo México Transportes (GMXT), the leading Class I railroad in Mexico."
reminds me of the UK's Intercity 125. Just 47 years late. Or Australian New South Wales XPT,, 40 years ago. Oh well. we carried on with steam locos into mid '60s, long after the US.
For a German it’s a Regional Train, they go 100 mph regularly, electrified. Deutsche Bahn belongs to all People, no Profit Greed. That’s why it won’t work in the USA.
Between two airports. OK. But to go from MIA to South Beach is at least an hour bus ride. From the Orlando airport to Disney Word is at least 2 hours. A line from Jax airport to Ft. Lauderdale Airport and Orlando Airport would be useful, since the JAX airport is, more or less, pathetic. Also, Jax to Gainesville and on to Tampa could be useful. And Jax to Biloxi, a mini Las Vegas. But so long as you want to send $120,000,000,000 to Ukraine it will never happen.
Good luck with that. Embarrassing. 125MPH. I hope it succeeds until it makes sense. $75 / Pp orlando to Miami in 2.5 hours. In Japan and Seole we go 198MPH to o go almost twice that distance in the same time. Step up brightline
Right now, there are fares as low as $29.56 from WPB to Orlando. The only issue is that there isn't transit connectivity at MCO at the moment. So Orlando needs to do more work. Uber isn't cheap anymore and having to take Uber is stupid when you could've just brought your car and saved yourself the ride share expense.
Don’t kid yourself! This is but a higher speed normal train. Some subway in first tier cities in China runs nearly the same speed! 25 mph on a bridge. You must be joking! We are way behind almost all developed country. Indonesia’s HSR runs at 375 kph!
Nice looking train, it needs a cup holder for drinks on the tray table, a footrest, better meals the premium meal was very ordinary and looked it, there's no luggage racks at the end of the carriage, Braille numbers on seats & doors would be advantageous, the blue lead may be a trigger for colour & light sensitive people....price not bad, here in Australia we pay that for an old, dirty, smelly train seat and no food or drinks
How did Brightline do it?!😃 it's called a "Monopoly"!😃🤡 Honestly, by how rough that ride looks, this ticket better be more than affordable. Japan is cringing so hard at how rocky this train is. Very disappointing.
Does Brightline completely skip a stop/service to Fort Lauderdale airport? Why? Seems silly. Cruisers out of Miami can opt to fly into Fort Lauderdale, then take the Brightline down to Miami.....They should really consider connecting to the largest cruise port in the world. while down there.
Everybody looks for a good deal. Brightline prices must be competitive. High-speed, that I'm not sure about. Three and a half hours to Miami ? Not much difference from the Bus Services.
The service started the week after the last scheduled "Cross Country InterCity 125 HST" ran, after their 47 years of service, in a very similar diesel powered format, in the UK (though no USB-C sockets). If Florida hadn't had a Russian funded, multi-term congressman, who's nailed his colors to the mast, over not having any of these new fangled trains. As they will only get in the way of Floridians wondering or driving or boating, when and where they choose. Let alone impose on the locals any construction that will hinder; be it a fence, barrier, or other devilish erection, in playing kiss-chase with a gator / their sister, or getting to Church, and under no circumstance any Public monies spent on building any infrastructure that will permit rail services avoid the traditional wonderings and pastimes of the locals, the service would likely have started decades back, and speeds be far higher. Though that would be against the locals wishes, then again the no stations built in that congressman's county, to prevent the locals engaging with the evil service, may not be such a bad thing, after all they're the ones who voted for him, and have many a brother / cousin / uncle run over by one of those rude, noisy, brightly colored, fast, iron horses.
Very disappointed in the pricing and speed of the train. $270 for 2 (base tickets) people to travel round trip to West Palm. For locals this train is a waste right now. You have to travel to the airport by Uber or park your car for a fee. Then you pay way too much to arrive in about the same time you would have driven and have no vehicle or Uber when you get there. The experience you showed would cost almost $400 for two people not including Ubers or parking and save zero travel time. Trying to understand the value of the train. Was very excited when they announced it. Thought we would be getting a high speed train for mass transit. We received a train that moves at 1960s high speeds, is not easily accessible, and is priced so that most of the country can’t afford to use it.
Hey man, I love the SC-42 as much as the next train nerd (my area is getting one in a few years) but c'mon, 125mph is not high speed rail so stop treating it as such.
As someone from Tampa and a long time resident, this train sounds great but a lot of us see this as something that should’ve been here already. That being said our second hope was a truly high speed rail. And that was not met. This rail looks very nice but maybe not worth the price. My car can go faster than those trains and I wouldn’t have to deal with other people’s attitudes and demeanors, yet the cost of a seat. There’s a reason why we drive. Also, Orlando to Miami doesn’t make sense. Miami is a great place but no theme park. Now Tampa to Orlando makes much more sense! We both have theme parks and beaches on opposite sides! But again, I can drive faster than the trains. So, what is it worth?
It's pretty useless to the majority of people in between Miami and Orlando. I hope it grows to be as useful as Asian rail systems. America is pretty behind in rail service.
A quick note I want to add after the fact: Although Brightline invited me to Florida and paid for my roundtrip tickets between Orlando and Miami, all of the opinions expressed in the video are my own.
Also another HUGE Thank you to Brightline for allowing me to be a part of railway history!
So does that still qualify you as the first “revenue passenger” then? 🤔 😂😂
The brightline trains do not show up at all on google maps when searching for trips with public transportation between all the different stations/cities where Brightline has service. Please share this information with Brightline leadership and staff and people you know, so this issue can be fixed quickly.
Fortress does not own FEC. It owns BL and FECI (real estate biz, mostly). Grupo Mexico owns FEC (freight railway). But they seem to get along. Historically it was all part of Flagler’s business, which developed a lot of South Florida.
SoftBank recently sold Fortress to Mubadala.
@@FromtheWindowSeat shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... I was the first person to scan through the gates, so technically yes.
Give it time. They just opened fully but I did check and only SunRail is on Google Transit.@@ncard00
I enjoyed that you caught Miles in transit get yelled at for running to the front of the train.
Haha yeah lol. I got to meet him and chat for a bit, super nice guy.
I was about to say I just saw his vid 😂. Travel in the US often feels like being back at school.
@@baseballfan99p0p0p😊😊😊😊😊😊😊
If is not 200km/h is not hsr
Where is that clip? I wanna see it
Choo-choo! Great work. I can't wait to take Brightline when I'm next over from Europe, great views from the windows!
Great video of the Orlando to Miami Brightline train. The building of Brightline to Orlando & soon to the Tampa Bay Area is a very smart moved and also North to Jacksonville and also Brightline West as well.
Excellent review! Had no idea it was at the MCO airport!
A selling point is if you're going from Orlando to Miami Central and you're going to places where you don't need a car and you don't need a car to get there you don't have to rent a car, you can take the -T- Metrorail.
I like trains but ticket from Orlando to Miami is $79, same as flight ticket. And for flight it would take around 2 hours with pre check, when train is 3+ hours. So what is the point?? Train has to be much cheaper than flight or faster.
Homecoming
CANCELLATION
I canceled my Brightline trip to Miami at the last minute and got a refund after learning all trains today are wrapped in crap that blocks the view and makes photgraphing Florida's less than spectacular scenery damn well impossible. Brightline Customer Service told me the wrap is coming down in January so maybe I'll fly down to the Sunshine State later next year to ride Florida's fastest train.
Airlines these days give a feeling similar to that of riding Greyhound. This looks nice.
Brightline actually ordered 20 extra cars instead of 4 sets. They will be added to all 10 sets in service. They also have 10 Cafe cars on order for all the trains. So every train will have 7 cars. 7 cars trains will be expected by 2024-2025.
Edit: I was wrong read in the comments.
Yea!!!
Where do you have this information from? Do you have a link you can post?
Thats great, I thought 4 car set overpowered...
Should’ve been 8
@@xNesimxTrainsShould’ve been 10, what the platforms are built for.
Great review! As an American with a lifelong visual impairment, I think too many people forget that not everyone chooses not to drive, but some of us simply never can in the first place. Although I see where more stations would be great along the current route that would slow down the train, so maybe they could use some of their passenger vans to shuttle people form their origin point to the nearest station and vice versa. Hope Brightline West can start construction, especially as we in the US have been car dependent for far too long. I'm only in my mid-20's, but it's going to be interesting to look back on in retrospect in the few decades.
I love how I can see Miles in Transit by the escalators on the right in the background at 5:52 doing his thing, on top of you watching him get yelled at for running at 0:08 😂. The accessible seating is great! A little touch I appreciate at the MCO station is how the screens at 1:31 say Hello, Hola, and Olá, especially how it acknowledges all Latinos in Florida, not just the Hispanics like the many Cubans and Puerto Ricans, but also the Brazilians who of course speak Portuguese, which Orlando has a growing amount of Brazilians. The Mary Mary Bar at Brightline stations is in reference to Florida East Coast Railway founder Henry Flagler’s first and third wives, Mary Lily Kenan and Mary Harkness Flagler!
And it's so nice to see communities like those at Stuart so passionate for the Brightline! From 1893 to 1895, Stuart was called Potsdam. This name was chosen by Otto Stypmann, originally from Potsdam, Germany. It was renamed Stuart in 1895, in honor of landowner Homer Hine (Jack) Stuart Jr, who owned 160 acres around the old Stuart railway station. Fort Lauderdale on the other hand is named for a Second Seminole War fortification built on the banks of the New River in 1838, named after Major William Lauderdale.
From Simply Railways video, some of the carriages seemed to have wheel flats already, the noise of which would get tiring rather quickly over time. Hopefully they resolve those quickly.
Hopefully America will continue to reinvigorate its railways.
I actually ended up on the train with the flat wheel heading back north. I’ll touch on it and the problems with it in a future video.
Not to mention the hundreds of times the horn has to blow through the small towns?
brightline bought a wheel truing machine (something like that) to make the wheels perfect. its placed in orlando, maybe that trainset hasnt been fixed up
@@jameylane1591 I believe the small towns have rules against the blowing of the horns in their small towns
@@enjoyslearningandtravel7957more likely the crossing were upgraded with quad gates and small gates to prevent people entering this allows for them to receive a horn exemption and make the area a quiet zone
Brightline will NOT have a station on Disney World property. Brightline is still building a station near Disney World, but it won't be on Disney property as while Disney and Brightline once had a partnership to build a station right at Disney Springs, Disney pulled out in June 2022 after Universal and International Drive businesses got Brightline to change the alignment in their favor instead of a more direct route to Disney. And Fortress doesn't own the FEC as FECI under Fortress sold it to Grupo México in 2017, though they still own FECI and Brightline. Brightline definitely isn't perfect, it's still a fast and frequent intercity service that fills a much-needed gap!
The demand for this is very much there. The more train options that people have in the US whether it's Brightline, CA HSR, big regional or commuter rail projects, or Amtrak, the better! Miami was named after the Miami River, which in turn is derived from Mayaimi, the historic name of Lake Okeechobee and the Native Americans who lived around it. Mayaimi meaning "big water". Miami is noted as the only major city in the United States founded by a woman. Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower and a wealthy Cleveland native, owned the land that Miami was built upon at the time. Julia Tuttle has a statue erected in her honor at Bayfront Park
Brightline needs to make it easier to walk and cycle to and from their stations!
The “downside” of adding more stops would be then less competitive travel time. Maybe some trains that run express?
Ye, that's the way to solve that. Commuter trains that stop every stop and express trains that can blast through stops on a thru-line to their final destination.
@@valeriekautz436
It doesn't have to be all or nothing when it comes to stopping along the route. There are probably some stops along the way which are popular enough to have just about every train stop. Mostly likely these places would be the ones currently set up as stops today.
I don't know how many times per day the train is scheduled to run. There are probably clusters to handle morning and evening rushes, for people making day trips. Once the number of trips is more frequent than once an hour (or something around there). it would be possible to start having every train going to all of the mandatory stops plus a number of other stops. The number would depend on how often the company would want to have a train stop in each station. I'd suggest at the very least once in the morning and once in the evening for both directions. Then depending on ticket sales extra stops could be added. Stops would be spread out equally throughout the schedule. Busier stations would get more trains stopping and at better times. Lesser used stations would have fewer trains stopping and those stops would be at less attractive times but there would be at least one good time to access the train in the morning and to get back in the evening for every stop.
If a train doesn't have any passengers to depart, or packages to leave, at a non-mandatory station and if there are no passengers to pick up at that station at 10 minutes before the train is due then the train would be free to skip the stop. They would wait until the scheduled departure time at the next station they stopped at. This would be to save wear and tear on the braking system and other equipment and to save energy. No use stopping at a station for no nothing.
I can travel I4 faster than this dressed up pig of a train to any connecting locations using my own car. No stops means no wasted time. Also, this thing isn’t anywhere NEAR bullet train times. I don’t know why they’re excited. I can get home faster in my Prius.
As a British/European (who already have 125mph and faster train) I am truely impressed and well done Brightline for getting this done! I hoep the general public see this and more such projects come to fruition. I always believed that when the high speed rail bug hits the US, that the US could quickly lead this, as the country is actually more suited to this form of travel, and most objecttions seem to be more just unfamiliarity and genuine.
Will definatly be using it on my next trip there!
Wow, it’s actually hilarious how many people are sayin “Oh LoOk ThE Us HaS HiGh SpEeD rAiL nOw” when by essentially no worldwide standards is 125 mph even close to the low end of the HSR spectrum. Also hello Acela, sure it only goes 150 mph in little areas but it still reaches that speed.
Exactly. Brightline is a step in the right direction but its waaay overrated with it's level crossings, slow speeds near the major city centers and its a diesel train. The Northeast Regional does 125 mph while the Acela does 150mph---rarely has at-grade crossings and is fully electrified between Boston to Washington DC.
@@dante6563 also speaking of grade crossings, the absolutely insane number of car wrecks which happened with Brightline trains on their grade crossings
I would say 110mph is the low end of the HSR spectrum
Well, the United States has to start somewhere and you know the United States is behind and train for passengers, so it’s progress. Small steps.
@@IGuessIDoThings Hopefully that will improve with time, because if they have less grade crossing’s, then the train can go faster.
A large segment of the journey from Orlando to the country side has its own track that does not have crossings that was newly made
It’s not just higher train volumes, but better trip times that are needed. Even though they tout themselves as high speed rail, they only hit 125mph on that short section. Considering that a lot of their traffic is in the Miami to West Palm Beach area, they should really focus on getting their trains to hit 110mph on that portion rather than 79mph. In the far future (15+ years), maybe they’ll electrify the route and get themselves some tilting trains that could better manage the old FEC tracks. Only time will tell, but it’s nice that we finally have a system in this state.
Brightline will have to significantly lower their prices to compete with flying or even driving this Florida corridor!
When the Euro-Star Train first started, they charged high prices from London to European destinations! Then, they
realized that they needed to charge varying rates for off-peak trains to maintain profits! Brightline will eventually do
the same! If you are a single traveler, it might make sense, but a family can still save hundreds of dollars, by driving!
To add something simpler… driving between them means they don’t stop for passengers and a lot of us Florida drivers speed on the highways. Totally not worth it.
Simply Railway's review on Brightline was the problem of the window's being covered, where yours were clear..I assume the covering was to show off the great color scheme and would be removed later...looks like a great train ride....thanks for the review...🌞🌞🚂🚂
I actually ended up on the same train as he did on the way back north, so I’ll address the issues with that and the flat wheel.
👍@@LonestarTrips
Texas would benefit from a privatized rail system like this. A HSR mainline connecting Amarillo->DFW->Downtown Dallas->Waco->Austin->San Antonio->Houston Intercontinental->Downtown Houston. DFW and Houston are global hubs while the other cities have limited flight options and would benefit from HSR. Given the fact all these cities are seeing a major population boom and real estate investment, now would be a great time to build it.
I found this video laughable tbh. This was not a review, it was a full-on promotion as you quite literally kissed Brightline's butt at every turn.
Final Travel Time: Miami: None, Orlando: 30 mins - 1hr
One of the huge downsides of the project, the Orlando station has the same stresses of getting to the airport, with little to no benefit, this needs to be addressed more by people like you, cause it’s insane the lack of good transit connections at MCO for a true car free ride between miami and Orlando, id rather take Amtrak instead cause of this, 2 hours longer raw travel time, but more like 1 hour longer
The whole point of high speed rail is to get from city centre to city centre, not airport to airport. May as well take an airplane, which is cheaper AND faster..
@@AndrewMott6 well miami is in the city, but Orlando isn’t like I stated, ridership will not be as high as it should because if this major design flaw
I think the ridership will increase especially with traffic on 95 and high tolls ppl will use it more over time
I was just in the train station a few days looking around, but I couldn’t go on it yet because I was going to the north for a family event. . I hope to take the train in about a month for the first time since I would never fly to Fort Lauderdale or Miami from Orlando and I don’t enjoy driving the toll road at all and will not so I definitely need the train. !!! :)
I’m glad Brightline is able to fill that travel gap! The train is definitely the best way to travel.
Nice!! I really hope that train is a success and shows car dependent America that a different form of transport is possible. The trains look amazing, I get a feeling that more and more trains in the US move away from that "we couldn't afford the paint job" metallic look. Which is really nice!
It may be barely scratching the high speed rail definition (over here that would be 200km/h for upgraded lines, but 250km/h for newly built ones) but I guess this speed is pretty much the best you can do with diesel.
I'm really excited for Brightline West, now that will be true high speed rail! Imagine the people in cars being like
- "Was that a train just passing us?"
- "Don't know! It was such a blur!" 😅
I hope I’m still in the content creator scene so I can be a part Brightline west as well. The future certainly looks bright for rail travel here in the US.
And it's privately owned! That makes it even better and the future looking bright for high quality rail travel.
I doubt that that Americans will ever take to the train as an alternate mode of travel. They may ride it once or twice for kicks but then they will go right back to their SUV's. You see American clutch to their SUV's as much as they clutch their Smartphone. Nice try though.
@@jackjules7552Northeast corridor, New York, and Washington DC say hi to
@@jackjules7552 If I'm travelling that trip by myself, then the train wins. If I'm taking my family, now it's 4 tickets instead of 1, plus I still need to move them at the destination. SUV wins hands down just on cost.
If they offer a lower total cost family ticket, the train gets more competitive.
125 mph running is truly amazing! Luckily this is pretty common here in the UK, but with our new Hitachi trains the ride quality isn't the greatest
Hopefully the United States will keep progressing. I say we are far behind the UK and Europe, and some of Asia with our train infrastructure and progress is greatly needed since we can’t keep building and adding more and more lanes to our highways\ motorways is all the time it takes away from the countryside.
Im hoping that more people will see and experience high speed running and want it in their local area too. Plus once Brightline west opens, everyone will want proper high speed rail everywhere.
On the 140 mph service from London to Kent using the Hitachi (Javelin) trains the ride quality is excellent but I did note the 125 mph service Edinburgh - London was less comfortable (but stil OK). Possibly a track issue.
Just from looking at this video, the UK 125mph ride quality that I've experienced on the GWR main line seems generally better or at least on par with Brightline's. I suppose it's hard to tell from video alone but it looks like there's a lot lateral wobbling going on.
@@LonestarTrips If is not 200km/h is not hsr
This looks great, but I really hope the cost goes down as the line matures. $160 for a round trip seem a bit steep for the cheapest tickets. I recall that a London to Sheffield train fare when I last looked was around 60 GBP round trip. The price difference there is staggering to say the least!
Given the options, I'd almost certainly drive myself. It's not like the "high speed" train even saves you any time between Orlando and Miami - most car trips will take about 4 hours with typical traffic as long as you're not driving during rush hour.
Also, regarding your claim that flights are more expensive to Miami from Orlando, that's not always true. I found plenty of flights for about $148 round trip as early as 2 weeks out, which is cheaper than Brightline. Unlike Brightline though, the prices fluctuate for the flights. In that regard, if you are inflexible with your travel dates or are booking on short notice, then perhaps the train would be cheaper then.
Why is the ride ' louder than normal'?? Yes, I agree: the food selection is VERY DISAPPOINTING. It would actually discourage me from riding premium!! Wouldn't the issue with more intermediate stations be that would add significantly to the trip time?? Enjoyed the vid.
Thanks for your delicious review of Brightline from my hometown Orlando to Miami.
Of course! Glad you enjoyed the ride.
Brightline's maximum operating speed is 125 mph (201 km/h), the lowest speed to qualify as high-speed rail by international standards. Trains cover the 235 mi (378 km) route in as little as 3 hours and 25 minutes, which is an average speed of 69 mph (111 km/h).
Not even close. The international shresold for high speed train is 155mph or 250 kph, and multiple lines in operation run as fast as over 217mph or 350 kph.
No one will consider top speed to be qualified as a high speed rail. The average is used to qualify it. The narrative and the way media reporting it is just a joke. Only shows how inarrurate they are
@@mosessumit7757, Indonesia has high speed rail 350 km/h.
@@Imzaluzzulazmi Congratulations 🎉🎉
Well that doesn't matter. Yes it's basically high speed rail light. only barely fulfilling the minimum requirements for HSR , but you know how incredibly expensive HSR is to build, right? And especially in a anti train country with no real ambition to support trains/HSR, it is not that easy to get enough financial support....
The only chance is to build a waayyy cheaper HSR light and hope to get a lot of media coverage, general hype and success, brightline did this, succeeded and now it is way easier to secure needed finances and they can build a real (and expensive) HSR: LA - las vegas with promised (320 km/h) :)
maybe that will kickstart a new train era in the US....
Crazy that SunRail does not already connect to the Orlando airport
SunRail hardly connects to anything useful. they dont even connect to theme parks, literally the biggest reason why people visit to begin with.
Yeah it’s a real shame. But the plan is to integrate service relatively soon.
And when they eventually do, they'll use a separate SunRail platform only, just to remaind SunRail users that they're an untouchable inferior caste. Gotta love the "land of the free".
They probably won’t for awhile initially the plan was a joint line as part of the Tampa expansion that both brightline and sun rail would use but the government got greedy and wanted brightline to pay for it while giving sun rail full control of the line hence the Orlando representatives push for the route by the convention center but brightline seems to have smartly left that idea and gone for the southern route towards Disney springs that avoids this
@@LonestarTrips "Relatively" being the key word here. SunRail will need a total reconfiguration from the status quo: seven days a week instead of M-F for a start. Brightline isn't exactly known for being patient so waiting 10 for Orange County ain't happening.
I cannot wait until they connect Orlando to Tampa!
Me too! Connecting Tampa to Orlando is going to be such a fantastic service.
And by extension connecting Tampa and Miami and vice versa.
Don't hold your breath, lots of local politics getting in the way.
Or maybe in the longer term Orlando to Jacksonville or possibly Atlanta…
So we're not gonna talk about driving takes the same amount of time 🤦🏽♂️ America can't even have a true high speed rail why are we so behind in tech.
High speed rail didn’t’fall through’.
Rick Scott, aka Voldemort, killed it.
Yaehhhhh cheer the suits as the people of Florida are run over by a high-speed bullet as they play Russian Roulet to cross the tracks. Sad day for coastal Floridians and wild life!
Why is it recommended to be at the station 30 minutes before the scheduled time? I don't get it, on average when I use the train I only go 3-5 minutes before.
Expensive and not very fast. Are there good supporting transportation options at the trip's end points? If not, then it is just an expensive and not very practical choice.
really wish brightline added some grade separation along the us1 part of the route. too many grade crossings.
I hear this locomotive is nicknamed the Railway Pedestrian Killer...
Faster faster faster! Brightline is getting close to announcing the Phoenix to Rancho Cucamonga segment, stops at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport, downtown Phoenix, Goodyear, Gila Bend, Yuma, Indio/Coachella, Palm Springs, San Bernardino, Rancho Cucamonga... Connections to LA. Right of way is there... Could be the quickest construction and can be pushed to 225+ mph.
If they add stations they need to add a non stop service then or the time between Orlando and Miami will become longer.
Unfortunate that premium seats aren't a recliner with footrest like they've been in Asia for 3 decades now. This "premium" is Japanese basic economy.
It would be nice for a stop at Port Canaveral for cruise passengers.
Great video! And nice to meet you on this trip (I was in 3A).
My flight home afterward connected in Orlando and from stepping off the train in Miami to stepping off an American Airlines plane into MCO airport was about 3 hours, 5 minutes, inclusive of ground transport to terminal, airport transit, and flight. Had enough time to eat lunch in the Admirals Club. But, I fly 1-2 times a week and with no checked bags, PreCheck, etc., my airport time is usually sub one-hour if I have my way. I will be curious to see if Brightline does any discounting by day of week peak/offpeak in the future when schedule is at full plan. I can get a ticket on Spirit one way FLL-MCO for $14.91 - $0.01 plus taxes (plus baggage, if anything over a backpack is needed, but Spirit typically carries a lot of day-trippers on this route). It's definitely a competitive marketplace. I would hope Brightline finds a balance in its schedule as additional infill stations come online, as each stop adds journey time, and maintains some limited stop services, but I also don't know enough to know the feasibility with the tracks used as this would require some level of leap-frogging trains.
Thanks, and it was a pleasure to meet you too! That's interesting that the flight's travel time was right about what I expected it to be, though I don't think they'll be able to beat Spirit's fares (Well not without standing room only lol). My anticipation is Brightline operates with the current fare structure for a few months to see community feedback/revenue in general, and then make an adjustment from there. The addition of new stations will be an interesting thing to watch for sure. My guess is they'll do with those like what they currently do with Boca Raton, and build a single, side platform on one track, and run through trains on the mainline.
I commented to you on another post a few days ago about the reducing of trains from 16 to 8 until October 24th & wondering if 16 was too many roundtrips. I don't know what their profit margin is on a 240 passenger train but would be surprised if they could meet it on an hourly basis. I think an airline would have started that service like the hourly air shuttle for decades between Washington, NYC, & Boston if the numbers were there. I pulled up the trains for this Sunday, Oct. 1 to see if I could possibly get on an earlier train than the one they rebooked me on at 2:54 since they cancelled the 1:50 train I booked in July. If my flight into MCO is on time, I should be able to get the 12:54 trip. Anyhow, I noticed they really upped the fares for Sunday. I paid $149.00 for Premium & some of the trains are up to $269.00 one way Premium. One of the train trips is charging $134. Smart fare one way. If they up the fares like that, I think they will price themselves to low passenger counts. I think most families of 4, for example, will drive, pay a turnpike toll, a couple tanks of gas & have their own transportation instead of paying several hundred dollars for the train, parking, & local transportation when they arrive at their destination. I hope Brightline will rethink the pricing structure in order to get full trains or at least full enough to manage a profit..
2:02is that the normal kind of ticket? It looks like a piece of paper that you have to make sure is just exactly so that the pernickety scanner will read it. I can see that causing a few delays
Unfortunately, reality will hit. That train racing thru intersections , with guardrails down. Is disaster waiting to happen. Sooner than later. It's coming. In southern Florida the so called Tri-Rail service going fraction of that speed is constantly in collision with dumb car drivers. Hope Bright line been tested, WHAT HAPPENS when 125mph, train, full of swell passengers hits car or truck. Massive disaster. Bright line closed for Good. Ashame. Designers, zoning should have made either elevated or elevated over major inter sections too. Built on the Cheap. Multi- billion, billion dollar lawsuit will follow, bankrupting Bright line. Too bad. The hype, the drama. Could ot will be future Titanic.
The 125 mph portion is completely separated from the road with the 110 mph portion having grade crossing guards. Improvements have been made throughout the line for all of the intersections that the train passes through. This used to be a problem before, but it's not one now.
Clearly nothing but an ad for BRIGHTLINE. Whole video could have be done in a 5 minute video. The narrator acts like high speed rail was invented in Florida.
👍
They need to increase speed to 200MPH
Maybe someday
So you’re telling me that this “high speed train” went 125 mph for 10 minutes???
I hope Brightline West isn’t so disappointing.
Wait until you take Amtrak. It goes 100+ for about 3 minutes. 50 for the rest of the time and you break your back with the nasty rails.
safety is both basic and no.1 importance. Real HSR needs closed track which requires lots of investment fund
Really cute coming from the country that had the second deadliest HSR crash in history and tried to cover it up.
killed a pedestrian on the first day. But not the first people got killed by Brightline. Can this company survive law suite
Were you able to determine if Brightline was at fault? Or do you just make a bald ass assertion with anything you read?
Why are these not electric trains? Can Florida not provide the infrastructure for them?
If they add more stations along the line it's just going to slow them down and make the trip way to long.
Hurricanes. Mainly because of hurricanes.
I think its to expensive and it's not even a bullet train
Hope they offer Florida residence pricing when they don’t sell out.
On some of the trains, Smart seats are $99.00 one way between Orlando & Miami, according to their website. When I bought my Premium seat in July for this coming Sunday, Oct.1st from Orlando to West Palm, I paid $149.00 but some of the trains have the fare at $229.00 one way (my Akron to Orlando flight in Business class is $224.00 one way). Of course, whether you're flying or taking Brightline, you have to go to Orlando airport. If your destination isn't the city, you still have added time; so that equation is pretty tricky to estimate. The Premium food offering does look pretty basic & disappointing. They should also offer a hot food option like Amtrak's Acela trains.
Correction. Brightline West will likely travel at 186 mph top speed. California HSR will have a 220 mph top speed. Both are desperately needed.
Looks good so far, though for use as a commuter service, I would like to see a better price option, maybe like some kind of monthly or weekly pass. Especially if they open that Tampa - Disney Springs line.
Nice video! So exciting that brightline is a higher speed rail service in the US. Definitely need to head down to Florida sometime this year or the next to experience this! Super modern too.
Did you just say brightline is a higher speed rail in service in the U.S. lol, obviously, only in Florida, not the U.S. and Amtrak is actually the higher speed rail in service Amtrak trains can go up to 130mph for a long time then goes 150mph ones it gets to an area obviously it's short but that's is some speed that brightline can't even get to and what I'm talking about from D.C to new york and what's crazy is that Amtrak newer train that they have been testing can go up to 160mph to 220mph and I'm not lying look it up to me 125mph isn't nothing.
@@apollospace9804 i know that’s why I said higher speed rail the Acela is the fastest in the US but brightline finally upgraded to 125 mph which is the HSR standard across the globe
@@apollospace9804 and yes I’m aware of the new Avelia Liberty sets that are set to arrive next year, they’ve been pushed back so long with maintenance issues and from Monmouth junction to Trenton will reach speeds of 160 mph on the high tension catenary, although the area in Hamilton is yet to be completed
@AcelaRailan2150 ok cause I was about to say lol
Like i know, brightline is more modern looking, but they could have upgraded the speed of 150mph. i think when Tampa is completed and reached to Jacksonville, Florida, I know brightline West will go up to 180mph in California when they complete their tracks and stations, but I should say about time America should have high speed trains so we can finally catch up our technology just like other countries.
@@apollospace9804 completely agree, about time we reach world standard high speed rail in more areas in the US than just a couple
We rode brightline from west palm to miami and back earlier this year and we absolutely loved the experience. So much better than dealing with traffic down there on the freeways. so excited to see it now open to orlando~!
Awesome video! This is my first time watching one of your videos, and it will NOT be the last. Thanks for such a detailed ride experience video.
I forgot to add... thanks to Thibault @ SimplyRailway for providing that video clip of Bright Orange II leaving the Orlando station. And, I just became a Patreon sub for your content. 😎
Thanks a lot for the support! And thanks for the patreon sub! Your contributions are much appreciated 😎
Interesting/informative/entertaining. Quality video & oration presentation. Wonder when it'll become another tax payer government subsidy like (Am-Trac) -???🤔.
Great video!!!
Congrats to Brightline! I remember watching them build the station at MCO as my plane taxis to the terminal. As the service gets more popular, Brightline is going to improve line between WPB and MCO. To all the "Its not high-speed rail, 125mph isn't nothing", would y'all be saying the same thing if it was Amtrak? It took them 20 years to get to 110mph in Michigan and Illinois. Brightline has done it in less than half the time.
Also, amtrak's fastest train NEC is too expensive when you book tomorrow tickets, brightline is much more affordable compared to that. More than $200 dollar from NYC to Boston just push people driving or taking bus. Pricing policy shouldn't be like this when it comes to train.
I've been watching Brightline videos (especially construction) for a couple years and they seem to run a very nice operation. The ride looked so smooth. I am really looking forward to Brightline West because driving to Vegas from SoCal is a nightmare.
Great video, if you're ever in Europe and you need some help for planning a trip, please let me know. I'll be very happy to help you.
big youtube railfan meetup somewhere in central Europe? 🙂
Sounds like a plan. I'm considering heading out to Europe next summer, so I'll be sure to reach out.
Haha, I'll see if I can get Simply Railway to join us.
Florida High Speed Rail didn't "fall through". It was cancelled the governor Rick Scott -- who then invested heavily in Fortress, the investment fund that owns Brightline.
I really hope Brightline creates a full circle in Florida by going SOUTH from Tampa, connecting Sarasota/Bradenton airport, Venice, Punta Gorda airport, Ft. Myers, Naples then across alligator alley back to Miami. They have straight line access along the I75
It would be nice, but our railways have been sabotaged from the beginning. The big oil people didn’t like the economical dream of a bullet train from Tampa to Orlando. Rick Scott is a major blow to having that as a reality. Yet people still vote for him. I’ll never know why.
It’s NOT “swampland” between Orlando and Cocoa. It is marshland (St. Johns) which has a flow and eventually turns into the St. John’s River to the north.
In order for Brightline West to be profitable, they HAVE TO take the train into LA proper! Going just to Rancho and then boarding regular rail is a complete turnoff to the concept. I've suggested they should partner with CHSR for their right of ways and split costs and profits for that section. It'd be ideal as Brightline then would ACTUALLY go station to station from Vegas to LA, and for CHSR they'd start generating SOME revenue and get butts in seats before 2030 most likely. It's by no means a perfect situation for either party, but the reward would vastly outweigh the negative.
Looking at that bathroom and remembering the last metro north train bathroom I went in 🤣
Well done!
Much appreciated man!
I've driven the planned route for brightline west, and there is no way they're achieving 225mph, let alone anything above 125mph. That route is just too winding and hilly, unlike Florida.
More stations would slow the trip.
First time from Aventura to Orlando and was VERY DISAPPOINTED!!!. We got STUCK in traffic, Yes!!!, you would think on a train you avoid traffic!!!: well NOT in this one. They stopped several times for LONG PERIODS of time without any explanation at all!!! And they don’t even let you know what is going on!!!. A trip that was supposed to take 3 hours….. more than 4!!!!. Very disappointing!!!. EXPENSIVE, LONGER than driving and I also forgot how UNCOMFORTABLE the seats are!!!. Stiff and impossible to lean back not even a bit!!!
It doesn’t travel at 125 mph. That’s just the maximum possible speed of the locomotive. That’s like saying a car with a maximum speed of 145 mph travels at 145 mph.
Brightline's schedule is 2 hours faster than Amtrak's
So lucky. Those of us in the Northeast are stuck with Amtrak. I hope it is successful. But I disagree about more stops. That will slow the time down. Can't stand it when I take a train with a million stops.
From the FEC website: "Florida East Coast Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary Grupo México Transportes (GMXT), the leading Class I railroad in Mexico."
reminds me of the UK's Intercity 125. Just 47 years late. Or Australian New South Wales XPT,, 40 years ago. Oh well. we carried on with steam locos into mid '60s, long after the US.
5:52 a wild Miles in Transit appears.
Great addition to American rail but we are still lacking true HSR that goes at or above 180 mph.
For a German it’s a Regional Train, they go 100 mph regularly, electrified. Deutsche Bahn belongs to all People, no Profit Greed. That’s why it won’t work in the USA.
Of Course the coaches are spotlessly clean: it's the First Time they've been used!!
Between two airports. OK. But to go from MIA to South Beach is at least an hour bus ride. From the Orlando airport to Disney Word is at least 2 hours.
A line from Jax airport to Ft. Lauderdale Airport and Orlando Airport would be useful, since the JAX airport is, more or less, pathetic. Also, Jax to Gainesville and on to Tampa could be useful. And Jax to Biloxi, a mini Las Vegas.
But so long as you want to send $120,000,000,000 to Ukraine it will never happen.
Good luck with that. Embarrassing. 125MPH. I hope it succeeds until it makes sense. $75 / Pp orlando to Miami in 2.5 hours. In Japan and Seole we go 198MPH to o go almost twice that distance in the same time. Step up brightline
Right now, there are fares as low as $29.56 from WPB to Orlando. The only issue is that there isn't transit connectivity at MCO at the moment. So Orlando needs to do more work. Uber isn't cheap anymore and having to take Uber is stupid when you could've just brought your car and saved yourself the ride share expense.
Don’t kid yourself! This is but a higher speed normal train. Some subway in first tier cities in China runs nearly the same speed! 25 mph on a bridge. You must be joking! We are way behind almost all developed country. Indonesia’s HSR runs at 375 kph!
Nice looking train, it needs a cup holder for drinks on the tray table, a footrest, better meals the premium meal was very ordinary and looked it, there's no luggage racks at the end of the carriage, Braille numbers on seats & doors would be advantageous, the blue lead may be a trigger for colour & light sensitive people....price not bad, here in Australia we pay that for an old, dirty, smelly train seat and no food or drinks
How did Brightline do it?!😃 it's called a "Monopoly"!😃🤡
Honestly, by how rough that ride looks, this ticket better be more than affordable. Japan is cringing so hard at how rocky this train is. Very disappointing.
Does Brightline completely skip a stop/service to Fort Lauderdale airport? Why? Seems silly. Cruisers out of Miami can opt to fly into Fort Lauderdale, then take the Brightline down to Miami.....They should really consider connecting to the largest cruise port in the world. while down there.
Everybody looks for a good deal. Brightline prices must be competitive. High-speed, that I'm not sure about. Three and a half hours to Miami ? Not much difference from the Bus Services.
The service started the week after the last scheduled "Cross Country InterCity 125 HST" ran, after their 47 years of service, in a very similar diesel powered format, in the UK (though no USB-C sockets).
If Florida hadn't had a Russian funded, multi-term congressman, who's nailed his colors to the mast, over not having any of these new fangled trains. As they will only get in the way of Floridians wondering or driving or boating, when and where they choose. Let alone impose on the locals any construction that will hinder; be it a fence, barrier, or other devilish erection, in playing kiss-chase with a gator / their sister, or getting to Church, and under no circumstance any Public monies spent on building any infrastructure that will permit rail services avoid the traditional wonderings and pastimes of the locals, the service would likely have started decades back, and speeds be far higher. Though that would be against the locals wishes, then again the no stations built in that congressman's county, to prevent the locals engaging with the evil service, may not be such a bad thing, after all they're the ones who voted for him, and have many a brother / cousin / uncle run over by one of those rude, noisy, brightly colored, fast, iron horses.
Very disappointed in the pricing and speed of the train. $270 for 2 (base tickets) people to travel round trip to West Palm. For locals this train is a waste right now. You have to travel to the airport by Uber or park your car for a fee. Then you pay way too much to arrive in about the same time you would have driven and have no vehicle or Uber when you get there. The experience you showed would cost almost $400 for two people not including Ubers or parking and save zero travel time. Trying to understand the value of the train. Was very excited when they announced it. Thought we would be getting a high speed train for mass transit. We received a train that moves at 1960s high speeds, is not easily accessible, and is priced so that most of the country can’t afford to use it.
Congratulation Brightline Orlando. Btw Indonesia has just launched high speed rail 350 km/h.
Hey man, I love the SC-42 as much as the next train nerd (my area is getting one in a few years) but c'mon, 125mph is not high speed rail so stop treating it as such.
Poor americans... whole Europe used these tra ins so many years.. But for you it is WOW:)))))
That how we future😊 Americans going to travel to the end of time. The abundant automobile era is just about over. Energy fuel crisis
As someone from Tampa and a long time resident, this train sounds great but a lot of us see this as something that should’ve been here already. That being said our second hope was a truly high speed rail. And that was not met. This rail looks very nice but maybe not worth the price. My car can go faster than those trains and I wouldn’t have to deal with other people’s attitudes and demeanors, yet the cost of a seat. There’s a reason why we drive. Also, Orlando to Miami doesn’t make sense. Miami is a great place but no theme park. Now Tampa to Orlando makes much more sense! We both have theme parks and beaches on opposite sides! But again, I can drive faster than the trains. So, what is it worth?
This transportation option should be available throughout America. We needlessly choose to remain behind the rest of the world.
If the florida politicians had a brain between them they would stop complaining about Brightline and start grade seperating level crossings.
It's pretty useless to the majority of people in between Miami and Orlando. I hope it grows to be as useful as Asian rail systems. America is pretty behind in rail service.