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True, but look at that population, population density, and car culture of those 4 cities and compare them with the 4 cities Brightline is traveling through.  If this indeed ends up a success, I personally want to see a push to un-handcuff Sunrail.   We should have been already looking at ways to improve Sunrail's service and efficiency with flatter curves and grade separation of some roadways.  Brightline has a chance to prove  "if you build it, they will come" is true.

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On 12/28/2022 at 8:16 AM, codypet said:

True, but look at that population, population density, and car culture of those 4 cities and compare them with the 4 cities Brightline is traveling through.  If this indeed ends up a success, I personally want to see a push to un-handcuff Sunrail.   We should have been already looking at ways to improve Sunrail's service and efficiency with flatter curves and grade separation of some roadways.  Brightline has a chance to prove  "if you build it, they will come" is true.

Any data on how successful Sunrail is at attracting employees of Advent?  Advent was big on this way back.  Maitland Station IMO is too far east to effectively service Maitland Center.

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7 hours ago, jrs2 said:

Any data on how successful Sunrail is at attracting employees of Advent?  Advent was big on this way back.  Maitland Station IMO is too far east to effectively service Maitland Center.

Maitland Center has (or had) a free shuttle to the Sunrail station.

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10 hours ago, WAJAS said:

Maitland Center has (or had) a free shuttle to the Sunrail station.

You had to call them to pick you up and wait back when I worked over there.  The timing was terrible.

Yesterday I was trapped in airline cancelation hell and got back to the airport at 1am.  Ubers and Lyfts downtown were $92 and Lynx wasn't running.  I really wished we had a functional train.  When I tried to make my way to Terminal C in the hopes of finding a cheap ride, I saw Brightline branding had come on the directional boards.  Kind of cool.

My ride home solution ended up being $24 by of all companies.......Mears Taxi.

20230103_003933.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/01/09/heres-your-first-look-at-new-brightline-station-at-orlando-international-airport/

So, I guess they've now just started building out the interior of the Orlando Station.  They say it will open in 2023.  So, the early 2023 timeline has been thrown out it seems.  And that's why for the past couple of months we haven't heard anything about their progress.  

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19 hours ago, jrs2 said:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/01/09/heres-your-first-look-at-new-brightline-station-at-orlando-international-airport/

So, I guess they've now just started building out the interior of the Orlando Station.  They say it will open in 2023.  So, the early 2023 timeline has been thrown out it seems.  And that's why for the past couple of months we haven't heard anything about their progress.  

The Roaming Railfan on YouTube provides a ton of updates on the progress, including recently

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On 1/12/2023 at 11:45 AM, jrs2 said:

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2023/01/09/heres-your-first-look-at-new-brightline-station-at-orlando-international-airport/

So, I guess they've now just started building out the interior of the Orlando Station.  They say it will open in 2023.  So, the early 2023 timeline has been thrown out it seems.  And that's why for the past couple of months we haven't heard anything about their progress.  

Infact, he just posted an update marking the completion of the rail on the Orlando-Cocoa section:

 

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On 1/13/2023 at 7:37 AM, aent said:

The Roaming Railfan on YouTube provides a ton of updates on the progress, including recently

thanks for the video above.  Yeah I hadn't seen that one from a few days ago, but that was the first one in like two months for the 528 corridor portion; all the others were for the N/S portion in Brevard south.

I don't recall what they said about double tracking on the 528 portion- whether they were going to double track in the next phase when the line to Tampa is built or when service gets busier on the current leg?

And, I'm surprised they now are just moving forward with building out the interior of the Orlando station; they've had trains testing in and out of that station for many months now. 

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4 hours ago, jrs2 said:

thanks for the video above.  Yeah I hadn't seen that one from a few days ago, but that was the first one in like two months for the 528 corridor portion; all the others were for the N/S portion in Brevard south.

I don't recall what they said about double tracking on the 528 portion- whether they were going to double track in the next phase when the line to Tampa is built or when service gets busier on the current leg?

And, I'm surprised they now are just moving forward with building out the interior of the Orlando station; they've had trains testing in and out of that station for many months now. 

They originally said at least an additional portion of it would be double tracked as part of the extension to Disney Springs back before the county shot down their route and they want to build it themselves... I don't think its going to be necessary as long as MCO is the end of the route... the entire single tracked portion runs at 125mph and thus should only take 12 minutes to pass. That means they technically could have a train stop every 30 minutes without the single track causing any sort of delays. They plan to operate once per hour, and the plan is to make the trains longer to deal with increasing demand, extending the train to 10 cars before increasing frequency.

If they build out the Orlando interior as fast as Aventura and Boca, it could be ready before the end of the month, I couldn't believe how fast they built that out.

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https://emma.msrb.org/P21645448-P21266442-P21693053.pdf

Brightline have exceeds their previous monthly ridership record (127.69k on Dec 2019) by near 50% on Dec 2022 for 183.92k

Quote

December 2022 ticket revenue was 205% higher than December 2021, with ridership up 87% to 183,920 passengers and average ticket fares up 63%. Total ridership growth of 85,491 passengers was supported by strong results in all segments. Ridership among our three original stations (Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach) grew by 40,791 passengers, or 49%. Our new inline stations at Boca Raton (opened December 21) and Aventura (opened December 24) served 17,682 passengers and revealed strong latent demand for our service in those communities. Finally, our customers flocked to our annual Polar express holiday charter, which welcomed 27,018 more riders this year than in December 2021, up 187%. Rides by monthly passholders increased 107% in December 2022 compared to December 2019, demonstrating a trend back toward normal commuting patterns for an increasing portion of our market.

 

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On 1/22/2023 at 3:32 PM, XRZ.ME said:

https://emma.msrb.org/P21645448-P21266442-P21693053.pdf

Brightline have exceeds their previous monthly ridership record (127.69k on Dec 2019) by near 50% on Dec 2022 for 183.92k

 

https://www.skyesherman.com/brightline-polar-express-train-ride/#:~:text=On the 62-minute Polar,chocolate%2C cookies%2C and more.

seems pretty cool...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I hate that this happens, but I appreciate the headline being correct.   Nevermind.  The text in the LINK is correct.  The headline is wrong.

2-people-dead-after-car-collides-into-brightline-train-in-delray-beach is what the link says.  That's correct.

2 people killed after their SUV is struck by Brightline train in Delray Beach is what the headline says.  That's incorrect.

 

The train is on a fixed track and cannot go anywhere else.  It didn't skip the tracks and jump into traffic attacking the SUV.  The SUV knew where the train was and went anyway.  Nearly all* train incidents are not the fault of the train or the conductor or the tracks.  Very rarely it's a signaling error.  Usually, they are the fault of a person, cyclist, or driver who hits the train.  It doesn't matter that the train wins 100% of the time, it's the other person's fault.

 

*Of course there is a massive incident in Eastern Ohio right now that disagrees in a big way.

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Do we have any estimate of when this thing is gonna open. I have yet to see any practice runs of Brightline trains on the 528 link. Obviously, until that happens, we are months away of any start of service. I travel to Miami every 1-2 months and stay either beachside or Brickell. The airport is not an option, but I would love to stop having to drive

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24 minutes ago, shardoon said:

Do we have any estimate of when this thing is gonna open. I have yet to see any practice runs of Brightline trains on the 528 link. Obviously, until that happens, we are months away of any start of service. I travel to Miami every 1-2 months and stay either beachside or Brickell. The airport is not an option, but I would love to stop having to drive

I've heard Spring (I guess we have until June for Spring), but I'm going to guess fall.  I'm pretty confident it'll be 2023 though.

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26 minutes ago, shardoon said:

Do we have any estimate of when this thing is gonna open. I have yet to see any practice runs of Brightline trains on the 528 link. Obviously, until that happens, we are months away of any start of service. I travel to Miami every 1-2 months and stay either beachside or Brickell. The airport is not an option, but I would love to stop having to drive

Brightline said just a few days ago that they're expecting a late 2Q launch, so June is there target. I believe testing should start next month.

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27 minutes ago, shardoon said:

Do we have any estimate of when this thing is gonna open. I have yet to see any practice runs of Brightline trains on the 528 link. Obviously, until that happens, we are months away of any start of service. I travel to Miami every 1-2 months and stay either beachside or Brickell. The airport is not an option, but I would love to stop having to drive

Interesting note on someone completely unlike you. 

I had a conversation with a guy I know the other day who said BL trains are just about useless.  There is no one in either Miami or Orlando that will take a train when they could just drive it.  First, that's not true at all just because he believes it.  Second, it's probably not going to become the #1 way to travel between the two cities, but it will make a difference.

It's roughly 4 hours from MCO to MIA on a normal day.  The train is supposed to take just over 3 hours and you should save an hour each way.  Even if it takes 4 hours and there is no difference on time, there is a difference in experience.  You don't have to drive.  You don't have to fight traffic.  You don't have to pay $30 in tolls.  You don't have to buy $50-$100 in gas.  You don't have to put 450 miles of wear on your car.  Some people's daily driver is limited (in trust) to local commutes and they would never drive it out of town voluntarily, so they rent a vehicle if they travel by car.  

It opens up travel from MCO, MIA, FLL, and PBI.  That is a lot of options.  It opens up cruising from Orlando to the Port of Miami & Port Everglades, instead of just Port Canaveral.  Not to mention when the Tampa leg opens and if they really do a leg to Jax.

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https://www.thenextmiami.com/heres-when-brightline-plans-to-begin-operating-to-orlando/

@aentSure enough.  So the June I heard, must be correct.

1 minute ago, HankStrong said:

Interesting note on someone completely unlike you. 

I had a conversation with a guy I know the other day who said BL trains are just about useless.  There is no one in either Miami or Orlando that will take a train when they could just drive it.  First, that's not true at all just because he believes it.  Second, it's probably not going to become the #1 way to travel between the two cities, but it will make a difference.

It's roughly 4 hours from MCO to MIA on a normal day.  The train is supposed to take just over 3 hours and you should save an hour each way.  Even if it takes 4 hours and there is no difference on time, there is a difference in experience.  You don't have to drive.  You don't have to fight traffic.  You don't have to pay $30 in tolls.  You don't have to buy $50-$100 in gas.  You don't have to put 450 miles of wear on your car.  Some people's daily driver is limited (in trust) to local commutes and they would never drive it out of town voluntarily, so they rent a vehicle if they travel by car.  

It opens up travel from MCO, MIA, FLL, and PBI.  That is a lot of options.  It opens up cruising from Orlando to the Port of Miami & Port Everglades, instead of just Port Canaveral.  Not to mention when the Tampa leg opens and if they really do a leg to Jax.

If you get paid to work remotely, you can get paid to ride the train too.  One thing I loved about Sunrail.  My in office day was an hour shorter because I had 30 mins of work time on the train each day.  In the car that commute was 45 mins.  So I'm home at 5:15 instead of 6 or 6:15.

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2 hours ago, HankStrong said:

Interesting note on someone completely unlike you. 

I had a conversation with a guy I know the other day who said BL trains are just about useless.  There is no one in either Miami or Orlando that will take a train when they could just drive it.  First, that's not true at all just because he believes it.  Second, it's probably not going to become the #1 way to travel between the two cities, but it will make a difference.

It's roughly 4 hours from MCO to MIA on a normal day.  The train is supposed to take just over 3 hours and you should save an hour each way.  Even if it takes 4 hours and there is no difference on time, there is a difference in experience.  You don't have to drive.  You don't have to fight traffic.  You don't have to pay $30 in tolls.  You don't have to buy $50-$100 in gas.  You don't have to put 450 miles of wear on your car.  Some people's daily driver is limited (in trust) to local commutes and they would never drive it out of town voluntarily, so they rent a vehicle if they travel by car.  

It opens up travel from MCO, MIA, FLL, and PBI.  That is a lot of options.  It opens up cruising from Orlando to the Port of Miami & Port Everglades, instead of just Port Canaveral.  Not to mention when the Tampa leg opens and if they really do a leg to Jax.

great points.  tolls, nerves, cost of gas, wear and tear, and...the occasional accident on the highway that slows you down.  There are more people out there that rent for these trips then people realize...and car rentals have gone up a bit.

I will go to Miami more often b/c of this train.  I refused for years to go as far as Naples b/c it's a hike (to me); Miami is similar.  But relaxing on the train is night and day to driving.

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I don't go to Miami very often either, but I definitely will go a few times on the train for the experience. Everything I've heard on Brightline is the trains and service are among the nicest in the world, and easily nicest in the US, even if we couldn't get it to be thaaat fast (although its still faster then driving).

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14 hours ago, jrs2 said:

great points.  tolls, nerves, cost of gas, wear and tear, and...the occasional accident on the highway that slows you down.  There are more people out there that rent for these trips then people realize...and car rentals have gone up a bit.

I will go to Miami more often b/c of this train.  I refused for years to go as far as Naples b/c it's a hike (to me); Miami is similar.  But relaxing on the train is night and day to driving.

It would be nice if (in my lifetime) there was a circular loop from Miami to Orlando to Tampa to Naples to Miami that someone could take.

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As someone from Miami and who still has family there, I cannot wait for this to get going. I've done the drive from Orlando to Miami countless times and I HATE it. It's boring, stressful and if one accident happens 3.5 hours turns to 5 or more hours. 

Hopefully they can continue to keep the cost competitive as the years go on, as that will eventually play a big role in anyone's decision to use it. 

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