Brightline Trains Florida discussion

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railiner said:
Who would want that?
And, why?🤔

Besides the “NIMBY”s, that is…?
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I suppose if you are one who is tired of hearing "why does Amtrak lose so much money" and knows that the same people will point to Bright line and say "See - it is possible to make money running passenger trains" of course not recognizing that Brightline is cherry picking a potentially profitable route with real estate potential and not mandated to run expensive services such as the LD trains.
 
Just read this and the link is below. Martin, aka Martian, County businesses and more are suing over the plan to open the drawbridge over the St. Lucie River for 15 minutes of every hour except late at night and very early morning. They've sued Brightline every step of the way and lost. How many hundreds of passengers versus a few large yachts. Throw this one out as well. Businesses sue to block drawbridge plan to accommodate Brightline service - Trains
 
JWM said:
Just read this and the link is below. Martin, aka Martian, County businesses and more are suing over the plan to open the drawbridge over the St. Lucie River for 15 minutes of every hour except late at night and very early morning. They've sued Brightline every step of the way and lost. How many hundreds of passengers versus a few large yachts. Throw this one out as well. Businesses sue to block drawbridge plan to accommodate Brightline service - Trains
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I think I'll change jobs and become a professional litigator in Broward county.
 
jis said:
Why Broward County when the suits are in Martin County and supported by the Congressman from Palm Beach County? 🤔
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That's Brian Mast who represents northern Palm Beach County. The rest of the county is represented by Lois Frankel.

Let me clarify just who is suing Brightline. It is some business owners who rely on servicing larger boats that can't pass under the FEC drawbridge if it is down. There will be some 32 passenger and 24 freight trains a day passing over the bridge. Congressman Brian Mast and Senator Marco Rubio, both Republicans, are purportedly supporting the suit. Florida's other Senator, Rick Scott, signed off on state funds for the Orlando airport station and will probably not support the suit. I am no lawyer, but it seems to me that all those trains, and passengers, are a lot more important than the small number of people slightly inconvenienced by the drawbridge proposal. Why they hired a bunch of "Philadelphia lawyers" seems strange as well. Welcome to Florida, the lawsuit capital of the world. 13 marine businesses sue FEC, Coast Guard, Army Corps over Brightline, Stuart drawbridge
 
Brightline is hiring for a future advertisement to air online and possibly TV for their new Orlando service. They will pay $2000 for the experience and for travel to Miami or Orlando. Auditions to be held in both cities. Let's see if any AU members make the cut! :p

$2,000 Brightline Commercial Casting Call | Project Casting

Website might block some users so I uploaded a pdf version just in case.
 

Attachments

  • $2,000 Brightline Commercial Casting Call _ Project Casting.pdf
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I am very interested to see what happens with that lawsuit. The folks out there haven't had luck with suing Brightline in the past.

I don't believe there are any bridges with only six feet vertical clearance over MHW in CT, but the Coast Guard and wealthy, connected boaters certainly still have their way as far as the bridges on the NEC here.
 
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cbustrains said:
The additional cars will definitely help! I couldn't find it in this thread, but have we gotten any sense of rationale as to why they went with 4 car train sets with no additional support until a year (or more) after the Orlando launch? It just seems rather odd that their math between operating capacity and forecasted ridership doesn't add up on a multi-billion dollar investment.
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In my view the decision is very rational.

Traffic takes time to ramp up as it takes time for word of mouth to get around and people to appreciate that the service might be interesting for them.

Starting small also permits Brightline to get the details sorted out, including straightening out any issues with staffing, operations, sales and ticketing, maintenance etc so that these things are as near perfect as possible as operations ramp up.

As there is no comparable service anywhere in the wider area, most people being hired will have no railroad experience whatsoever and so this is not really comparable to starting a new service in say, Europe or China, where you can just hire people who already know the job and expect things to be perfect from day one.

That said, Brightline seems to have done a very fine job here as there were indeed no hiccups worth mentioning.
 
I just found this which comes from the Martin settlement.

"Subject to FECR and Coast Guard concurrence, Brightline agrees to a Coast Guard operating rule that requires the St. Lucie River Bridge to be open to marine traffic at least 15 minutes at a set time each hour between the hours of 6 AM and 10 PM and open to rail and marine traffic as applicable on an as needed basis during the remaining times with the openings and closures to be equally divided between the rail and marine traffic during each of the following four-hour periods: 6-10 AM, 10 AM-2 PM, 2-6 PM, 6-10 PM."

Are people being intentionally misled, do they lack understanding or has somehow the agreement since changed? Because this clearly does NOT say the bridge will be open for only 15 minutes per hour.

Source from YT. Quote is about the 26 minute mark.
 
ManganeseFrog said:
I just found this which comes from the Martin settlement.

"Subject to FECR and Coast Guard concurrence, Brightline agrees to a Coast Guard operating rule that requires the St. Lucie River Bridge to be open to marine traffic at least 15 minutes at a set time each hour between the hours of 6 AM and 10 PM and open to rail and marine traffic as applicable on an as needed basis during the remaining times with the openings and closures to be equally divided between the rail and marine traffic during each of the following four-hour periods: 6-10 AM, 10 AM-2 PM, 2-6 PM, 6-10 PM."

Are people being intentionally misled, do they lack understanding or has somehow the agreement since changed? Because this clearly does NOT say the bridge will be open for only 15 minutes per hour.

Source from YT. Quote is about the 26 minute mark.
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KC Ingram is the founder of the Florida Not All Aboard organization. So take what she says with caution. I battled with her back in 2013-15 on Facebook. She is against Brightline and aligned with the boaters in Stuart.
 
Brian_tampa said:
KC Ingram is the founder of the Florida Not All Aboard organization. So take what she says with caution. I battled with her back in 2013-15 on Facebook. She is against Brightline and aligned with the boaters in Stuart.
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Yes, she says a few things that are wrong or misleading in the video. Interestingly she mentions her husband had a marina west of the bridge.
 
Plastic covers on the signals along 528 have been removed and the signals were turned on for a good chunk of the day. There were MOW vehicles on the track in the AM and on my PM return, all was quiet, so no train sightings. Hope to see some tests runs!
 
Isn't it a bit of a gamble to start selling tickets as long as you don't have a final FRA sign off?
 
cirdan said:
Isn't it a bit of a gamble to start selling tickets as long as you don't have a final FRA sign off?
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Yes. So they probably won't. But if we know when they are expected, a start date would be easier to speculate. I don't think anyone is expecting sales to begin until the sign offs are expected.

New models of aircraft are often sold before final sign-off. The day the FAA grants a type certificate, the OEM can start cashing checks (metaphorically speaking of course. The whole process is infinitely more complex).
 
VentureForth said:
New models of aircraft are often sold before final sign-off. The day the FAA grants a type certificate, the OEM can start cashing checks (metaphorically speaking of course. The whole process is infinitely more complex).
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Some even delivered to customer so customer can start proving flights. been there done that.
 
VentureForth said:
Yes. So they probably won't. But if we know when they are expected, a start date would be easier to speculate. I don't think anyone is expecting sales to begin until the sign offs are expected.

New models of aircraft are often sold before final sign-off. The day the FAA grants a type certificate, the OEM can start cashing checks (metaphorically speaking of course. The whole process is infinitely more complex).
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And hey, trains don’t have MCAS.
 
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