I will be traveling to Florida the last week in March. Part of the reason for the trip was to ride brightline. I went on their website to check schedules and discovered that it was not operating and was instructed to check back. Tri-rail is running. Why would Brightline not be running.
Try 4th quarter of this year. See below.
I believe
@jis says it's due to PTC, not COVID
Early in 2020 Brightline, FECR and Florida Dispatching Company gave up on their original plan to enhance the existing ATC system on FECR to make it one that met the PTC requirements. Instead they signed a new contract with Wabtec to install I-ETMS, The work started around mid-year 2020 AFAICT.
Currently certification tests are in progress and it is expected to be certified between Miami Central and West Palm Beach, and also Miami Central to CP Iris later this year. Consequently Brightline expects to start operating on its southern segment late this year. Also Tri Rail expects to start operating to Miami Central later this year. That is why you can see Birghtline trains running occasionally at present, but they are not in service. They are carrying out PTC testing. It is likely that an occasional Tri Rail train would show up at Miami Central while PTC cross testing starts for Tri Rail operations on FECR trackage.
Meanwhile FECR has been operating its freight trains within the low frequency exemption from FRA by not running any more trains than are allowed per day on a non-PTC railroad.
Brightline's customer facing story is that it is all due to COVID. Of course it is their choice to decide how much money they can afford to lose, since they were losing money hand over fist on that segment even before there was any COVID. They simply chose to use this opportunity to put an end to all that money losing binge for a while, which of course was going to get even worse with COVID.