Metro Magazine, June 2017

24 mETRO mAGAZINE JUNE 2017 metro magazine com All photos courtesy Brightline Momentum is building for the late summer launch of Brightline Floridas express intercity passenger rail service connecting Miami Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach with future service to Orlando It is the only privately owned operated and maintained passenger rail system in the U S Introductory service will begin between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale in late summer followed by service to Miami in the fall The total investment of Phase 1 is more than 1 billion with an additional 15 billion for Phase 2 METRO Magazine spoke to Brightlines Chief Marketing Officer Julie Edwards about the dynamic project WHAT PROMPTED THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BRIGHTLINE SERVICE The idea for Brightline came about as we Floridas Brightline to Boost Intercity Train Travellooked at the transportation landscape in the state and observed a couple of important things Number one Florida is a large and growing state The population base is now the third biggest in the country and its growing at about 15 times the rate of population growth of the rest of the country Mobility in the state is limited to personal automobiles On a road system that was constructed when the population was about one third of what it is today and as the economy and population grew over time one thing that couldnt keep pace was the transportation infrastructure From those realities came an opportunity for an alternative way to help people move about particularly to and from places they are moving back and forth in large numbers In Florida weve seen that approximately 500 million trips per year are taken predominantly by car between South Florida and Central Florida Phase 1 of Brightline will connect the regions main Central Business Districts Miami Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach Phase 2 will connect to Orlando HOW WAS THIS PROJECT INFLUENCED BY OTHER RAIL SYSTEMS The Brightline team studied passenger rail systems around the world and came to some pretty important conclusions Research shows that trains work as the preferred method for people to go back and forth between large population centers that have highly mobile activity between them like the millions of trips that are made between the four cities that Brightline will serve When road congestion exThe first phase of the express passenger rail service costing more than 1 billion will connect the regions main Central Business Districts of Miami Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach while Phase 2 will connect Orlando BY JANNA STARCIC Executive Editor Brightline trains manufactured by Siemens feature level boarding and utilize automated retractable platforms that are integrated into the train car door systems