The mood was one of celebration and accomplishment as the first Brightline train pulled into the new Orlando International Airport station on Friday. The arrival signaled the start of revenue service between Miami and Orlando, linking major population centers and attractions in the northern and southern portions of Florida. [see “Brightline Orlando to launch service Sept. 22,” News Wire, Sept. 13, 2023.]
Please visit News Wire in the days ahead for additional coverage of the inaugural Brightline trip to Orlando.
Hopefully this is just the start of a revolution in rail travel and a new concept of passenger rail travel in America. What is being born and developed in Florida can and should spread across this nation. Judging from the enthusiam and excitment of everybody who came and rode on the first ttrains, people do want trains and will ride them if given the opportunity and the means to ride them and that more lines will be built. Let us not stop here but Brightline should build their line to Tampa and then maybe north to Jacksonville and so many other areas in Florida needing good, reliable and fast service. This is also a perfect example of how both airline travel and rail travel can work together in a seamless and unified way of travel. Take the plane to one city and then the train to your final destination or vice versa. Just as railroads were the pioneers in travel technology and opened new doors over 150 years or more so Brightline is pioneering and opening the doors to the reinvention of train travel and making trains popular and relevant once more.
Joseph C. Markfelder
It is so gratifying to see what can be done when good business people want to accomplish good things and the politics work to NOT stifle their efforts. Congratulations Brightline.
Now, free at last in order to roll on proud and fine down its safe, silver rails! Run dear Brightline, run!
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
There is a difference between government and private enterprise when it comes to getting things done.
Congratulations, Brightline on your fabulous news — highly anticipated. And much appreciated and surely heavily utilized. A great way to bring in Fall Equinox with riders aplenty. Lively accompanying photos by Bob Johnston capture the celebratory mood.
Wishing you all the success in the world.
. . . Now just think, everybody, on the opposite side of the U.S., in our country’s other state known as a tropical paradise, Hawaii, Oahu residents and visitors continue to be prisoners of their cars — stuck in some of the most exceedingly awful, nerve-wracking, consistent delays imaginable in all the U.S. — while their anticipation with ever-so-patient hopes for completion of a full-length Honolulu Light Rail are dashed, dashed and dashed. THAT budget-busting boondoggle is shameful and convincingly, unforgivable.
MAUI STRONG