re: Florida's high speed train Brightline struggles, seeks rescue after $5.5 billion debt

Richard Branson tried to dip his toe into the brightline pool and got snapped off.

The train is awesome for getting to Mia and FLL from West Palm. I haven’t taken it to ORL. I hope they can sort it out.

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Auditors for Brightline, the struggling Florida passenger railroad, warned the private company doesn’t have the cash to service its debt and meet financial obligations over the next 12 months, raising “substantial doubt” about its ability to survive.

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I thought they were doing well and seeking to expand in other places. Also, weren't they also working on the Vegas to LA line too? They started construction on a massive parking garage at the Vegas station. My issue with that is that, why not just focus on the station and the lines instead of a garage that could be a garage to nowhere if they don't finish the rail line.

The biggest headache with this type of "high speed" rail line is that cars and trucks continue to bypass train crossing gates and end up getting hit by the train, and because of the speed sometimes these crashes end with fatalities. I wonder if the families of the victims of these crashes are suing the rail line reguardless if it is an error with the gate or they just ran it and will find a sympathetic jury to find in their favor feeding the attorney class their dose of contigency cases.

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Brightline missed a major opportunity by not negotiating direct stops from MCO to Disney, Universal, and Port Canaveral. With connections to those high-demand destinations, they could likely reduce operating costs per passenger while driving significantly hig

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My first thought when I saw the map was that they built the wrong section first.

Should have built from Tampa to Orlando and included stops at Disney and Universal as well as MCO, and then home east to the coast at with a couple of stations before turning south.

Imagine folks in Tampa or Daytona or the Space Coast on on vacation being able to jump on the train and take the kids to one of the Orlando parks for a day or two.

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My first thought when I saw the map was that they built the wrong section first. Should have built from Tampa to Orlando and included stops at Disney and Universal as well as MCO, and then home east to the coast at with a couple of stations before turning south.

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They had the ability to utilize existing track for the latter. Tampa to Orlando would have been all new track.

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The market has determined that it is not a viable business.

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I’d be 100% for the government subsidizing this business to make it work so people have high speed rail transportation rather than starting random wars in the Middle East

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Public transportation without government subsidies will always fail because the desire to use it is completely destroyed when you realize the chances of sitting next to some random thug that wants to kill you for no reason is something you can’t control.

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Or don’t be such a scared pussy, I ride Amtrak’s Crescent 20 and 19 pretty often and have never had anything close to an experience like you are describing. Have you flown on a plane recently? Not much different from a clientele standpoint

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Should have built from Tampa to Orlando and included stops at Disney and Universal as well as MCO, and then home east to the coast at with a couple of stations before turning south.

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Have you ever been to Tampa? It’s a huge area. You’d have to have a massive parking lot for people to drive and park. Most of the northeast side is poor, which is the most logical place to put a stop. No one wants to park in a poor area and get robbed, and poor people aren’t taking a train to Disney.

The reality is even at say $25 each a family of 3 or 4 that’s $75-100 each way to go from say Tamp to Orlando or Orlando to West Palm. Even ‘high speed’ door to door it’s not going to be faster than driving when you factor in parking, waiting on the train, going from the train stop to your location.

So it’s slower than driving and more expensive than gas.

So, why?

Haven't ridden on this one, but was curious about the speeds. Honestly, pretty pathetic compared to high speed trains in other countries. There are faster trains in fricking Africa.

It is certainly faster than normal Amtrack trains, but still seriously lacking.

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Haven't ridden on this one, but was curious about the speeds. Honestly, pretty pathetic compared to high speed trains in other countries. There are faster trains in fricking Africa.

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Speeds are somewhat over rated in regards to times for this type of distance. It’s more about the stops.

In order to achieve the truly high speeds you have to have a safe track. As said this train already hits people. It has to be raised, underground, or otherwise a safe distance away and avoiding the public. That’s not easy in the US with urban sprawl.

I don’t know shite about this train, I’m in Florida but in the panhandle. A lot of it also has to do with the amount of stops. Non stops or missing stops makes them a lot faster time wise.

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Americans love their cars and do not mind driving.

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Our roadway system here in the United States is actually very impressive.