Whale of a visit

Boater off Palm Beach has suprise company: huge whale shark.

More Brightline higherspeed passenger trains will be zipping between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach next month.

Beginning Aug. 6, there will be 16 daily round trips — up from 11 daily trains, Mondays through Fridays. The weekend schedule remains the same with eight trains on Saturdays and seven on Sundays.

The earliest train will depart West Palm Beach at 5:30 a.m. and the last train will leave Miami at 11:10 p.m. weekdays.

With more daily trains comes more frequent train horns at each crossing. Quietzone safety improvements at railroad crossings are complete in some areas and ongoing in others.

Most of the Florida East Coast Railway crossings between West Palm Beach and Boca Raton are quiet zones where engineers no longer have to blast their horns.

Railroad crossings in Broward and Miami-Dade were expected to fall silent sometime this summer, once local cities and federal authorities approve the safety upgrades.

In their pitch to investors, Brightline officials planned 16 trains each weekday and nearly 3 million annual passengers on the South Florida route by 2020. Plans included extending the service to Orlando by 2021 and Tampa next.

Introductory fares ended in June. Now, one-way tickets in the Smart Coach start at $15

and first-class Select Coach seats start at $20 between each South Florida station.

Some Smart Coach seats will go for $10 during midmorning and mid-afternoon runs when the schedule expands next month. Ticket prices fluctuate depending on the time of day and distance traveled.

Each train has two engines and four coaches that

can carry 240 passengers.

Parking garages at the three train stations have started charging, as well, ranging from $1 per hour to $6 per day.

Brightline recently disclosed ridership numbers for the first three months of the year, in its quarterly unaudited financial report submitted to the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board.

There were 74,780 total passengers, $664,000 in ticket sales, and $104,000 in food service, merchandise and parking revenue. However, that only accounted for service between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach from Jan. 13 to March 31. Miami was added to the route May 19.

Tickets are on sale for the trains being added in August. More information can be found online at GoBrightline.com.