Tour offered of Brightline's Fort Lauderdale station

The new Brightline train station in downtown Fort Lauderdale has given a sneak peek to dozens of South Florida transportation officials.

The tours wrapped up a daylong transportation summit at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts on Tuesday.

The glass-enclosed second floor of the train station, near the 200 block of West Broward Boulevard, offered a 360 degree view of the city but there is much work left to do.

The carpeting was down but there were no seats or benches.

Some inactive ticket turnstiles were installed but the security screening stations beyond them were not.

A skeleton of metal supports was assembled for future kiosks, shops and snack bars but big screen monitors to display arrivals and departures were nowhere in sight yet.

Escalators were inoperative and there was no access to the first-floor passenger platforms for safety reasons because of ongoing construction.

Still, this first of three Brightline stations was very airy, clean and something CEO David Howard was proud of.

“It’s been an amazing effort,” he said. “We’re five years since this was conceived and we’re in the final stages, putting the finishing touches on this station in Fort Lauderdale along with our station in West Palm Beach.”

The Miami station will be finished later this summer.

The public will get to see the train station’s interior when introductory service between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach begins in late July, but the price of a ticket won’t be revealed until then.

Regular service between West Palm Beach and Miami is set to begin in September.