Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Brightline is just the ticket for CEO Dave Howard
Jump from sports to train service puts career on right track
FORT LAUDERDALE — For most of his professional career, Dave Howard tackled business development and management projects in the sports franchise and entertainment businesses.
So late last year when a client — the president of the Milwaukee Bucks NBA franchise — suggested that a top executive associated with a new passenger train project in Florida speak with him, Howard was puzzled.
“Why?’ I said,” recalled Howard, 57.
“No, no, Dave you should hear about this. This is an amazing project,” countered the Bucks’ Peter Feigin, referring to Brightline, the express rail line preparing to kick off service this summer between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
“As I heard about it and as I learned more about it, I got more and more intrigued and more fascinated,” Howard said.
Fast forward to the summer of 2017. Howard is now Brightline’s chief executive officer, overseeing all aspects of South Florida’s nascent high-speed passenger rail line, including operations and onboard services.
A lawyer who acquired the bulk of his executive experience by working for more than two decades with the New York Mets, Howard marveled at the possibilities for Brightline during an interview last week at the railroad’s Fort Lauderdale station.
“To be able, in the heart of peak rush-hour traffic, to get from Fort Lauderdale to Miami in half an hour, or from Miami to West Palm Beach in an hour, when by car it probably takes you more than twice that, that’s the game-changer,” he said. “That’s the difference, and in a way, that’s actually pleasurable and enjoyable.”
Howard joined Brightline in March, arriving from New York where he spent the last three years in consulting. Before that, he served a year as president of MSG Sports, overseeing the operations of the NBA’s New York Knicks, the NHL’s New York Rangers and the WNBA New York Liberty. And he spent 21 years with the Mets, joining the team as its first general counsel and departing as executive vice president of business operations.
His former boss at the Mets, chairman and CEO Fred Wilpon, said Howard has the passion and personality to excel at his Brightline duties, not the least of which is to persuade car-bound South Florida drivers to switch to commuter rail travel.
“[Dave] demonstrated extraordinary leadership, positivity and passion that contributed to our company’s success,” Wilpon said in a state-
ment to the Sun Sentinel. “I have no doubt his inherent charisma and talent make him a great selection for the job.”
A Dartmouth College graduate who holds a law degree from Fordham University in New York, Howard took over the reins after the appointment of Michael Reininger, Brightline’s president since 2012, as executive director at parent company Florida East Coast Industries.
Howard said the move to jump aboard Brightline was not much of a leap.
“They were looking for an executive to launch the operations with a hospitality perspective, with an experience and skill set that will complement what [Brightline] will be doing,” Howard said.
“When you think about the business functions that we’ll be performing, from selling tickets in a variety of formats [individual, 10-packs, weekend, weekly, monthly, annual and corporate packs] it’s very similar to the way you sell tickets to a sports organization,” he said.
Brightline’s Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations are just “days away” from completion and delivery to its operations team, Howard said. Trains are being tested as work continues to complete new tracks.
Over the next few months, Brightline plans to triple its workforce of just over 100 to about 300 as it readies for launch, Howard said.
By early fall, he expects service to extend into Miami. A line north to Orlando will come later.
“We’ve a lot going on right now,” he said as workers tested the Fort Lauderdale ticket turnstiles and prepared to install security scanners.
The colorful Brightline trains with wide aisles will offer leather seats with individual power outlets, complimentary WiFi, food and beverage service and bicycle and luggage storage facilities.
Brightline will disclose its ticket prices when it launches its e-commerce website and mobile app, which is expected to be available a few weeks before service starts this summer, he noted.
Introductory prices will be “deeply discounted” to encourage people to try the service, Howard said. Once fully operational, pricing in general will be comparable to the costs of driving, such as gasoline and parking.
The key expectation of Brightline, however, is that it’ll ease crippling traffic congestion now clogging South Florida’s roads and highways.
Howard, no stranger to heavy urban traffic, said he’s never seen traffic like the kind he’s witnessed while commuting between Brightline’s Coral Gables office and its three station sites.
Brightline, he said, aims to provide a much-needed alternative. He expects the $1.1 billion express train service to resonate among Millennials who want to live in city centers, as well as with businesspeople and other commuters who lose valuable time in their cars.
Still, it is likely to be a challenge to convince South Floridians, the majority of whom commute alone behind the wheel, to park and try Brightline.
“We have to change behavior, but the good news is, the behavior that we’re looking to change is a painful experience,” Howard said. “Right now there is a high degree of frustration.”
He’s not worried that Brightline might fall short of the estimated 3 million riders it’s anticipating in its first year.
“We’re confident we will see the numbers. We will deliver a better overall experience. It will be a fast, convenient, efficient, enjoyable, productive time,” he said. “We’re also confident that once people use it, they’ll become raving fans.”
We’re confident we will see the numbers. We will deliver a better overall experience. It will be a fast, convenient, efficient, enjoyable, productive time. We’re also confident that once people use it, they’ll become raving fans.” Dave Howard, Brightline CEO