Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Brightline’s next stop? Miami
The long-anticipated service to Miami aboard Brightline higherspeed passenger trains will begin May 19 with discounted fares systemwide.
Brightline president and chief operating officer Patrick Goddard made the announcement Friday morning after local politicians, civic leaders, media and Brightline executives rode the BrightPink train to the new downtown MiamiCentral station.
To celebrate next weekend’s launch of service to Miami, tickets on May 19 and May 20 will be $3 in the Smart coach and $5 in the Select coach between Miami and West Palm Beach.
There will also be a “Welcome to the 305 Celebration” featuring concerts, food, celebrities and festivities at the MiamiCentral station during the kickoff.
Introductory fares begin May 21. Regular fares will follow as ridership increases, but Brightline officials would not say when that would hap-
pen or what those prices would be. Fares will be flexible depending on the time of day.
“This introductory [fare] will hold for a while,” Goddard said. “[But] they are not going to last forever.”
He also gave no indication of how many people have been riding the trains to date. Each train can carry 240 passengers. There are up to 11 round trips per day.
The schedule between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach was adjusted April 28 to accommodate the inclusion of Miami as a future destination. Train schedules and ticket pricing information can be found at GoBrightline.com.
The MiamiCentral train station stretches between Northwest Third and Eighth streets. It’s within walking distance of MiamiDade College, the MiamiDade courthouse and county government center, American Airlines Arena and Bayfront Park.
Eventually, the station will be a transportation hub for Brightline, Tri-Rail, Metrorail, Metromover, Metrobus, Miami Trolley, taxis, rental cars and Uber and Lyft ride-hailing services, officials said.
Brightline trains will later run to Orlando, but it will require two to three years of construction before that link is added to the schedule. Long-range plans include extending the lines to Tampa and Jacksonville.
Meanwhile, work on safety upgrades at railroad crossings in Broward and Miami-Dade counties should be finished sometime in June, officials said, so train engineers will no longer have to sound their horns as a warning at every crossing.
Safety improvements have been completed at railroad crossings between Boca Raton and West Palm Beach. Those quiet zones could take effect by the end of the month, pending approval from the Federal Railroad Administration.