Brightline will make us metro Floridians

The most anticipated train since Henry Flagler’s has fifinally arrived.

All Aboard Florida has scheduled a public unveiling of its Brightline train next month. That’s when the rest of us will get a look at the long-awaited high-speed train that will begin ferrying people from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale to Miami next year — with extended service to Orlando thereafter.

For now, the 489-foot train, locomotive and passenger cars, remains tucked away. They are under cover at the company’s West Palm Beach repair facility, a 12-acre site on 15th Street just west of the Florida East Coast Railway tracks.

Yes, the FEC tracks that Flagler built more than a century ago.

Flagler’s train route, along the east coast from Key West to Jacksonville, opened up Florida to tourism and development in the early 20th century. Coupled with air conditioning, it ushered in the rise of the Sunshine State from continental outpost to the third-mostpopulous U.S. state, counting 20 million residents, 100 million-plus annual tourists and 29 electoral votes that can — and has — determined who resides in the White House.

Brightline could be also be a South Florida transportation game changer, too, though maybe not in the way most people think.

Ask anyone about Brightline, and it’s Disney World that is most often the connection — the appealing idea that you can hop on a European- like high-speed train and be at the mouse’s kingdom in no time. It’s been a longtime dream, inspiring even an early 2000s constitutional amendment establishing the right to travel by bullet train to theme parks.

But it’s the potential hope that Brightline can let us bypass Interstate 95 gridlock in zipping from downtown-todowntown-to-downtown that could be revolutionary.

In 2017, the Florida stretch of the interstate will celebrate its 30th anniversary of completion — a milestone to be sure. The problem with I-95 now is that it could take you three decades to get from one South Florida urban core to another.

Yes, Tri-Rail does provide most of that alternative, but Brightline promises to be a whole lot faster. Which means that someone working in Miami will be able to feasibly commute to work and play in West Palm.

Brightline’s 2017 arrival also coincides with the growth of other game changers in people moving. Car-sharing is spreading in Palm Beach County, and ride-sharing is a fifixture.

Uber, Lyft and even Zipcars offffffffffffer alternatives for movement to and from once the train drops you offffffffffff, in addition to public transit buses, taxis and even a bicycle.

I’m not the only one thinking along those lines. Alliance Residential Development is building 315 luxury rental units on a parcel of property next door to Brightline’s West Palm Beach station.

Michael J. Ging, Alliance’s managing director, said a fullblown marketing campaign is still at least a year away as construction has only started. But expect Brightline to be part of the strategy.

“You can certainly reach out to people in Fort Lauderdale and Miami,” said Ging. “Because you’ll have a convenient transportation option that will be just across the street from our project.”