Brightline ridership increases lead to new additions for high-speed rail

Brightline, South Florida’s high-speed railroad, said Friday its ridership numbers during the pandemic are starting to rise, even with a fare increase.

More than 95,000 people rode the Brightline in December. Although that’s still far below the 127,690 riders at the same time two years earlier, Brightline’s service was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the company to halt operations between March 2020 and early November 2021.

In comparison, November’s ridership was 61,045.

Riders are now returning, even while paying more. The average fare in December was $13.21, compared to $9.55 in November.

And officials say that trend will continue. “We expect average fares to continue to increase in early 2022 as reopening-related promotional fares roll off,” according to the monthly ridership report.

In addition to increased fares, other changes that have recently been unveiled or are in the works:

„ Over the coming months, Brightline will integrate a bikeshare program, called BrightBike, with hundreds of bikes throughout downtown West Palm Beach. The rail line said there will also be “scooters and other modes of travel.”

„ Aventura and Boca Raton stations are expected to open in the fall.

„ Construction for rail service to the Orlando International Airport will be complete by the end of 2022.

„ The system extension from West Palm Beach to Orlando is about 70% complete and on schedule for “substantial completion” in late 2022. A Brightline spokeswoman said Friday there is no estimated date yet for the opening.

„ In October, Brightline launched a private, free ride service in a Tesla that dropped off riders from the train station to their final destination within a five-mile radius after they pre-booked. In December, the service was expanded to pick people up, too, and bring them to the train station. This past week the service was expanded again to allow riders to pre-book shared rides for the “first and last mile.”