South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Next stops in line for Brightline stations
Many South Florida commuters want the convenience of a Brightline train station near them — and now we know the next locations on track to get them.
The high-speed train service’s next priority station stops are Boca Raton, Aventura and PortMiami, the company says.
But Brightline is still listening to proposals from several other cities eager to join its service, which runs through the downtowns of West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. If a profile of the company’s ridership is any indication, city leaders should know it’s about who can deliver the most business and tourism travelers.
“There’s a tremendous demand for the services we’ve built in South Florida,” said Ben Porritt, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Brightline, which is being rebranded as Virgin Trains USA. “While Boca Raton, PortMiami and Aventura are our top priorities today, there are other cities along the South Florida corridor we are hearing from, listening to and getting an understanding of what their vision is for the future.”
Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport are among them, according to city and economic development officials.
Virgin Group, Brightline’s new joint venture partner, likes the prospects. The effort to add more South Florida stations is “the right development,” spokesman Nick Fox said.
Following the money
The company, which started service in January 2018, said it welcomed its one millionth rider in June.
In a financial report for June, the company said it carried 80,094 passengers and generated total revenue of about $1.6 million. “Year-overyear, compared to June 2018, ridership grew 65% and total revenue grew 92% for the month,” said the company’s most recent financial report to its bondholders.
While Brightline hasn’t publicly outlined the criteria for what a city must demonstrate to win a station site, the locations now at the top of Brightline’s priority list appear to be those that can generate significant tourist and business traffic, all customers who are willing to pay premium ticket prices for high-speed service.
Gail Bulfin, vice president of membership development at the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, the economic development arm of Broward County, said Brightline, an alliance member, has been “upfront from the beginning” that it is looking to attract business and tourist customers.
“We’re happy with any additional stops Brightline provides because that just makes us even more attractive to a workforce,” she said.
Besides leisure riders, many of the line’s passengers are business travelers with high incomes from professional service jobs that often require travel to other cities.
Among corporate customers, “the legal industry leads the charge in terms of total rides, followed by real estate, technology, hospitality and finance,” according to the company website.
Brightline tickets run from $10 to $35 one way from Fort Lauderdale to Miami, for example, depending on service levels and trip times. In June, the average ticket fare systemwide was $15.12, according to a company financial report.
Brightline, which operates along the Florida East Coast line, characterizes itself as a highspeed regional railroad that whisks passengers among the region’s three major downtowns.
The new service areas designated by Brightline are among the fastest growing in the region and rich in economic activity.
Serving the business community
Boca Raton is home to a number of corporate headquarters such as Office Depot, the ADP payroll services company and GEO Group, the contract prisons operator. Florida Atlantic University, Lynn University and Palm Beach State College also are located there.
South Florida’s other train service provider, Tri-Rail, already has seen success in serving Boca.
Tri-Rail’s Yamato Road stop in Boca Raton generates the most passengers among its 18 stations, according to the commuter line, which runs from Mangonia Park, north of West Palm Beach, to Miami International Airport and intends to extend its network to downtown Miami.
“We have more than half the corporate headquarters in all of Palm Beach County,” said Mayor Scott Singer, who said he initiated the city’s first contact with Brightline about a station. “When you add that to the 100,000 residents, high property values and a thriving downtown, we’re an obvious pick.”
In a letter to Singer from Brightline president Patrick Goddard, the company pledged to fund and build the train station and rail infrastructure improvements,
offer seven-day-a-week service and help the city relocate a community garden at a nearby city library.
In return, the city would contribute land for the station, fund construction of a parking garage and fund and construct a pedestrian bridge over Dixie Highway. The city also would provide shuttle service from the station to various locations in Boca Raton.
Those details, among others, would have to be settled for Brightline to open a downtown station by the end of 2020, according to the city.
A shopping destination
Aventura, which was incorporated as a city in 1995, is one of the wealthiest enclaves in MiamiDade County, with a high concentration of foreign investors, professionals and executives as residents, and high-end hotels, malls, restaurants and the Turnberry resort as attractions. It boasts the 2.4 million-square-foot Aventura Mall, the third-largest indoor mall in the country, and five outdoor malls.
The city is a short drive from the Gulfstream racetrack and casino, which are in nearby Hallandale Beach.
“If you look at the AventuraHallandale Beach-Hollywood area, you not only have all the condos, and all the businesses down there, but you also have Gulfstream Park, and the beach and Aventura Mall,” said Bulfin of the development alliance.
Porritt said he has no information on where in the city a station might be located. Ronald Wasson, the city manager, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Taking a cruise vacation
PortMiami looms as another rich source of cash and ridership for Brightline: the South Florida cruise line industry. For that reason, a rail ink is planned from the Virgin Miami Central station to the port.
“The tourism industry of South Florida — obviously — is a huge driver of our economy and the cruise lines are a big percentage of that,” Porritt said. “We have already started to partner with cruise lines.”
“Millions of cruise passengers are starting their journeys from north of West Palm Beach,” he added.
Providing ground transportation to the seaports “eliminates friction” for travelers seeking an easy way to reach their ships at port.
In turn, Brightline also has expressed interest in placing a station at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, where tourists bound for cruise line voyages can quickly transfer from jetliners to the ships awaiting them at Port Everglades.
Porritt said the insertion of new stations along the South Florida segment would not erode the railroad’s profile as a high-speed regional carrier.
“It doesn’t change the ultimate travel time by other than just a few minutes here and there,” he said.
Currently, the ride between downtown Fort Lauderdale and downtown Miami is 26 minutes.
The northbound segment from Fort Lauderdale to downtown West Palm Beach takes 37 minutes.
Those times easily trump the city-to-city travel times by car along I-95, which easily take an hour or more.
The company forecasts that each additional stop would add about three minutes to the travel time between cities.
As the line expands, Porritt said, management will monitor its schedules and travel times “to make sure we are providing express service to our guests.”
“While Boca Raton, PortMiami and Aventura are our top priorities today, there are other cities along the South Florida corridor we are hearing from, listening to and getting an understanding of what their vision is for the future.” —Ben Porritt, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Brightline