Brightline looks for more stops in area

Company plans to add three more before end of the year

It may be easier to hitch a ride on Brightline trains as the company plans to announce up to three more South Florida stations by the end of the year.

The company, currently rebranding itself as Virgin Trains USA, has stations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.

In a June 28 filing, the company says it wants to add more South Florida stops to boost ridership. While Virgin Trains officials are not saying where the stops would go, they have met with Hollywood officials and will meet with Boca Raton officials later this month.

Earlier this year, Virgin Trains said it was looking at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the Port of Miami as potential additions. The earlier information, circulated to would-be investors, said each station would cost between $20 million and $30 million and take 18 months to build.

Company officials declined to say if those stations were among the ones being alluded to in the recent release.

Virgins Trains is now working on a phase that will take the line from West Palm Beach to Orlando International Airport by 2022. It’s also planning a station near Disney World, about 20 miles west of the airport.

A number of South Florida cities have been working to make an impression on Virgin Trains officials.

Company representatives met recently with Hollywood officials at the city’s request. The discussions focused on the downtown’s proximity to the Dixie Highway/21st Avenue rail corridor and the redevelopment of the city’s “University Station” area north of Hollywood Boulevard.

“The city welcomes the idea of passenger rail with a stop in downtown Hollywood and looks forward to the possibility of working with an organization interested in making that a reality,” Hollywood spokeswoman Joann Hussey said.

In Boca Raton, council members have said they are open to having a Virgin Trains station in their city. Mayor Scott Singer said he has spoken to company officials about the merits of a city stop and company representatives plan to meet with other council members this month.

A potential Boca Raton location is in its downtown area east of the city library and a few blocks west of Mizner Park.

Virgin Trains is keeping mum about where its interests lie. Officials would not say if they would be seeking incentives from cities as a condition of having a station.

“We’ve had

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cussions about various locations. We aren’t getting into details about additional locations at the moment,” spokesman Michael Hicks said.

While additional stops could lengthen the trips, officials say Virgin Trains still will operate as an express train service. Additional stations would put it more in competition with Tri-Rail, which offers a less expensive commuter train service with more stops between Miami and West Palm Beach on the CSX tracks generally west of Interstate 95.

Weekday Tri-Rail oneway fares range from $2.50 to $6.90 depending on the destination. A regular weekday fare for a Virgin Trains trip between West Palm Beach and Miami can range from $15 to $40 depending upon the time of day and type of ticket.

Steven Abrams, Tri-Rail’s executive director, said his agency has been in communication with Virgin Trains about proposed stops and said Aventura was also a place Virgin Trains was looking at.

“We are working cooperatively with Virgin on this,” Abrams said. “We want to complement each other on their corridor eventually.”

Tri-Rail has been interested in operating commuter trains on the eastern Florida East Coast Railway tracks that Virgin Trains uses, but no agreement has been reached yet with the FEC on the matter.

Virgin Trains reported it carried 244,178 passengers during the first three months of 2019, a 227 percent increase from the first three months of 2018. Last year’s numbers were based on service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale only, as the Miami portion of the service did not start until May 2018.