It could be awhile until you see Virgin Trains USA name
They may be married, but it’s taking the Brightline high-speed rail line longer than advertised to fully convert its brand name to Virgin Trains USA.
The locomotives that power the company’s 239-seat trains still bear the black and yellow Brightline colors. The original gray seats and blue carpeting occupy the interiors of the passenger cars, and Brightline signs still dominate the three downtown stations in Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Miami.
But that’ll all change to Virgin’s red branding design: The target for completion now is around the end of next year, according to CEO Patrick Goddard. “Starting next summer,” Goddard said in a recent interview. “We’ll wrap it up coming into next season — the 2020-2021 [tourist] season.”
Last April, Virgin Group founder and billionaire Sir Richard Branson and Goddard rechristened the line’s downtown Miami station as Virgin MiamiCentral. A year ago in November 2018, the company announced it would rename itself Virgin Trains USA and transition to the new branding on its trains, stations, website and signage in 2019.
The company has not publicized any renderings or other artwork of what a train’s interior and exterior would like under the Virgin Trains USA moniker. A company spokesman said he had none to offer.
But most color schemes displaying the names of companies under the Virgin Group umbrella sport bright reds with white lettering. One only need to check out a Virgin Atlantic Airways jetliner or see the interior of the Virgin Voyages headquarters in Plantation to understand that Branson is fond of splashy color schemes.
The company has been busy with a number of priorities, Goddard said. They include ramping up new stations in Boca Raton, Aventura and PortMiami, as well as completing the Tri-Rail east-west link into the Virgin MiamiCentral station.
Goddard also said he expects the company will reach one million riders for 2019. Through the end of September, the company had carried slightly more than 700,000 passengers, according to a public filing. For all of of 2018, its first year, Brightline carried slightly more than a halfmillion riders.
Goddard said he sees a number of positive ridership trends heading into the first quarter of next year, as the numbers of business and leisure travelers are on an upward curve. “December, January, February, March, it really feels good,” he said of the line’s near-term rider prospects.
The company’s real estate business also is springing to life, he said, with the leasing of apartments in the residential component of its downtown development above and around the Miami station, as well as massive retail and office space there. “I think there’s a lot of very positive things happening,” he said.
On Tuesday, a Boca Raton City Council workshop is scheduled to discuss Brightline’s proposed downtown area station on the west side of the line’s tracks.