Brightline to resume service in November. Here’s what we know
Brightline announced Tuesday it will resume service in early November — and that it is rolling out several new upgrades, including its own private vehicle fleet.
Brightline said the exact date of service starting again will be announced in the coming weeks. It shut down service in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic and laid off most of its staff later that spring.
Rates are expected to be similar to levels seen prior to the pandemic. A one-way ticket to Fort Lauderdale from Miami previously cost about $15.
The company now plans to hire back some 200 new employees to service passengers from Miami to West Palm Beach — and, when they are completed, at stations in Aventura and Boca Raton. Construction on the Aventura station has already broken ground, while construction on Boca is expected to commence in the coming months.
To weather the pandemic, Brightline, which is owned by Fortress Investment Group and its parent company, SoftBank, drew on both those firms’ resources, including remarketing $950 million worth of bonds. In a press briefing Tuesday, Goddard said Brightline has already invested more than $4 billion in its South Florida efforts.
“We always knew South Florida was going to be only a fraction of a fraction of our operations,” Goddard said. “The end game is to connect South Florida with Central Florida, and we expect to see profitability in that segment.”
Meanwhile, construction to Orlando has surpassed the halfway point and is on target to be complete by the end of 2022.
The company also said it is rolling out its own private vehicle fleet to bring passengers door to door. Brightline is rolling out a fleet of private luxury cars, shared shuttle services, golf carts and micro-mobility options, “eliminating the gaps created by the first and last miles and reducing environmental impact,” the company said in a separate statement Tuesday.
“We want to control the entire passenger experience,” Brightline Trains President Patrick Goddard said in a press briefing Tuesday morning.
This story was originally published August 10, 2021 at 10:36 AM.
