Brightline Trains Florida discussion

[user 1215]

First time to ride Brightline today on a free round trip promo.

By the way, don't go to the platform until the train is called. Don't ask me how I know.

This country is frustrating. Either all access to everyone, ticketed or not or airline TSA Fort Knox. What's the harm in allowing ticketed folks to the platform early? I'm all about order, but hypercontrol is irritating.


These are the street legal golf carts to get you the last mile if you pay extra.


The tail end of Brightline Green


Interesting ramp to mind the gap.

 

[user 1215]

Onboard...

Ain't gonna lie. It's going to hopefully attract many people. As for me, I found it too uncomfortable. So much so I decided to turn around and go back to WPB when I got to FLL.

Seats were hard. Recline didn't seem to work but I think I figured it out. Very warm cabin with no air gaspers.

Some employees were super nice, others seemed to be ambivalent to their surroundings.

I just can't see myself sitting there for 3 1/2 hours in Select class from Miami to MCO.

Which is a shame. I hope they succeed. I hope they grow. But for now, I think I'm really looking forward to my annual ride on the Piedmont with my grandkids.

 

[Qapla]

Aerial Look at Siemens Sacramento Rail Rolling Stock Factory

 

[Qapla]

 

[chrsjrcj]

Re VentureForth’s post about the seats-

I can’t tell if you were in a trainset with the new seats or the old seats. When I rode last week I had a set with the old and a set with the new. I found the new seats to be far more comfortable than the old.

I also had an issue getting the recline to work (with the new seats), and had to play with it for a few minutes before it finally worked.

 

[cirdan]

Oh, Walt had no sense of cost control. He was totally going for stuff which was not reasonably priced or financially justifiable. Style first!

For somebody who had no idea about cost control, he did pretty well for himself, no?

 

[cirdan]

Onboard...View attachment 25602View attachment 25603

Ain't gonna lie. It's going to hopefully attract many people. As for me, I found it too uncomfortable. So much so I decided to turn around and go back to WPB when I got to FLL.

Seats were hard. Recline didn't seem to work but I think I figured it out. Very warm cabin with no air gaspers.

Some employees were super nice, others seemed to be ambivalent to their surroundings.

I just can't see myself sitting there for 3 1/2 hours in Select class from Miami to MCO.

Which is a shame. I hope they succeed. I hope they grow. But for now, I think I'm really looking forward to my annual ride on the Piedmont with my grandkids.

I'm sad to hear that. I've not managed to ride myself yet (it's a bit off my beaten track) but I was hoping this would be a flagship project that could show how rail is done properly and can inspire others (whether private or not).

I hope they listen to passengers and get the issues sorted sooner rather than later.

 

[neroden]

For somebody who had no idea about cost control, he did pretty well for himself, no?

As was pointed out, Roy was his very effective partner.

Nowadays the company has a lot of Roys and no Walts, which is a bad balance.

 

[user 1215]

I can’t tell if you were in a trainset with the new seats or the old seats. When I rode last week I had a set with the old and a set with the new. I found the new seats to be far more comfortable than the old.

I also had an issue getting the recline to work (with the new seats), and had to play with it for a few minutes before it finally worked.

I rode Green and Pink, whatever category that put them in. I finally got the seat to recline on Pink but it was less useful than recline on a Spirit jet.

I'm sad to hear that. I've not managed to ride myself yet (it's a bit off my beaten track) but I was hoping this would be a flagship project that could show how rail is done properly and can inspire others (whether private or not).

I hope they listen to passengers and get the issues sorted sooner rather than later.

Me, too. No way I could handle a 3 hour ride from Miami to Orlando much less 5 hours to Tampa.

It's been a long time since I've been on the Shinkansen, but I don't think there was a recline feature, but the cloth seats seemed softer.

And it's not the leather, either. I recall being quite ok with most Bombardier commuter sets. Idk... just not what I hoped for. I hope you are right that they figured this out and have already addressed it.

 

[Cal]

I rode Green and Pink, whatever category that put them in. I finally got the seat to recline on Pink but it was less useful than recline on a Spirit jet.


Me, too. No way I could handle a 3 hour ride from Miami to Orlando much less 5 hours to Tampa.

It's been a long time since I've been on the Shinkansen, but I think there was no recline, but the cloth seats seemed softer.

And it's not the leather, either. I recall being quite ok with most Bombardier commuter sets. Idk... just not what I hoped for. I hope you are right that they figured this out and have already addressed it.

I just hope Amtrak's interiors are better, one of the (few?) good things about Amtrak coach is the large, comfortable seats.

 

[user 1215]

Got a nice, canned response saying thank you for the email and that they would elevate it. Not expecting anything from anyone important but if I do, I'll share.

 

[chrsjrcj]

I rode Green and Pink, whatever category that put them in. I finally got the seat to recline on Pink but it was less useful than recline on a Spirit jet.

Green was the set I was on that had new seats (and a malfunctioning recline). I found them to be more comfortable, my mother did not. Guess I’m in the minority on this one

 

[cirdan]

Green was the set I was on that had new seats (and a malfunctioning recline). I found them to be more comfortable, my mother did not. Guess I’m in the minority on this one

It seems odd to me that they should be throwing out seats on sets that are still so new and low mileage. It would suggest there was something wrong with them.

 

[user 1215]

It seems odd to me that they should be throwing out seats on sets that are still so new and low mileage. It would suggest there was something wrong with them.

I don't know that they are being thrown out, but I would support that if they are not comfortable. Of course, I could be in the minority along with Chrsjrcj's mom.

They've had nearly a year of usage prior to Covid, and the alleged "more comfortable" seats on Green could have been installed that way based on customer feedback. That being said, I don't have a clue in which order the trainsets were delivered.

 

[Qapla]

Not exactly an "update" but this is one of the bridges being rebuilt for Brightline

Florida East Coast Railway Trains 105 and 206 Crossing the Crane Creek Bridge - November 24, 2021

 

[Qapla]

Brightline Aventura and Boca Raton Station Construction - November 2021

 

[Anderson]

Getting back to this...



Oh, Walt had no sense of cost control. He was totally going for stuff which was not reasonably priced or financially justifiable. Style first!

Yeah...between my brother and I, I'm the one who figures out how to make the household budget work. There's a reason I'll sarcastically call him Walt when he goes off and does something "cool but not in the budget" (usually met with "Alright, Roy...").

To be fair, Disney World was likely always going to be a success and he did plan additional resorts early on to make the numbers work well.

[Now, whether the EPCOT concept could have ever been made to work is an open question. I think there was something there, but not quite as Walt saw it.]

 

[Scott Orlando]

I drove the 528 yesterday.

- Several miles of track is down
- The airport is really looking good
- The 520 bridge is still just pilings , far behind the others

 

[Qapla]

Florida East Coast Railway Train 105 Across the Turkey Creek Bridge - December 3, 2021

 

[Qapla]

Brightline Construction: The 8th Bridge Edition - Brevard County Bridges Nov/Dec 2021

 

[Qapla]

The latest video is

 

[jiml]

From Simply Railway:

 

[neroden]

Love Roaming Railfan's videos. I would still lay bets that Eau Gallie River bridge is the critical path on the entire project -- they've finally started putting in the pilings for the piers for the first new bridge. Started.

We'll see whether the SR520 bridge finishes before or after it; but the SR520 bridge has all its pilings in, and Eau Gallie doesn't even have all the pilings in for the first of two bridges, so I bet Eau Gallie takes a lot longer.

There are a few other candidates for critical path. Sebastian River has half its beams in on the first bridge, but it is a much, much longer bridge; Eau Gallie might catch up with it, so this is the second-most-likely candidate. Loxahatchee River Bridge is reusing the piers, but has hardly started construction, so it's hard to tell how fast it will go. Turkey Creek, being a short bridge which only needs two piers, is already closer to completion than Eau Gallie, so I'm pretty sure it isn't on the critical path. I'd bet on Eau Gallie River.

I fully expect the entire Cocoa to Orlando segment to be finished and running test trains before the West Palm Beach to Cocoa bridges are done; once the Eau Gallie, Turkey Creek, Crane Creek and Sebastian River bridges finish their current bridge under construction, they have to do it all over again for bridge #2.

I do think if Brightline finishes the first new bridge on each of these, cuts traffic over, and finishes the Cocoa to Orlando line, they will have a very strong incentive to try to open to Orlando and start collecting revenue even if not all the second-track bridges are open, which they probably won't be. I am curious to see what will happen.

 

[chrsjrcj]

In other news…

https://news.yahoo.com/delayed-years-tri-rail-miami-014249248.html
It’s not like Tri-Rail has gotten new trains since All Aboard Florida was announced. Not surprising to see a private company cut corners. I was highly skeptical of any intent for Brightline to run commuter service, and what better way to prevent that than building infrastructure that won’t support it.

 

[jis]

Seems more like plain old incompetence and/or carelessness to me since potentially it affects the Brightline side too, specially as far as the viaduct structure goes.

Here is the original Miami Herald article which has the same content as the Yahoo published version of it, except for a few corrections.

Delayed for years, Tri-Rail’s Miami station has a new problem: The trains won’t fit

Also it provides a link to the consultants report (a large PDF document) which I provide a reference to below:

South Florida Regional Transportation Authority Report of Survey, Load Rating & Bridge Inspection Tri-Rail MiamiCentral Station

Seems like quite a phenomenal cluster foxtrot which might cost more than a pretty penny to fix, even on the Brightline side of the station.