12/6/2023 0 Comments Brightline trains![]() If that’s even close to accurate and Brightline can capture even 10% of those trips, the train will be a roaring success. The high-speed rail estimates there are more than 35 million trips between South and Central Florida each year. We want people to walk through those doors, and be stress free.”Ĭonnections turn Orlando into Florida’s front doorĮven while opening routes through Aventura, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach, Orlando has always been Brightline’s endgame. “It’s because we care about the experience, not just the commodity of transportation. “People wonder why a hotel guy is involved in a train,” says Goddard. Goddard came with over a decade working in hospitality, and he says the company aims to approach its business more like a boutique hotel with a platform than a train station. On its mission to change the way we think about train travel, Brightline started with its staff. ![]() But since many Americans’ only experiences with train travel are the oft-delayed Amtrak and regional rails in the northeast, changing that perception is an uphill climb. How do I get to the station? Or how do I get from the station to my final destination? Once people start to get past that, they understand the intrinsic benefits of train travel versus driving.”Īside from the whole fewer-cars-on-the-road thing, the intrinsic benefit of train travel is it allows you to sit back and relax en route to your destination. “The friction on a train is at the front end. That’s because getting into a car and hitting the road is easy, and problems only arise once you hit traffic or struggle to find parking, he says. “We have this perception that cars equal freedom,” Brightline President Patrick Goddard muses as he presides over the ribbon cutting at the sparkling new Orlando station. High speeds and high-end amenities change perception Brightline hopes this will close the gap between cities and change the way our state-and the millions who visit it-think about traveling in Florida, but can we all get on board? ![]() The three-ish hour trip will cost about the same as a flight ($79 in Smart class), but will allow you to work, binge shows on Netflix, or sip chardonnay as you coast up the peninsula. By the end of this summer, the route will finally get its crowning leg with service between South Florida and Orlando. So whether you’re traveling north for business or want to visit the Mouse, there’s a serious barrier.īut Brightline-our sunny, citrusy, high-speed train that’s making quick trips to West Palm and beyond a reality-is trying to change all that. ![]() No matter how you get there, going to Orlando requires a lengthy travel day. And you have just enough time during the 35-minute flight to open your laptop before the flight attendant tells you to put it away. What should be a three-hour drive is stretched to five if the wrong drivers are on the road (which they always seem to be).įlying isn’t much better, as the bulk of your transit time is spent getting to the airport and waiting in security lines. Just over 235 miles separate Florida’s two most popular destinations, but the stretch of paved swampland that sits between them is a painful purgatory of traffic and thunderstorms. It’s not that the city is cold and has a strange obsession with Tim Horton’s-it’s that the effort required to get there can feel more tedious than traveling to Toronto. To all of us in Miami, Orlando may as well be Canada. Throughout the week, you’ll find stories and guides that’ll make you want to buy a ticket, promptly change your status to “choo-choo,” and meet us in the bar car for a bucket list-worthy locomotive adventure. In celebration of our borderline obsession with trains-fast trains, slow trains, wine trains, even snow trains (and, no, not the Snowpiercer kind)-we’re dedicating our site to all things trains. All aboard, y’all! It’s Trains Week at Thrillist.
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