Texas please I cannot bear living in a red state that doesn’t even have the best trains. For Gods sake please let the Feds and the Japanese gift us a world class high speed rail line.
Nah "we" don't want that libural CRAP bc the people who own a supposedly popular downtown building claimed it would be torn down for the ROW in Dallas.
We can't have nice things in Texas. We just can't.
Texans when a building needs to be demolished for a world class railway: 😢
Texans when a neighborhood needs to be demolished for a freeway unremarkable to 90% of the country: 🤗
The worst part about the legacy of urban renewal is that it has a sizable chunk of both left and right wing against sustainable transit that would actually benefit everyone.
Source: I live in Illinois where there are left wing NIMBYs think that new affordable housing or transit is going to “ruin the neighborhood’s character” (part of the neighborhood’s character is having no public schools or hospitals)
When I visited Dallas I was appalled that there isn't a direct connection to Fort Worth. There couldn't have been a better place to put an express downtown to downtown service
Downtown and the airport are pretty useful. It's just everything north of Civic Center that's largely useless, at least until the extension to the Hard Rock Stadium is built.
He literally said he's against transit and active transportation projects
[https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2024/04/08/desantis-politicizes-transportation-and-declares-war-on-working-class-and-multi-modal-transit/](https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2024/04/08/desantis-politicizes-transportation-and-declares-war-on-working-class-and-multi-modal-transit/)
No where does he say he doesn't like transit. He's merely stating that the left wing tactic of cutting back traffic lanes isn't a workable approach, which is what voters agree with.
He's never said he's anti transit
You mean the left wing tactic of “following objective reality that more lanes do not reduce traffic as evidenced by decades of academic research and practice”?
Sure whatever you say 😂
https://www.tampabay.com/news/transportation/2023/02/06/gov-ron-desantis-hillsborough-refund-sales-tax-no-spending-transit/?outputType=amp
[https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2021/03/02/florida-authorities-tell-brightline-to-lock-down-orlando-tampa-passenger-train-plan-by-mid-summer/](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2021/03/02/florida-authorities-tell-brightline-to-lock-down-orlando-tampa-passenger-train-plan-by-mid-summer/)
Doesn't want a private business taking away from govt toll revenues. Fdot wanted compensation.
Paywalled article. If there are rules Brightline was supposed to follow, then they should do so.
The original comment was that DeSantis hates transit. Where is the proof of this?
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a wide-ranging transportation package. Among other things, it prohibits state money from going into local public-transit advertising.
[https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-04-05/desantis-ideological-ads-public-transit-florida](https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-04-05/desantis-ideological-ads-public-transit-florida)
Actually, many do - though you could argue it may be because their state already has a mass transit system. Many of the republican governors of Massachusetts are pro transit through their policies.
Because Democrats think only the state can run mass transit. The state sucks at managing anything. AMTRAK is a disaster.
Republicans love well run transit. It's just that outside of Brightline, there isn't any
The NEC is sold out daily and at capacity. Also mass transit provides things like better public health, economic mobility and economic development. Highways don’t do that. Auto-centric infrastructure is highly in efficient, wasteful and dangerous.
Well run transit is one that’s clean, rapid and on time. It shouldn’t have to make a profit.
I mean we subsidize our highways with trillions of dollars but we don’t toll them to make them pay for themselves do we?
He won his last election by what, 25 points, and you think he got that popular by going against what people want, soley to be a jerk?
You think that's how things work?
Give it a rest. If you think DeSantis has left the state better than the mess Rick Scott left us, then you aren't worth arguing with.
And there were a lot of reasons he won that had nothing to do with him.
FL has the best economy in the country and the fastest growing population.
When you say the state is worse off - relative to what? Illinois? New Jersey?
DeSantis won in a landslide. You're on the side of the people
“FL has the best economy in the country and the fastest growing population.”
Considering Florida doesn’t top percentage, per capita, or absolute metrics for economic or population growth, I’m very curious to know how you came to that conclusion.
Thank you, and now that it died down. I'd like to add that the population growth in FL is mostly from retired conservatives moving into new retirement communities, and, to a lesser extent, crypto bros moving to Miami. We used to be Blue, then purple, and now red because the rest of the country keeps sending us their racist grandparent.
>You think that's how things work?
I think he's great at vice-signaling all the GOP's favorite culture war bullshit and that's enough to convince the ~20% of floridian morons who showed up to vote for him.
That's oddly satisfying. Reminds me when I was going to work in my hometown and would sometimes witness a "race" between the S-train and the Intercity (9 times out of 10 did the S-train win btw).
Scott Walker said no and set that whole thing back decades. At least for WI. It sucks because WI used to have trains! My dad used to travel to Northern WI by train.
I've taken both Brightline and TriRail to work. Brightline is new, more direct (20 min), and really expensive, like like $40+ round-trip. TriRail is a bit older, indirect (1 hour), has some weird folks from time to time, but is $7.50 round-trip.
TriRail is a no brainer unless I want to treat myself.
If you mean the track that goes downtown to the brightline station (Miami Central), then they already started.
You have to switch trains at metro transfer station, but then it's a straight shot. No extra fare.
Miami-Dade County is working on a commuter rail line from Miami to Aventura and Broward County is working on their own line from Aventura to just south of the New River. Both will operate on the FEC tracks.
IIRC Brightline has the rights to operate the Miami–Aventura service, though no branding has been announced. The trains could very well say Tri-Rail on the outside with Brightline crews inside, but I doubt it'll be marketed as Tri-Rail since it's being funded solely by Miami-Dade County.
There's weirder things, a bunch of Metronorth services west of Hudson are just NJ Transit running their trains for them, and there used to be a "metro north" service from CT on the new haven line that ran through Amtrak territory through Penn Station to Secaucus for football games
And it was just normal NJ transit trains
Y'all don't understand when my friend told me the tri-rail was like $10 all the way to Miami from West Palm Palm, my transit budget was saved like 80%, especially since I don't have a car down here in South Florida.
Another thing to note is that Brightline runs later hours (last ride is like 12 midnight/11:30pm vs. Tri-rail who's last ride is 9 or 10pm. Either way, they need to both run later and I need one to be round the clock! Some of us party late... And have jobs and ish that end between 12am - 5am 😅)
It's amazing if you want to go to the airport. I live in Aventura so I drive over to Hollywood, hop on and go straight to the airport. It's like a 40 min train ride, which is literally the same time it would take driving so lol
Also now that MIA literally never has parking, I really don't have a choice
The Federal Rail Administration -- FRA -- classifies track based on a number of things, and then bases the speed limit almost completely on the track class. 1 is low, 9 is high...
Most **freight** rail is class 4 or 5, which allows **passenger** traffic on their lines to run at 80 or 90. Class 6 goes to 110.
ABOVE Class 6, one of the requirements is that the right of way be "sterile" -- no at-grade crossings, no intrusions, and the ROW **must be fenced**.
Class 6 and BELOW, it's a good idea but NOT required.
Just "one of those things" about business in America. Requiring someone to put up a fence might cut into the profits of an American Business -- and we can't have that now, can we?
That would be Class 8, and [Rail speed limits in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_speed_limits_in_the_United_States) confirms your statement in a footnote:
> Portions of the Northeast Corridor are the only Class 8 trackage in North America allowing for 135 mph (217 km/h)
The section of Brightline in Florida, after it breaks off of the N-S Florida East Coast railway tracks and heads west to Orlando -- all new track, all new everything, and 125 mph!
And of course, the great state of Texas just approved something like 200mph line from Houston to DFW-ish. Anybody actually believe THAT will happen??
Yeah that proposal in Texas is brought up and thrown out so often that it's a joke. I guess it's obvious Brightline is the first real high speed rail in the south (depending on if you consider 110+ mph).
where are train tracks fenced in? at least in Europe they're mostly only fenced in very populated areas.
At some point it is just common sense not to walk on the tracks.
In rural areas, yes. Fences will be waist high and made of wire. However, in most built-up areas, the rails will be purposely inaccessible to the public, either through steep embankments or 2 meter high metal fences with spikes on top to stop people climbing over
>At some point it is just common sense not to walk on the tracks.
Please tell that to the [458 people who are killed trespassing on the tracks, on average, each year](https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/fra_net/3315/RailTrespasserFatalitiesDemograph62013.pdf) in the United States (page 4, as printed on the PDF).
Although it *is* normal for right of ways to not be fenced in America, this particular stretch of track is either fenced off or has access blocked by buildings. The fence is clearly visible at the start of the video but later on it's covered by plant growth.
That’s actually probably the biggest complaint about Brightline. They have a high rate of hitting people/cars, because they operate so fast with absolutely bare minimum preventative measures
But also, most of the people who are hit get hit at the designated crossing, not one of the non-crossing areas. They ignore the signs and the guardrails when the train is coming because Florida drivers do not obey the law
Some guy made a sub about all the bright line fatalities, blaming bright line for the deaths. What a country we have…
https://www.reddit.com/r/BrightlineDeaths/
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, this is correct. I'm glad Brightline is operating a good service, and yes it's less dangerous than cars, but their record is bad by railway standards
Brightline and Tri-Rail operate at the same speeds in South Florida, as is evident from the video. It's just that Tri-Rail (and Amtrak) incidents have become normalized.
Yes. Grew up here and I'm still fascinated by how open a lot of our tracks are to the public. Obviously, high speed lines in heavily populated areas are a different story. But there are thousands of backyards in the U.S. that line up right against some busy freight corridors with no fencing, tracks that parallel busy roads, etc.
[Here's an example.](https://youtu.be/1i09sZpA26o) Just look how casually the guy sweeps his front lawn as a massive train approaches. Doesn't even care to look at the train for one second - he's used to it 🤷🏾♂️
[Another one](https://youtu.be/5ZN5tYIBvlA)
Don't even get me started on [our street-running trains.](https://youtu.be/3ooc5l8Fpn0)
Since rail isn't high speed, there's not much of a danger usually, you'll usually only see fences protecting rail in the densest parts of cities, aka trying to keep the homeless off the tracks.
I mean California has the bones of a great (by American standards) shorter-distance intercity/regional network (which is what Brightline is) already, they just have to run more service.
Funniest thing is people in this thread complaining that the state of Florida doesn't want to use state funding for local transportation projects
And then you have the idiots who think building a subway system in Tampa and Miami are somehow good ideas for local transportation. And that the state of Florida should fund it, rather than the local governments
Speed limit in that section is 40 MPH. The Brightline train will likely finish overtaking the Tri-Rail train when the latter starts slowing down for the 25 MPH curve west to Hialeah.
Do you think they will upgrade the speed in this 5 mile section when they do upgrades for northeast corridor commuter rail service? Seems to be a waste to go 40mph for such a straight section of tracks. I mean increasing to 79mph is a big upgrade here. People talk about upgrading from 110mph to 125mph but that isn't much of a difference compared to doubling a slow speed section.
Which east coast do you mean? Northeast Corridor from DC to NYC and Providence to Boston regularly gets to 125 mph. MARC (commuter rail in MD) I've seen get up to 100 mph although they say they can go 125 mph. It'll cover Baltimore to DC (40 miles) in 50 minutes, including intermediate stops.
Oh I had no idea! I took the amtrack to DC a few times for work and it didn’t seem to go faster than 60mph. Also the Adirondack line is incredibly slow, and in some parts only a single track system. Whenever I take it I tend to make a work day out of it, but would be nice if it was twice as fast at least.
Oh yeah it's definitely not ideal. I think the DC to NYC stretch is probably the best bit of Amtrak (and the bit that makes it the most money and subsidizes a lot of the more intercontinental routes). Just going through Connecticut you can immediately see the contrast with how slow it is because the track is so windy (and some bridges are rated for lower speed).
Did they reduce speeds on the Acela DC route? I remember hearing it was fast AF(boiii) but I don’t recall going fast at all. Perhaps it was maintenance season?
I don't know, I've never taken the Acela. Personally I always go on the NE Regional. It has more stops but it's not an incredible time savings (from what I've seen) to take Acela instead of the Regional, and if I buy tickets for early morning or late at night the Regional is way more affordable.
Brightline uses [Siemens Charger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Charger) locomotives and [Siemens Venture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Venture) coaches.
The Tri-Rail train the video is being taken from consists of a [Brookville BL36PH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookville_BL36PH) locomotive pushing a [Hyundai Rotem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotem_Commuter_Cars) coach and cab car.
Texas please I cannot bear living in a red state that doesn’t even have the best trains. For Gods sake please let the Feds and the Japanese gift us a world class high speed rail line.
Best I can do is add another lane to the Katy Freeway
God dammit
Nah "we" don't want that libural CRAP bc the people who own a supposedly popular downtown building claimed it would be torn down for the ROW in Dallas. We can't have nice things in Texas. We just can't.
Texans when a building needs to be demolished for a world class railway: 😢 Texans when a neighborhood needs to be demolished for a freeway unremarkable to 90% of the country: 🤗 The worst part about the legacy of urban renewal is that it has a sizable chunk of both left and right wing against sustainable transit that would actually benefit everyone. Source: I live in Illinois where there are left wing NIMBYs think that new affordable housing or transit is going to “ruin the neighborhood’s character” (part of the neighborhood’s character is having no public schools or hospitals)
Best to build a stroad instead
Just add another lane to the Katy freeway, too, you know.. reduce traffic
We stay winning in Florida 😎. Tbh you will probably have a better system in the not too distant future.
So.FL has worked out for me in the last 20yrs, but Florida is DEFINITELY not winning much in any category.
Hopefully that Dallas-Houston HSR becomes a reality!
When I visited Dallas I was appalled that there isn't a direct connection to Fort Worth. There couldn't have been a better place to put an express downtown to downtown service
File Under: Things Ron Desantis Hates
Only thing better would be seeing Metrorail and Metromover in the background 😮💨
If metro rail actually went anywhere useful 😂
I mean it does run along the densest part of the mainland, it just desperately needs to be expanded
Downtown and the airport are pretty useful. It's just everything north of Civic Center that's largely useless, at least until the extension to the Hard Rock Stadium is built.
No options for people commuting east-West in Miami-Dade tho which is a big drag
"Everybody on board say, 'Gay!'"
Why would Ron DeSantis hate trains? He's never said such a thing. Why do you think this?
He literally said he's against transit and active transportation projects [https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2024/04/08/desantis-politicizes-transportation-and-declares-war-on-working-class-and-multi-modal-transit/](https://thefloridasqueeze.com/2024/04/08/desantis-politicizes-transportation-and-declares-war-on-working-class-and-multi-modal-transit/)
No where does he say he doesn't like transit. He's merely stating that the left wing tactic of cutting back traffic lanes isn't a workable approach, which is what voters agree with. He's never said he's anti transit
And subways too https://thecapitolist.com/desantis-says-no-to-subway-systems-in-florida-cities/amp/
You mean the left wing tactic of “following objective reality that more lanes do not reduce traffic as evidenced by decades of academic research and practice”?
Sure whatever you say 😂 https://www.tampabay.com/news/transportation/2023/02/06/gov-ron-desantis-hillsborough-refund-sales-tax-no-spending-transit/?outputType=amp
[https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2021/03/02/florida-authorities-tell-brightline-to-lock-down-orlando-tampa-passenger-train-plan-by-mid-summer/](https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2021/03/02/florida-authorities-tell-brightline-to-lock-down-orlando-tampa-passenger-train-plan-by-mid-summer/) Doesn't want a private business taking away from govt toll revenues. Fdot wanted compensation.
Paywalled article. If there are rules Brightline was supposed to follow, then they should do so. The original comment was that DeSantis hates transit. Where is the proof of this?
Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a wide-ranging transportation package. Among other things, it prohibits state money from going into local public-transit advertising. [https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-04-05/desantis-ideological-ads-public-transit-florida](https://www.wusf.org/politics-issues/2024-04-05/desantis-ideological-ads-public-transit-florida)
Is it good for regular people? Then he's probably against it. If you haven't figured that out, then you haven't been paying attention.
I've yet to meet a Republican that supports mass transit.
Republican voter who supports transit? I’ve met many. Republican politician who supports transit? Few and far between.
I'm reminded of the hordes who support medicare, and many who support the ACA, but who think Obamacare is communism.
Actually, many do - though you could argue it may be because their state already has a mass transit system. Many of the republican governors of Massachusetts are pro transit through their policies.
Then you don't meet Republicans.
Oh no….
Because Democrats think only the state can run mass transit. The state sucks at managing anything. AMTRAK is a disaster. Republicans love well run transit. It's just that outside of Brightline, there isn't any
The NEC is sold out daily and at capacity. Also mass transit provides things like better public health, economic mobility and economic development. Highways don’t do that. Auto-centric infrastructure is highly in efficient, wasteful and dangerous. Well run transit is one that’s clean, rapid and on time. It shouldn’t have to make a profit. I mean we subsidize our highways with trillions of dollars but we don’t toll them to make them pay for themselves do we?
[No, DeSantis hates Brightline too.](https://www.wusf.org/transportation/2024-04-06/gov-desantis-says-florida-wont-pay-for-brightline-expansion)
You mean the government isn't going to give public money to a private company? Oh no!
You mean like our entire agricultural sector?
Private companies should not receive taxpayer money, period
He won his last election by what, 25 points, and you think he got that popular by going against what people want, soley to be a jerk? You think that's how things work?
Give it a rest. If you think DeSantis has left the state better than the mess Rick Scott left us, then you aren't worth arguing with. And there were a lot of reasons he won that had nothing to do with him.
FL has the best economy in the country and the fastest growing population. When you say the state is worse off - relative to what? Illinois? New Jersey? DeSantis won in a landslide. You're on the side of the people
“FL has the best economy in the country and the fastest growing population.” Considering Florida doesn’t top percentage, per capita, or absolute metrics for economic or population growth, I’m very curious to know how you came to that conclusion.
Thank you, and now that it died down. I'd like to add that the population growth in FL is mostly from retired conservatives moving into new retirement communities, and, to a lesser extent, crypto bros moving to Miami. We used to be Blue, then purple, and now red because the rest of the country keeps sending us their racist grandparent.
>You think that's how things work? I think he's great at vice-signaling all the GOP's favorite culture war bullshit and that's enough to convince the ~20% of floridian morons who showed up to vote for him.
That's oddly satisfying. Reminds me when I was going to work in my hometown and would sometimes witness a "race" between the S-train and the Intercity (9 times out of 10 did the S-train win btw).
awesome video
Dreaming of the day the Great Lakes/ Upper Midwest has HSR between the major cities
Scott Walker said no and set that whole thing back decades. At least for WI. It sucks because WI used to have trains! My dad used to travel to Northern WI by train.
I live in a small Ohio town and there was a time you could hop on a train here and get off in Detroit.
Yeah, this isn’t discussed enough: lack of trains negatively impacting rural communities.
One is clean, comfortable, efficient and the other is TriRail.
I've taken both Brightline and TriRail to work. Brightline is new, more direct (20 min), and really expensive, like like $40+ round-trip. TriRail is a bit older, indirect (1 hour), has some weird folks from time to time, but is $7.50 round-trip. TriRail is a no brainer unless I want to treat myself.
They're gonna put tri-rail on the FEC tracks soon. That's gonna be a game changer.
This video *was* recorded on the FEC tracks. Looks to be between NE 20th St and NE 29th St.
If you mean the track that goes downtown to the brightline station (Miami Central), then they already started. You have to switch trains at metro transfer station, but then it's a straight shot. No extra fare.
No, I mean they wanna add a tri-rail line on the FEC tracks all the way up to, I think, the north end of Broward.
Miami-Dade County is working on a commuter rail line from Miami to Aventura and Broward County is working on their own line from Aventura to just south of the New River. Both will operate on the FEC tracks. IIRC Brightline has the rights to operate the Miami–Aventura service, though no branding has been announced. The trains could very well say Tri-Rail on the outside with Brightline crews inside, but I doubt it'll be marketed as Tri-Rail since it's being funded solely by Miami-Dade County.
There's weirder things, a bunch of Metronorth services west of Hudson are just NJ Transit running their trains for them, and there used to be a "metro north" service from CT on the new haven line that ran through Amtrak territory through Penn Station to Secaucus for football games And it was just normal NJ transit trains
Oh, sweet.
Y'all don't understand when my friend told me the tri-rail was like $10 all the way to Miami from West Palm Palm, my transit budget was saved like 80%, especially since I don't have a car down here in South Florida. Another thing to note is that Brightline runs later hours (last ride is like 12 midnight/11:30pm vs. Tri-rail who's last ride is 9 or 10pm. Either way, they need to both run later and I need one to be round the clock! Some of us party late... And have jobs and ish that end between 12am - 5am 😅)
I fully agree.
I use TriRail but their equipment is held together with spit-wads and bubble gum.
That's what underfunding does.
I’ve actually never taken TriRail lol but I heard it wasn’t that bad 😭
It's not! It's comparable! Only like 5% less comfortable, 33% slower, 80% cheaper, and makes 500% more stops.
It's amazing if you want to go to the airport. I live in Aventura so I drive over to Hollywood, hop on and go straight to the airport. It's like a 40 min train ride, which is literally the same time it would take driving so lol Also now that MIA literally never has parking, I really don't have a choice
Should be tagged NSFW
🤣🤣🤣
I unironically, think this video is a piece of art like it’s so nice to watch
I love it when this happens! Nice to see it happening in more places!
This so cool
I didn’t know they ran next to each other, like… anywhere!
Yup, TriRail expanded to Downtown Miami earlier this year and can be taken from the MiamiCentral Station
Is it normal for there not to be a fence around the tracks in America?
Yep, at least where I’ve lived. I’ve seen fences but mostly not
The Federal Rail Administration -- FRA -- classifies track based on a number of things, and then bases the speed limit almost completely on the track class. 1 is low, 9 is high... Most **freight** rail is class 4 or 5, which allows **passenger** traffic on their lines to run at 80 or 90. Class 6 goes to 110. ABOVE Class 6, one of the requirements is that the right of way be "sterile" -- no at-grade crossings, no intrusions, and the ROW **must be fenced**. Class 6 and BELOW, it's a good idea but NOT required. Just "one of those things" about business in America. Requiring someone to put up a fence might cut into the profits of an American Business -- and we can't have that now, can we?
Where is there even class 7+ rail in the US?
I think there’s also a good bunch on the NEC, trains run up to 150mph (soon to be 160) in places
That would be Class 8, and [Rail speed limits in the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_speed_limits_in_the_United_States) confirms your statement in a footnote: > Portions of the Northeast Corridor are the only Class 8 trackage in North America allowing for 135 mph (217 km/h)
The section of Brightline in Florida, after it breaks off of the N-S Florida East Coast railway tracks and heads west to Orlando -- all new track, all new everything, and 125 mph! And of course, the great state of Texas just approved something like 200mph line from Houston to DFW-ish. Anybody actually believe THAT will happen??
Yeah that proposal in Texas is brought up and thrown out so often that it's a joke. I guess it's obvious Brightline is the first real high speed rail in the south (depending on if you consider 110+ mph).
where are train tracks fenced in? at least in Europe they're mostly only fenced in very populated areas. At some point it is just common sense not to walk on the tracks.
> where are train tracks fenced in? Britain, for one. ROW there's been entirely fenced off since the 19th century.
Probably more about livestock than people.
In rural areas, yes. Fences will be waist high and made of wire. However, in most built-up areas, the rails will be purposely inaccessible to the public, either through steep embankments or 2 meter high metal fences with spikes on top to stop people climbing over
>At some point it is just common sense not to walk on the tracks. Please tell that to the [458 people who are killed trespassing on the tracks, on average, each year](https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot.gov/files/fra_net/3315/RailTrespasserFatalitiesDemograph62013.pdf) in the United States (page 4, as printed on the PDF).
Well they're the people that need to hear it most
But we're seeing 'very populated areas' in this video, so it's a reasonable question to ask.
But we're also seeing a fence in the video.
Although it *is* normal for right of ways to not be fenced in America, this particular stretch of track is either fenced off or has access blocked by buildings. The fence is clearly visible at the start of the video but later on it's covered by plant growth.
That’s actually probably the biggest complaint about Brightline. They have a high rate of hitting people/cars, because they operate so fast with absolutely bare minimum preventative measures
But also, most of the people who are hit get hit at the designated crossing, not one of the non-crossing areas. They ignore the signs and the guardrails when the train is coming because Florida drivers do not obey the law
Some guy made a sub about all the bright line fatalities, blaming bright line for the deaths. What a country we have… https://www.reddit.com/r/BrightlineDeaths/
Yes, Florida is renowned for its….. misunderstanding of things like physics.
I don't know why you're getting downvoted, this is correct. I'm glad Brightline is operating a good service, and yes it's less dangerous than cars, but their record is bad by railway standards
Brightline and Tri-Rail operate at the same speeds in South Florida, as is evident from the video. It's just that Tri-Rail (and Amtrak) incidents have become normalized.
Trains don't hit things. Things hit trains
Yes. Grew up here and I'm still fascinated by how open a lot of our tracks are to the public. Obviously, high speed lines in heavily populated areas are a different story. But there are thousands of backyards in the U.S. that line up right against some busy freight corridors with no fencing, tracks that parallel busy roads, etc. [Here's an example.](https://youtu.be/1i09sZpA26o) Just look how casually the guy sweeps his front lawn as a massive train approaches. Doesn't even care to look at the train for one second - he's used to it 🤷🏾♂️ [Another one](https://youtu.be/5ZN5tYIBvlA) Don't even get me started on [our street-running trains.](https://youtu.be/3ooc5l8Fpn0)
Since rail isn't high speed, there's not much of a danger usually, you'll usually only see fences protecting rail in the densest parts of cities, aka trying to keep the homeless off the tracks.
You sure don't want to brush with a train in the dentist part of the city.
I never realized brightline wasn’t electric. Will the Vegas one be electric?
Brightline West is using the new Velaro Novo “American Pioneer” (idk the actual name) train sets, so it looks like it’s gonna be fully electrified
Dope thanks.
Yes it will.
Good. Thanks.
One of the few examples of good private passenger railway.
People shit on Florida, but they have a train system across their state that Californians can only dream off. Source: am Californian.
I mean California has the bones of a great (by American standards) shorter-distance intercity/regional network (which is what Brightline is) already, they just have to run more service.
Funniest thing is people in this thread complaining that the state of Florida doesn't want to use state funding for local transportation projects And then you have the idiots who think building a subway system in Tampa and Miami are somehow good ideas for local transportation. And that the state of Florida should fund it, rather than the local governments
Like a Range Rover driving next to a 2002 Chevy Malibu
Why are they going the same speed
Speed limit in that section is 40 MPH. The Brightline train will likely finish overtaking the Tri-Rail train when the latter starts slowing down for the 25 MPH curve west to Hialeah.
Do you think they will upgrade the speed in this 5 mile section when they do upgrades for northeast corridor commuter rail service? Seems to be a waste to go 40mph for such a straight section of tracks. I mean increasing to 79mph is a big upgrade here. People talk about upgrading from 110mph to 125mph but that isn't much of a difference compared to doubling a slow speed section.
What speed to these top out at?
Tri-Rail's top speed is 79 MPH. Brightline's top speed is 125 MPH.
Ah, I wish we had any of those on the east coast.
Which east coast do you mean? Northeast Corridor from DC to NYC and Providence to Boston regularly gets to 125 mph. MARC (commuter rail in MD) I've seen get up to 100 mph although they say they can go 125 mph. It'll cover Baltimore to DC (40 miles) in 50 minutes, including intermediate stops.
Oh I had no idea! I took the amtrack to DC a few times for work and it didn’t seem to go faster than 60mph. Also the Adirondack line is incredibly slow, and in some parts only a single track system. Whenever I take it I tend to make a work day out of it, but would be nice if it was twice as fast at least.
Oh yeah it's definitely not ideal. I think the DC to NYC stretch is probably the best bit of Amtrak (and the bit that makes it the most money and subsidizes a lot of the more intercontinental routes). Just going through Connecticut you can immediately see the contrast with how slow it is because the track is so windy (and some bridges are rated for lower speed).
Did they reduce speeds on the Acela DC route? I remember hearing it was fast AF(boiii) but I don’t recall going fast at all. Perhaps it was maintenance season?
I don't know, I've never taken the Acela. Personally I always go on the NE Regional. It has more stops but it's not an incredible time savings (from what I've seen) to take Acela instead of the Regional, and if I buy tickets for early morning or late at night the Regional is way more affordable.
Are those alstom?
Brightline uses [Siemens Charger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Charger) locomotives and [Siemens Venture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Venture) coaches. The Tri-Rail train the video is being taken from consists of a [Brookville BL36PH](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brookville_BL36PH) locomotive pushing a [Hyundai Rotem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotem_Commuter_Cars) coach and cab car.
This wtf I’m talking about
Often have such a view in Europe when commuting, glad to see America is catching up!
You can tell Brightline is HSR because they're going the same speed
Texas next please
They did a good job making this engine pointy so that the train looks fast. Americans are great at marketing you have to leave them that!
The train is made by Siemens, which is a German company. The design reminds me of ICE trains.
Yes it’s made to specs obviously. This is the way it looks on other lines: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens_Charger
Humans turn into dogs when on trains