Thursday, March 16, 2017

Florida actually has High Speed Rail

Bright Line Website

An hour from West Palm Beach to Miami. Which is about 65 miles. On a train that tops out at 79 mph.

That sounds a lot more like a commuter rail to me. I mean, if it makes it to Orlando, that will be something completely different. But still. But wait--FrontRunner (UTA) takes about 2 hours to make it from Ogden to Provo, which is 81 miles. So it does go considerably faster...60% faster or so.

Rome 2 Rio suggests that doing so is faster than the alternatives. The existing train costs $9-11, but takes 2 hours 22 minutes. Bus is $35, for 1h30. Grayhound is 2h40, at $17 (why would you ever not take the train at that price? Looks like all the drive modes run 1h20. Given that the Brightline is faster, they can likely charge more than the alternative.

So Brightline is actually kind of exciting, then.