The “introductory service” will run between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. It is expected that by the end of the year a Miami with West Palm Beach
The first private high-speed rail line in the United States, which will connect Miami and Orlando, Florida, begins this week a 41-mile (66-kilometer) ” introductory service” between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
The company Brightline has not reported the precise day on which the service will start and has limited itself to pointing out that it will be “the week of January 8”, without giving details of schedules or prices.
The project, which has an estimated cost of 3.1 billion dollars, has suffered delays and legal setbacks, which already seem to be overcome.
Over the weekend, several trains have run between Fort Lauderdae and West Palm Beach with passengers selected in preparation for the line’s employees, the Palm Beach Post reported.
One of the passengers on these early journeys was Jim Kovalsky of the Florida East Coast Railway Society, an association of railroad enthusiasts, who called the trip of about half an hour “wonderful.”
“It’s like nothing else I know of in this country. It’s fast. It’s soft. I think it’s going to change the way rail service looks in America.,” Kovalsky told the Palm Beach Post.
Service between Miami and West Palm Beach, which is expected to last an hour, is expected to be running by the end of this year.
The completion date of the second phase of the project, West Palm Beach-Orlando International Airport, some 150 miles (241 kilometers) apart, is unknown, but local media venture that it will be completed in 2020.
The new Brightline high-speed line is expected to reduce traffic on South Florida’s highways by three million cars, according to Country Living.
Travel fares have yet to be announced, though a 2015 study by the same company that undertook the project, All Aboard Florida, estimated the price of traveling from West Palm Beach to Miami at about $16.
The amenities of the train are internet connection, plugs, large windows and leather seats, as well as diesel electric technology that, according to the company, reduces emissions and noise.
The project foresees that in the future they will circulate between Miami and Orlando 32 trains a day, which will make the trip in about three hours, at a speed of 79 miles per hour (127 kilometers per hour) between Miami and West Palm Beach, and up to 125 miles per hour (201 kilometers per hour) between Cocoa and Orlando.
According to the local newspaper Sun Sentinel, the central station in Miami, in the heart of the city, will be operational in about three months and will have cafes, restaurants and shops.
The platforms will be located on a platform 50 feet (more than 15 meters) from street level and will also be accessible to other modes of transportation by tracks already in operation, such as Tri-Rail, Metrorail and Metromover.
In 2011, Florida Gov. Rick Scott rejected an Obama administration proposal to link Tampa and Orlando with a high-speed line, a plan that had a federal budget of $2 billion.
Source: https://www.infobae.com/america/