Before I Ride Brightline Florida… Here’s Some Comparisons
Before I Ride Brightline Florida... I wanted to take a look at some city pairs and compare them with the frequencies given by Brightline’s Miami-Orlando service. You can’t reason with capitalism when it comes to sensibility, though I do realize a train line is more than just building the line these days. NIMBY’s, bureaucracy, and corruption all fill the receipts with astronomic numbers when it comes to rail projects, so I will provide some more factual data alongside these routes including; distance between each pair, price of service, and the aforementioned frequency of the line.
Now I must say Brightline’s Florida service, which is the only one of theirs in operation at the moment (sans their not-yet-finished LA-Las Vegas line), runs their Orlando-Miami service once every hour between two cities that are about 237 miles apart. More frequent service is offered on the Miami-West Palm Beach during the service’s busiest hours. For a standard class Miami-Orlando tickets; it is about 80 bucks roundtrip, which is not bad considering my Saratoga Springs, NY-Burlington, VT once a day service ticket cost about $60. Now let’s do some comparisons with lines Amtrak, or otherwise from around the country. Shall we?
Brightline’s Orlando-Miami Service, Florida (237mi by car)
$80 Roundtrip/Day Pass Ticket // 16 Times Daily
**Major Populations**
Miami, FL
West Palm Beach, FL
Orlando, FL
Rail Runner’s Santa Fe-Albuquerque Service, New Mexico (96mi by car)
$10 Day Pass Ticket // 14 Times Daily
Santa Fe, NM
Albuquerque, NM
Las Lunas, NM
Amtrak Acela Corridor Service, NE US (440mi by car)
$90-$120 Roundtrip Ticket (I hate Amtrak’s pricing system) // 20 times Daily
Boston, MA
NYC
Washington DC
GOTrain’s Regional Service, Ontario, CA (103mi by car)
$10 Day Pass Ticket // Around 50 Times Daily
Hamilton, ON
Toronto, ON
Oshawa, ON
CalTrain’s Regional Service, California (86mi by car)
$15 Day Pass Ticket // Around 50 Times Daily
San Francisco, CA
Palo Alto, CA
Sunnyvale, CA
Amtrak’s Wolverine Service, Michigan/Illinois (285mi by car)
$40 Roundtrip Ticket // 3 Times Daily
Chicago, IL
Kalamazoo,MI
Detroit, MI
Amtrak Hiawatha, Illinois/Wisconsin (92mi by car)
$25 Roundtrip Ticket // 14 Times Daily
Chicago, IL
Racine, WI
Milwaukee, WI
Amtrak Lincoln/River Runner Service, Illinois/Missouri (510mi by car)
$60 Roundtrip Ticket // 1 Time Daily
(2 Times on St. Louis-Kansas City service a la Missouri River Runner)
Chicago, IL
St. Louis, MO
Kansas City, MO
Amtrak Cardinal Service, Ohio/Indiana (110mi by car)
$40 Roundtrip Ticket // 2 Times Weekly
Cincinnati, OH
Indianapolis, IN
Next I have come up with some fun city pair routes that need to come back in service!
Possible Amtrak Cleveland-Columbus Service, Ohio (142mi by car)
Cleveland, OH
Akron, OH
Mansfield, OH
Columbus, OH
Possible Amtrak I-25 Corridor Service, Colorado/Wyoming (212mi by car)
Cheyanne, WY
Ft. Collins, CO
Denver, CO
Colorado Springs, CO
Pueblo, CO
Possible Amtrak Ohio Valley Service, Ohio/Kentucky/Tennessee (274mi by car)
Cincinatti, OH
Louisville, KY
Bowling Green, KY
Nashville, TN
Possible Interstate Thru Route, Texas/Oklahoma (484mi by car)
San Antonio, TX
Austin, TX
Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX
Oklahoma City, OK
I just pray to jesus that when I do ride the Brightline a Florida person won’t run their car into the train. The train operates hovering around the 100mph mark. Knowing my luck though,
