Brightline Trains on Fast Track for Orlando Service

After years of anticipation and resistance from some local governments, Brightline has made its first test run in the Treasure and Space coasts for speed and braking tests. Residents of communities in between now face reality of high speed rail, with speeds far beyond the usual freight train.

The track corridor from the city of Cocoa west across Orange County is entirely separated by bridges from crossing roads, enabling the train to accelerate to 125 mph as it heads to the new Brightline station connected to Terminal C at Orlando International Airport.

The passage features country landscape, with scenes of the St. Johns River and cattle herds on the Deseret Ranches.

Sometime around the start of spring, Brightline will make test runs at 125 mph in Orange, leaving expressway traffic on the parallel State Road 528 “in the dust,” as a company executive noted a few years ago.

From Cocoa south to West Palm Beach, more or less along U.S. Highway 1, the rail corridor presents a different terrain. The tracks run through an expansive number of neighborhoods, city centers, major intersections, business parks and busy waterways.

Because of the divergence in the features of the east coast segment and the number of accidents the train experienced over the past several years in south Florida, some residents and local leaders remain concerned and Congressman Bill Posey recently requested an investigation into the train.

Depsite critics and some locals' reservations, the train will begin service in 2023, however, Brightline has not stated when in 2023 that will be.