Shift Magazine - February 2022 - 21

tourist destination in Orlando, upending
the transportation options available.
" There's a sweet spot of routes that
are too short to fly and too long to drive,
and also have business and leisure populations
where you have significant congestion
and no real way to improve that, "
said Ben Porritt, vice president of corporate
affairs for Brightline. " So Miami
and Orlando is perfect. You have the
Everglades on one side and ocean on the
other. The population is growing leaps
and bounds, and you have to find a way
to get cars off the road. "
Brightline estimates that its Florida
One way around those cost-centered
story lines is to find private funding for
next-generation rail projects. That may
sound fantastical, but it's exactly what's
happening in Florida, where one of the
most tangible next-generation rail projects
is already underway.
'SWEET SPOT' IN FLORIDA
Brightline, a private rail company which
touts itself as the " only modern and ecofriendly
rail service in America, " a notso-subtle
dig at Amtrak, started providing
service in 2018 on a 70-mile stretch
of track between Miami and West Palm
Beach. A 170-mile addition that connects
Orlando to the existing track is 70
percent complete and expected to open
in early 2023. Total cost of the project:
approximately $4.5 billion, according to a
Brightline spokesperson.
The train can go as fast as 79 mph
between Miami and West Palm Beach
and is expected to reach speeds as fast
as 125 on the new connection between
West Palm Beach and Orlando. Once
that leg is open,
the overall
trip time
between Miami and Orlando should be
reduced by 40 minutes compared with a
car trip on the Florida Turnpike, according
to the company.
The fact that those speeds do not
qualify as official high-speed rail, in
this case, is perhaps beside the point.
What Brightline aims to do is link an
international hub in Miami to a major
february 2022 * shift 21
project could eliminate 3 million car trips
per year.
Whether in Florida or elsewhere, that's
one of the real promises of next-generation
rail's potential writ large, perhaps seen
in another Brightline project. The company
is on the " 1-yard line " in receiving
permits and approvals to begin constructing
rail between Las Vegas and Rancho
Cucamonga in Southern California, Wes
Edens, co-CEO of Fortress Investment
Group that owns Brightline, told the Las
Vegas Review-Journal in January.
Amtrak's annual federal funding has
historically ranged from $1.5 billion
to $2 billion. The new infrastructure
package includes $66 billion for rail.
That service could begin roughly 3½
years from the start of digging, according
to Porritt. It is expected to reach 200
mph.
A VIABLE INTERCITY MODE
Even with less travel during the pandemic,
New Yorkers still spent an average
of 100 hours stuck in traffic last year,
according to the Global Traffic Scorecard
compiled by traffic-analytics company
Inrix in December. Runways are often as
overloaded in major cities, causing delays
that ripple through domestic air travel.
At stake is nothing short of global competitiveness,
as congestion causes shipping
delays and diminishes productivity.
The White House's synopsis of the infrastructure
legislation noted that China has
constructed 22,000 miles of high-speed
rail with plans to double that by 2035.
Rather than building more highways,
which often merely induces more traffic,
Kunz says reliable intercity rail could provide
the relief needed to retain America's
economic competitiveness.
" Cars are overloaded and aviation is
Continued on Page 22
Shift Magazine - February 2022

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