The Orlando-Miami trip just got shorter thanks to high-speed rail service

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Privately held company operation of high-speed passenger trains began on Friday between the 2 largest tourist resorts in Florida.

The Brightline train is a $5 billion investment by owner Fortress Investment Group that can ultimately enable 8 million people a yr to make the three.5-hour, 378-kilometer trip between Miami and Orlando — about half-hour shorter than the typical trip.

The company charges solo passengers $158 for a round-trip in business class and $298 for first-class, with families and groups able to purchase 4 round-trip tickets for $398. Thirty-two trains will run day-after-day.

Brightline, which began running neon yellow trains on a 70-mile stretch between Miami and West Palm Beach in 2018, is the primary private intercity passenger service to begin operations within the U.S. in a century.

Friday’s launch of the Miami-Orlando line was marred by the death of a pedestrian who was hit in South Florida on a stretch of track served by the brand new route.

According to Ted White, public safety officer with the Delray Beach Police Department, an unidentified passenger was struck before dawn in Delray Beach by a southbound Brightline train.

It was not immediately clear whether the train was a part of the Miami-Orlando service.

The death is the private railroad’s twelfth in 2023 and 98th since July 2017. That’s one fatality within the roughly 33,000 miles traveled by its trains, the worst death rate among the many nation’s greater than 800 railroads. ongoing Associated Press evaluation which began with performances in 2019.

A Brightline spokesman didn’t immediately respond to messages in search of comment.

None of the Brightline deaths were found to be the railroad’s fault. Most of them were suicides, pedestrians who tried to run across the tracks in front of the train or drivers who as a substitute of waiting, maneuvered across the gates.

Brightline can also be constructing a connecting line Southern California and Las Vegas which hopes to open in 2027 and handle trains reaching speeds of 305 km/h. The only other high-speed line within the U.S. is Amtrak Acela service between Boston and Washington, D.C., which launched in 2000. Amtrak is owned by the federal government.