As Brightline continues work to complete the 170 miles of track from South Florida to Orlando, one of its new trains made its first test appearance at the nearly complete station at Orlando International Airport.
The train known as Bright Blue 2, which arrived to Orlando in February, made the trip from the company’s Vehicle Maintenance Facility south of the airport on Tuesday over to the station known as the Intermodal Terminal Facility that connect passengers to Terminal C at Orlando International Airport.
The company was simply testing the train for the first time at the station, and traveled without any passengers.
“Bringing a Brightline train into the Orlando station is a hugely significant milestone for the future of transportation here in Central Florida,” said Brightline project engineer Jerome Hall in a video provided by the company. “For the past four years, the goal has been let’s get a train to the Orlando station and seeing it here, it almost, it doesn’t seem real. It’s been something we’ve been dreaming about and working tirelessly toward for the past few years with design and construction.”
The company states its Orlando project is near 80% complete and plans on beginning passenger service from Miami to Orlando in 2023. For now, the train runs from Miami to Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach.
The company finished the complicated 3 1/2 mile track at the airport this past February, but continues work up the East Coast from West Palm and then cutting across the state near State Road 528.
The high-speed rail will travel at speeds up to 125 mph during portions of its run. The travel time from West Palm to Orlando is estimated to take 2 hours, according to the company website.
In the future, Brightline looks to expand to Tampa as well.
