Brightline’s Expanded Service Brings Ridership Bump

While the flurry of activity demonstrates demand for private train service, Brightline’s numbers remain far below its own ridership projections. Even so, the rail service plans an extension to Tampa. And its Florida service acts as proof of concept for a Brightline train connecting Las Vegas to Southern California — the Biden administration this month announced a $3 billion award for that project. 

In addition to its new run to Orlando, Brightline reported growing ridership for its service between West Palm Beach and Miami. It sold 1.6 million tickets on those routes through the first 11 months of 2023, up from 1 million during the same period in 2022.

Average ticket prices for those shorter trips were $21.84 each way, up from $19.98 last year.

Brightline’s total revenue for all routes was $70.9 million through the first 11 months of the year, up from $26.9 million in the first 11 months of 2022.

“The transformation of our business since launching long-distance service connecting South and Central Florida continues, with average fares, ancillary income and long-distance ridership growing strongly since we commenced service to Orlando,” Brightline said in its latest ridership report.

Even as Brightline’s financial performance gathers speed, it remains well behind its own projections. For 2023, the company had projected 8.9 million passengers and $665 million in revenue, according to a document issued in late 2020.

The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.

According to Brightline’s website, roundtrip tickets from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando in mid-January 2024 range from as little as $108 in coach to as much as $298 in first class. 

Brightline is the brainchild of Wes Edens, the billionaire cofounder of Fortress Investment Group. The rail service to Orlando has been more than a decade in the making.

During that time, Brightline faced a number of obstacles — including name changes, an aborted initial public offering of stock, and lawsuits from counties in Florida’s Treasure Coast. Brightline closed service during the COVID-19 pandemic but continued construction of the Orlando extension, which opened only about a year behind schedule. 

While no passenger rail service has operated profitably in the United States for decades, Edens saw "tremendous opportunity" for rail service to capture some of the 50 million yearly trips between Miami and Orlando. If a one-way ticket costs $100, sales add up fast, Edens said during a 2014 call with Wall Street analysts.

"If we capture 4 percent of them, we make $200 million," Edens said at the time. "We capture 6 percent of them, we actually make $300 million, $400 million ... we think that those numbers are very, very achievable."

Since it launched in early 2018, Brightline has elicited strong opinions. Proponents paint the train service as a remedy to gridlocked highways and a spark for economic development. Opponents see a money-losing boondoggle that clogs traffic at railroad crossings. Skeptics wonder whether the service can prove financially viable. 

In a 2019 appearance at the opening of the Orlando station, Edens said he was inspired to launch passenger service after reading the book Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean by Miami author Les Standiford. Edens had bought the Florida East Coast rail line, and he thought it would make sense to add passenger service to tracks that long had catered to freight trains.

“There’s not many times in life when you can stand up on a stage and imagine being Henry Flagler,” Edens said.

Jeff Ostrowski can be reached at jostrowski@commercialobserver.com.