ORLANDO — Brightline is no longer selling tickets for Sept. 1-14 trips between West Palm Beach and Orlando, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the first day of revenue service will be Sept. 15.
Responding to a Trains News Wire inquiry, Brightline issued the following statement late today (Monday, Aug. 7):
“We’re working through the final stages of certification and crew testing, but it is apparent that we won’t hit our opening weekend as planned (Sept 1-5). Knowing it’s a holiday weekend, we want to give guests as much time as possible to adjust their travel plans. We have already started engaging with them and will refund their tickets and provide a premium credit ‘on us.’ We hope they will rebook and enjoy the inaugural Brightline experience. We look forward to announcing an initial revenue service date as soon as possible.”
Inventory for the 16 daily round trips in early September was removed from the company’s website on Friday. Although an official launch date has never been disclosed, tickets had been on sale for trips beginning Sept. 1 since mid-May, when schedules were also first published [see “Brightline tickets now on sale for Miami-Orlando service,” News Wire May 17, 2023].
Since then, crew qualification runs, testing of positive train control, and calibrating highway crossing starts at speeds up to 110 mph have continued on recently completed east-west and north-south corridors [see, “Brightline celebrates completion of Orlando route construction,” News Wire June 21, 2023].
The Federal Railroad Administration requires that a sequential series of tests be completed before it certifies that revenue service can begin. So even though Brightline started selling tickets in May for trips beginning in September, the company never established a revenue service launch date — and still hasn’t.
Some testing had to be postponed for a variety of reasons. In June, the U.S. Coast Guard unilaterally withdrew an existing agreement for operation of Florida East Coast’s single-track St. Lucie River drawbridge at Stuart, Fla., that introduced a conflict with proposed passenger schedules [see “Coast Guard to impose twice-hourly bridge openings on Brightline route,” News Wire June 9, 2023]. Negotiations between Brightline, FEC, the FRA, Coast Guard, and marine interests are continuing, and 110-mph testing and community safety outreach continues this week in a 41-mile stretch south of Cocoa [see “Brightline testing set …,” News Wire, July 26, 2023].
Tickets are now on sale for trips departing Orlando from Sept. 15, 2023, to March 9, 2024. Patrons who booked seats in early September are receiving emails advising them of the cancellations and full refunds. They are being gifted premium-class credits for future use, “equivalent to the party size originally purchased;” a 35% discount on an Avis car rental if the passenger still needs to travel on a cancelled date; and will be notified “ahead of everyone else” when the first day of revenue service is announced.
Individual questions are being answered at Brightline’s “Help Center.”
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