COCOA, Fla. — Brightline and local officials announced their intention Tuesday to build a station on over 40 acres of Brightline-owned land near the junction where its trains from Orlando International Airport join Florida East Coast Railway’s north-south main line.
The planned Cocoa, Fla., station is 40 miles east of the company’s Orlando terminus, and 90 miles north of the recently-chosen intermediate stop at Stuart, Fla., [see “Brightline ceremony marks selection …,” Trains News Wire, March 4, 2024]. It is about 127 miles from West Palm Beach. The Cocoa facility will serve the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the booming Port Canaveral cruise facility, and nearby communities such as Titusville, Rockledge, and Melbourne.
In an email to News Wire, Brightline public affairs director Katie Mitzner says the company “is ready to begin the formal process with Space Coast stakeholders to fulfill our vision for a Brevard County station. The Space Coast Transportation and Planning Organization, Brevard County, City of Cocoa and other community leaders have started to bring the region together to identify potential federal, state and local resources for a station to be located in Cocoa. We agree the time is now to finalize a plan.”
In fact, those players began planning for a Brightline stop in 2016, when the Space Coast planning group funded a study of five hypothetical station locations at a time when anti-passenger rail activists in a number of counties were fighting the proposed expansion.
Based on that study, the location near the curve “came out No. 1, followed by the site of FEC’s former Cocoa-Rockledge station,” Samantha Senger, Cocoa’s director of communication and economic development, tells News Wire. “We’ve been working with Brightline ever since then to show our interest; we think it is a natural choice because they are already slowing for the curve and there is plenty of land for parking.”
Stuart’s winning proposal came with more than $45 million attached in a competition with other potential developers for location. “Here, we needed Brightline to confirm the location so we could go to our community partners to move the project along,” Senger says. “The Space Coast TPO has already committed $15 million in its 2026-2027 fiscal year budget and the Cocoa City Council has earmarked $5 million towards the station, so we’re going to work with our community partners like the tourism offices and seek federal grants to get the money that we need. Creating an intermodal transportation hub will be a transformative project for this region and I think we’ll have a really good opportunity to get some of those funds.”
Details such as the cost of the facility, a start date for construction, and a target for completion have not been publicly divulged, but its impact will be significant. Port Canaveral is projecting 7 million passenger movements in 2024, its CEO tells the Orlando Sentinel. In a statement to News Wire, Cocoa Mayor Michael C. Blake says, “the infrastructure investment will have a great economic impact on our community, with the goal of improving connectivity and accessibility for residents and visitors to the Space Coast.”
Changes to seat, connection policies
Meanwhile, Brightline is adjusting its seat selection and connection policies. In an email to previous ticketed riders this week, Brightline says that beginning this Thursday, March 14, passengers riding in Smart class between South Florida stops will have seats automatically assigned, “to ensure that as many seats remain available together as possible — especially for trains that are almost fully booked.” Seat selection for all Premium class travelers and Smart class passengers riding to or from Orlando will continue.
Also as of Thursday, Brightline+ through ticketing that includes “last mile” transfers via Uber and Mears connections (in the Orlando area) are being dropped. Instead, “Premium guests will receive a $10 Uber voucher automatically applied to their Uber wallet for each one-way ride. This provides the flexibility to control rides, tip drivers, choose vehicles, and [do so] more directly through the Uber app.”
Orlando-bound ridership continues to expand at the expense of West Palm Beach-Miami clientele. The company’s January ridership and revenue report to bond holders continues previous trends [see “Brightline growth continues …,” News Wire, Feb. 5, 2024], with Orlando travelers (122,560) exceeding South Florida-only passengers (113,560) for the first time. Overall patronage is up 51% from last January and total revenue for the month rose 226% from $4.7 million then to $15.3 million in 2024.
Share this article
