Florida East Coast Railway

Business Class riders will now be treated to reclining leather seats and other amenities onboard Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner. (Photograph Courtesy of Amtrak Pacific Surfliner)

Transit Briefs: Amtrak, CTDOT, CTA, MARTA, Metrolinx, SacRT, Tri-Rail

Amtrak® Pacific Surfliner® trains now include upgraded Business Class equipment. Also, Shore Line East, Connecticut Department of Transportation’s (CTDOT) commuter rail service between New London and New Haven, may be expanded to Rhode Island; Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) has installed security camera monitors in all rail station customer service booths; Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) marked the official opening of StationSoccer and released a Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) Request for Proposals (RFP); Metrolinx’s GO expansion is progressing along the Barrie Line; Sacramento Regional Transit District (SacRT) offers tips to “help clear the air” in recognition of California Clean Air Day (Oct. 5); and Tri-Rail, South Florida’s regional passenger railroad, will not reach downtown Miami in 2022.

FRA Hosts South Florida Town Hall on Rail Safety

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) on Feb. 23 held a town hall meeting in Boynton Beach, Fla., to address best practices and strategies for reducing highway/rail grade crossing and trespassing incidents; officials from private-sector passenger rail operator Brightline, Florida East Coast Railway, South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (Tri-Rail), Amtrak and CSX were among those in attendance.

Brightline service resumed Nov. 8, 2021, following a suspension on March 25, 2020, due to the pandemic.

Brightline: Progress, Potential, a Whole New Market?

Brightline, Florida’s private-sector passenger railroad, is progressing in its effort to extend service north to Orlando International Airport (OIA) and beyond. There is also an opportunity for Brightline to capture an entirely new ridership base, if the railroad is willing to add a specific new line of service.

  • News

Tri-Rail, Virgin Trains USA Vying for Miami Access

A railroad battle is shaping up in Miami. Two competitors want to serve potential commuters into Brightline’s new Miami Central downtown hub. It may not be as dramatic as the Chile War, when the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Denver & Rio Grande Western literally fought armed skirmishes to determine who could build new rail lines in the New Mexico Territory in the early 1880s, but it nevertheless is a battle.

Commentary

Assessing LNG-By-Rail Safety

Safety is important. Yet, we can do safety research and development a lot faster. It’s timely to ask why the regulatory process takes so long. Today in transport logistics, our society seems to lack a sense of urgency. As one example, it now takes regulatory agencies (and non-regulatory bodies like the National Transportation Safety Board) as long as 18 to 24 months to complete an accident investigation report. Why so long? It’s a mystery.

Commentary

Brightline goes Virginal. What next?

Everybody has been watching Brightline, the bold upstart operator of private-sector passenger trains in a nation where every other scheduled train is operated in the public sector, either by Amtrak or by a local transit authority. There has been a lot of news about Brightline lately, and this writer originally intended to focus on the customer experience and the railroad’s plans for the future.

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