Your firsthand impressions of Brightline

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Too deadly!

https://www.wesh.com/article/brightl...video/46351328

2 deadly wrecks involving Briteline this week alone.

Hundreds will die due to Briteline before it goes under...maybe Thousands....BEWARE!

Brightline was not the problem. One SUV saw a car already stopped for the train , saw the lights flashing, and the bars down, but still drove around the car and RAN INTO the train. The train did not hit him, he drove right into the train. 2 days later on the same same street a pick up tried to beat the train and actually was going pretty slow weaving between the bars and got broad sided by a train. Both accidents were the drivers fault. Do a dumb thing and you pay the consequences.

This makes the 4th death since the Brightline started up in Brevard County. The other 2 were pedestrians who apparently chose suicide by train.

[DanielAvery]

When the arms go down for the freight trains, those trains are much closer--you can usually hear the horns and (at night) see the headlight. Locals are accustomed to arms go down=train right there. Because BL is going so much faster, the arms go down long before one sees the train, and since the horns are not as loud (thank goodness), some impatient drivers probably think they've got time to slip through. Those who live near the tracks as I do have experienced situations where the arms go down for no apparent reason (malfunction or maintenance) and I can see someone possibly thinking it's such a malfunction---but it's foolish to take such a chance even if you don't have high-speed trains zipping around. But people can be really impatient.

There are probably still many locals thinking in terms of the slow-moving trains that we've seen for decades who have not fully grasped the speed of these new trains. Neither apparently have they grasped how quickly the trains go through compared to the freight trains, because if they knew the train would be in and out in two minutes or less, they might recognize there's no need to try to "beat the train" because they won't be trapped on one side for 10 minutes like we sometimes are with the freight trains.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by Mr. Purple 2

Did you watch the video in your link? The person drove around the down crossing gate! Sorry, the driver broke the law and was apparently stupid. The Brightline train was probably doing around 70 mph in the video which it does in populated areas like Vero Beach. The driver only would have to wait a few minutes for the train to pass even with opening and closing of the crossing gates. He didn't and it cost him his life and injured three passengers.


There a lot commuter trains doing the same speed in populated ares of VA into DC (which I have used); NC; MD; IL and the entire Northeast corridor. If a senior driver would drive around a down crossing gate, he or she shouldn't be driving.

Doesnt matter...old people get confused and do dumb things...& get killed by high speed trains.

My prediction is Briteline will go bankrupt, and will try to get public funds to bail them out...which they'll get. Then they'll go under a 2nd time. This will soak taxpayers for Billions, & cost Hundreds of lives.

[SanyBelle]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Doesnt matter...old people get confused and do dumb things...& get killed by high speed trains.

My prediction is Briteline will go bankrupt, and will try to get public funds to bail them out...which they'll get. Then they'll go under a 2nd time. This will soak taxpayers for Billions, & cost Hundreds of lives.

The driver on Wednesday was 62, the other driver a couple of days later was 52. I don't consider that old.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Doesnt matter...old people get confused and do dumb things...& get killed by high speed trains.

My prediction is Briteline will go bankrupt, and will try to get public funds to bail them out...which they'll get. Then they'll go under a 2nd time. This will soak taxpayers for Billions, & cost Hundreds of lives.

^^^^ This is the future. TriRail has been around for decades and has never even broke even.

BL is too expensive to be competitive. Sure single rider, someone with no car it works but once you make it a family of 4 that has a road worthy car available then it becomes crazy expensive.

[logicalconsequence]

Originally Posted by Rabflmom

Brightline was not the problem. One SUV saw a car already stopped for the train , saw the lights flashing, and the bars down, but still drove around the car and RAN INTO the train. The train did not hit him, he drove right into the train. 2 days later on the same same street a pick up tried to beat the train and actually was going pretty slow weaving between the bars and got broad sided by a train. Both accidents were the drivers fault. Do a dumb thing and you pay the consequences.

This makes the 4th death since the Brightline started up in Brevard County. The other 2 were pedestrians who apparently chose suicide by train.

We dummy down our entire public education system to accommodate the dumbest and laziest students, so why not our transportation system too? The trans system is potentially more deadly...right?

[beach43ofus]

This topic is 8 months old now, so thought I'd kick it up again to see if any new impressions have surfaced, regarding how the trains are impacting your lives in this forum area?

Particularly, to those in Vero Beach, since that area may be in our future.

Are the trains backing up traffic? Is it an annoyance? I'm not worried about the noise or vibraton, since we'd live out on the Island in 32963.

Thx!

[DanielAvery]

Two things I've noticed (Stuart/Jensen areas):
1) There are hours-long periods where no trains go through. If we are to believe the schedules, there ought to be at least one train every twenty or thirty minutes in each direction. I spent an afternoon doing yard work and only saw one train (that is, got blasted by the horn noise) once in 2.5 hours. I wonder if they actually run the trains if no one buys tickets for that particular run.
2) When they first added all the extra runs, the conductors were rather polite in their operations of the horn. It was brief, like "Toot-toot!" as they went through Confusion Corner. Now? They could care less about disturbing people. They leeeeeeeeannnnn on that horn for several seconds at a time and even blow it between intersections for no apparent reason. I dare say the volume and operations of the horns are just as obnoxious as the freight trains, only BL is going through so much more often.

We (the taxpayers) are ponying up $200 million to replace the bridge over the St. Lucie River here in Stuart despite being told they (Brightline) would be paying their own way and no tax money would be used to help them. But hey, no one really believed that, did they? Oh, and the updated body count is 113 people in 4 1/2 years.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by DanielAvery

Two things I've noticed (Stuart/Jensen areas):
1) There are hours-long periods where no trains go through. If we are to believe the schedules, there ought to be at least one train every twenty or thirty minutes in each direction. I spent an afternoon doing yard work and only saw one train (that is, got blasted by the horn noise) once in 2.5 hours. I wonder if they actually run the trains if no one buys tickets for that particular run.
2) When they first added all the extra runs, the conductors were rather polite in their operations of the horn. It was brief, like "Toot-toot!" as they went through Confusion Corner. Now? They could care less about disturbing people. They leeeeeeeeannnnn on that horn for several seconds at a time and even blow it between intersections for no apparent reason. I dare say the volume and operations of the horns are just as obnoxious as the freight trains, only BL is going through so much more often.

We (the taxpayers) are ponying up $200 million to replace the bridge over the St. Lucie River here in Stuart despite being told they (Brightline) would be paying their own way and no tax money would be used to help them. But hey, no one really believed that, did they? Oh, and the updated body count is 113 people in 4 1/2 years.

Thx!