WEST PALM BEACH — “Next station stop: Tampa!”
For visiting public and private sector leaders from Tampa who came to South and Central Florida on Monday to tour Brightline’s higher-speed rail system, a conductor’s announcement like that would be music to their ears. They traveled from Miami to Orlando for one reason: They want the line extended to their town, more than a decade after the idea for higher-speed rail service was sidetracked amid partisan politics.
The group of 50 officials led by Tampa Mayor Jane Castor flew to Miami, met with Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Brightline executives, then toured Brightline’s MiamiCentral station downtown. They boarded a train for a midday tour of the West Palm Beach station, which is expected to be “similar in scope for a future Tampa station,” the company said in a statement. They resumed their trip with a ride along Brightline’s new 170-mile extension to Orlando International Airport, where they were met by Kevin Thibault, the Executive Director and CEO of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Orlando city Commissioner Jim Gray and other community leaders.
The rail line, which started operations in 2018 and now serves Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach and Orlando, is fast becoming a showcase for the future of regional higher-speed rail in the United States.
Late last month, U.S. Transportation Secretary Peter Buttigieg took a southbound ride out of West Palm Beach to highlight the billions of dollars the Biden Administration is making available for new rail development and rehabilitation projects around the nation. Although Brightline is mainly funded with private money, federal grants have flowed to the rail line for safety projects, and high-speed rail projects now on the drawing boards elsewhere are looking to Washington for funds.
They are the types of dollars — $2.4 billion to be exact — that former Gov. Rick Scott rejected in 2011 for a high-speed rail project between Tampa and Orlando. After Scott derided the idea as “Obamarail” and a potential burden on state taxpayers, the federal money was reallocated to other states.
During Monday’s tour of the West Palm Beach station, it didn’t take much prompting to elicit regrets over what could have been from Castor, now in her second term as Tampa’s mayor. or from her predecessor, Bob Buckhorn, who is helping to advance the cause for an Orlando-Tampa extension.
“I’m not sure that I’ll ever get over that,” Castor told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “Where we could be right now had we accepted that federal high-speed rail funding years ago … but I try not to dwell on the past.”
Buckhorn, a two-term former Tampa mayor who served from 2011 to 2019, is working for a law firm that advises Brightline on community relations.
“I lived through Gov. Scott canceling the high-speed rail and bemoaning that fact.,” he said. “Now we have the opportunity to do it. This ends up in a strange perverse way as a win for the state and a win for Tampa, for sure.”
Model for transit-oriented development
Before the station tour, West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James took to a lectern to declare Brightline as an important catalyst for his city’s downtown redevelopment.
He spoke of a once-desolate area that is now anchored by the Brightline station and surrounded by a walkable neighborhood filled with condos, apartments and offices.
“We basically called it the donut hole because there was nothing there,” James told the visiting dignitaries. “Literally, no development, a few rundown buildings, the street lighting was horrible, and you would take your life into your own hands if you tried to walk from CityPlace, which was a bustling outdoor retail location.”
“What I can tell you is that nothing would have happened without this Brightline station,” he added. “This particular station is perfectly situated in the heart of our business district. You look behind me and you can see city hall where the dome is and some other buildings going up. It’s the perfect place for the growing economic base of workers and visitors. And the station is within walking distance of a number of classy office spaces, dozens of fine restaurants, and our outstanding waterfront.”
In an interview, Castor said local groups in Hillsborough County are coalescing into a working relationship that will ultimately bring rail service to Tampa from Orlando along the busy 83-mile I-4 corridor, which is routinely clogged with visitors and commuters.
“It’s nice that we can actually see that light at the end of the tunnel and have that Orlando to Tampa connection done in the next few years,” Castor said. “The impact it would have on our economy is remarkable.”
Buckhorn agreed.
“What we see here in West Palm is what we hoped back then would happen” in Tampa, he said. “We were in support of this in the early days. We wrote letters on behalf of Brightline as they were constructing this (South Florida) leg of it. Now, it’s our turn.”
