Brightline hopes to buttress its train ridership by tapping into the cruise line industry and two of South Florida’s most prosperous cities. And it expects to more than double its annual ridership through the addition of stations at Boca Raton, Aventura and PortMiami.
“We believe the three new stations … will contribute over 2 million incremental annual passengers once ridership at these stations ramps up and stabilizes,” according to the rail line’s latest financial filing.
The high-speed rail line, which is being re-branded as Virgin Trains USA, considers the three new stations as top priorities as it builds a 170-mile rail extension to Orlando International Airport.
Company spokesman Ben Porritt said it reached the passenger figures from “independent and internal ridership studies in addition to traffic software and traffic patterns,” and based on when the stations are operational and have established track records.
Brightline currently serves the downtowns of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Those were the chief South Florida cities to be served when the line started under the name All Aboard Florida. But since taking on Virgin Trains USA as a joint venture partner, the company has aggressively pursued marketing partnerships with cruise lines and explored ways to draw customers from upper-income areas such as Boca Raton and Aventura, where a popular mall would be connected to a station by a pedestrian bridge.
In its filing, Brightline reiterated the importance it attaches to capturing cruise line passengers for its system.
“A large number of cruise passengers originate from points north of Miami and are potential customers for our new train-to-port product,” the filing said.
It noted that PortMiami’s cruise passenger traffic will have jumped from 5.6 million in 2018 to more than 9 million in the next five years.
Porritt added that the rail line based its PortMiami projections on cruise passenger data for previous years, as well as projections from the port itself.
“These numbers were specific to cruisers who drive to the port from points north of our stations,” he said.
Rise in ridership
Brightline carried 701,061 riders through September this year, the filing said, more than double the 340,456 riders carried in the same period last year. But the rail line said it carried 61,688 in September alone, with ridership “significantly impacted by Hurricane Dorian” and related service disruptions before and after the storm.
Although it offered no projected figures for the fourth quarter, management said its outlook for the period is “strong based on seasonal factors” and a variety of programs it started to draw cruise line passengers, business travelers and other daily commuters.
For all of 2018, the company reported carrying more than 579,000 riders.
The pace of planning for the stations’ development accelerated this month as the company reached preliminary agreements with Miami-Dade County for the Aventura and PortMiami stations.
In late September, the Boca Raton City Council voted unanimously to pursue an agreement with the rail line for a station in the city’s primary business and shopping district. The railroad said it is finalizing a formal agreement, which would be signed at some point during the fourth quarter. As part of the deal, the city would pay for a parking garage.
In an email Tuesday, Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer agreed the two sides are close to a deal that would be presented to the City Council for consideration next month.
“Brightline has proposed a partnership for the costs of the construction of a garage,” Scott said. “Brightline’s contributions in the tens of millions of infrastructure would far outpace what is asked of the city. The city’s overall portion of costs would be a small fraction of what was approved for the Aventura station.”
Neither the company nor the city mentioned any cost figures for the Boca Raton station.
The cost of the Aventura station in northeast Miami-Dade County is pegged at close to $80 million, according to county projections.
Singer said “so many in our community have expressed great enthusiasm” for the Boca Raton station and the benefits it would deliver to the city’s families and businesses.
Kicking off construction soon
Miami-Dade County approved a development agreement Oct. 11 with the company for Aventura in a deal that would see the county pay up to $77 million in public funding to buy the land and build the station. Construction would start at the end of this year, Brightline said. The beginning of service “is targeted for October 31, 2020,” the filing said.
“Given the large population of the Aventura region and proximity of the station to the frequently visited mall, we expect the new Aventura station to contribute meaningful ridership and revenue to our South Florida system,” the filing said.
On Oct. 17, the Miami-Dade County Commission’s tourism and ports committee recommended that the county enter into a funding deal with the company to build a station at PortMiami that would serve as a way station for cruise line passengers.
Under this scenario, the company would build a station on an acre of land for which Brightline would pay the county millions in rent, according to a memorandum from County Mayor Carlos Gimenez to commissioners.
The line would operate two round-trip trains a day during the first two years of operation and expand the service to four trips thereafter. The agreement would have an initial term of 30 years.
The total cost of the station and upgrades to an existing rail line that cuts through downtown Miami to the port is $15.4 million, the memo said. The county would make a onetime payment of $5.2 million which would be recaptured by way of a $2 charge per departing train passenger.
