As Brightline officials celebrated strong ridership numbers from their new Orlando-to-Miami high-speed rail line late last year, talk of looking west to Tampa seemed to pick up steam. Dozens of Tampa officials and business leaders led by Mayor Jane Castor spent a November day riding the train that tops out at 125 mph, with plenty dreaming of a day they can zip past Interstate 4 logjams.
The next month, Brightline Senior Vice President Christine Kefauver told a state House transportation subcommittee that “tremendous strides” were made and that “it is time, it is complex to get to Tampa, but we’re up to the challenge.”
Things have gone quiet since then, as Brightline’s focus has been on locations for new stations along the Treasure Coast and Central Florida. It announced plans in March to place a station in Stuart (in Martin County) and Cocoa (in Brevard County), joining stations in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura and downtown Miami. It also wants to add stations connecting its main station at Orlando International Airport to the Orange County Convention Center and International Drive near several theme parks. And that, Castor says, “has caused a bit of a delay” in Tampa planning.
“We were hoping that we would have a timeline by the beginning of this year,” Castor says. “... We already have the plan. We have the right of way with FDOT. Brightline already has a pretty concrete location for the station here in Tampa. So we’ve made a lot of progress. The delay at this moment is within Orlando.”
Tallahassee also is tapping the brakes, as the 2024 legislative session ended without legislation that would preserve Interstate 4 right of way and provide $50 million sought for the project. A westbound Brightline route would go within that right of way, ending just off the highway in Tampa’s Ybor City district. Stretching the route into downtown proved too costly, Castor says. The city plans to design a local transit system to take Brightline passengers through the Channelside district where its cruise ship terminal is, through the Water Street Tampa development to the West Shore business district and to Tampa International Airport.
Rather than comment, Brightline officials pointed to a January report that contains no timeframe, but notes that it sold the assets and rights of a Tampa expansion to an unnamed affiliate. The deal allows Brightline to buy it back after it secures permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Previously, Brightline has projected a three-year timeframe to build the Tampa line after all the funding and planning is complete.
The Orlando station opened in late September, helping Brightline reach 2.05 million passengers for the year. But even with that, the high-speed rail line, owned by the Fortress Investment Group, still loses money. Ridership trends look better, with 236,000 passengers in January alone, and revenue up 250% compared to January 2023.
Brightline also plans a Los Angeles to Las Vegas high speed rail line called Brightline West. It received $3 billion under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.