Big times for Brightline

Spent a big part of my Wednesday in West Palm Beach, Fla., attending Brightline’s media unveiling of its first passenger trainset (our News Wire report is here), then joined Trains passenger columnist Bob Johnston and correspondent David Lustig (in this case representing, as they say, another publication) in touring the new Brightline station in downtown West Palm Beach, and wanted to offer a few thoughts on each.

I am tremendously impressed by the thought that went into the design of the new Siemens-built train. Take, for example, the restrooms. Now, that may seem like a funny place to start when discussing the first new privately funded passenger equipment since the 1950s, but it’s emblematic of Brightline’s efforts to truly attract a general audience. They’re large — certainly the largest onboard facilities I’ve ever see (as one of our tour guides noted, “I came from aviation, and we would have three bathrooms in this space” — bright, and designed to be absolutely touchless, with wave-of-the-hand flushing, washing and activation of the hand dryer. At least one local TV crew shot part of its report in the loo.

Brightline also deserves kudos for making the entire train handicap accessible, with everything from its innovative gap-filler to fill the space from car to high-level platform to a wheelchair-friendly 32-inch-wide aisle. Traditional rail passenger should note, though, that the space for that  aisle had to come from somewhere, and the seats — particularly in the two-plus-two “Smart” class coaches — are visibly narrower than those on most passenger rail equipment. (Smart seats are 19 inches wide — still wider than the average coach airline seat, which a 2014 USA Today article placed at 17 to 18.5 inches on the four largest U.S. airlines. That same article placed Amtrak seat widths at 23 inches. Seats in Brightline’s two-plus-one “Select” seating configuration are 21 inches.) Legroom is still ample, with a 39-inch pitch in both types of coach.

The seating is also designed for the digital age. Each pair of seats in coach has four electrical outlets — two between seats, and two on the seatback in front of them — while facing seats sharing a table have four outlets on the table. Pairs of seats in select class have six outlets — four between the seats and two on the seatback. Brightline also says it will have state-of-the-art wifi onboard.

As for the West Palm station, it was instantly recognizable, based on the artist’s conceptions we ran in Bob Johnston’s November 2016 article, “Rewriting the playbook.” I think the stations — build to similar designs in West Palm, Fort Lauderdale and Miami — are going to be very attractive buildings; the concrete Vs that make up a key design feature made me think of the best of Mid-Century Modern architecture.

I was somewhat surprised how close the station is to being complete. Floor tiles were being installed during our visit, and permanent electrical power is to be connected later this week. The current estimate is that the building will essentially be complete in March — well ahead of the expected summer start of operations. This will allow Brightline time to train its employees, and to hold open houses and other events to familiarize the public with the new facilities.

There’s much more to discuss about Brightline as it moves closer to the start of service. Rest assured we’ll be doing so in the months ahead.