Brightline Florida uses locomotives and coaches that are Tier 1 49CFR238 compliant and run on the same tracks as FEC freight trains; they are heavy rail, not light rail nor interurban. Brightline employees are non-union and pay into and are covered by Railroad Retirement. Comparisons to the RGZ are a bit of a stretch.
Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak
Also, BrightLine being a interurban, only runs on an isolated line (seperated by GPS and signal system) which is between Miami and Coco Beach over the FEC. The caption is wrong trying to say that Jacksonville or MP 0 is home rails of BrightLine. Home rails are isolated interurban track that is south of Cocoa Beach. The freight railroad Florida East Coast is not home rails of BrightLine.
March Issue page 6-7 News Photo has BrightLine being called the "first privately owned and operated intercity passenger train of the type last run by D&RGW..." This is not correct as BrightLine is a contract operator of the All Abroad Florida modern INTERURBAN train which will be run by non-union employees that will not be paying the Railroad Retirement Board and do not come under the Federal Railway Libility Act. This service is not being run as a railroad passenger train, it is a Interurban intrastate service. It is not like the Cressent or the California Zephyr.
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.