Brightline vs. Driving | Is

Is Brightline better than driving to Miami from Orlando? Though it briefly hits two miles per minute, speed ain't everything.
We spent a weekend riding the rails with Brightline from Orlando to Miami and back. It was a game-changer! Join our high-speed adventure as we ride the Southeast's fastest intercity rail service just two weeks into its launch and compare Brightline vs. driving from Orlando to Miami - topping two miles a minute between Orlando and the wide Atlantic Shore.
📍 Starting Point: Orlando International Airport
Our journey kicks off at the airport, and spoiler alert: this is not your typical train station. Pre-game at the unique bar named after Mary and Mary Flagler, adding a touch of history - and alcohol - to our modern rail experience. Don't try that if you're driving.
🚅 Fast Track to Miami
We leave traffic and construction headaches behind, soaring at a top speed of 125 mph on the newest leg of the trip. Yes, that's over two miles a minute! 🕒
🌆 Scenic Ride South
From Cocoa to West Palm Beach, we navigate shared tracks, witnessing speed variations but almost always faster than the cars we're passing. Say goodbye to frustrating Florida drivers and hello to taking in the sunset over the Florida scrub.
🍺 Onboard Vibes
Unlike those stressful car rides, our train has beer! 🍻 Raise a glass as we sip our way through the journey, all while enjoying the comfort and convenience of rail travel.
🌅 Miami by Dinner
Spoiler alert: we arrive on schedule, proving that speed and reliability can go hand in hand. In time for dinner and a full weekend in South Florida.
🔄 The Return Trip
Join us on the return trip, starting with a beer. See how train station waiting compared to the chaos of airports, and and check out the ride on the way back to Orlando.
🚄 Fast Facts Recap:
- 125 mph top speed
- Scenic views from spacious leather seats
- Stress-free travel with onboard beer
- Leaving speeding, road-raging four-wheelers in our dust
Additional Support:
Brightline: www.gobrightline.com/press-room
The Roaming Railfan: / @roamingrailfan
Epidemic Sound: www.epidemicsound.com/referra...
Envato Elements: elements.envato.com/curated
CHAPTERS
00:00 High-Speed Passes
00:17 Main Title
00:27 Brightline Orlando Station
00:46 Boarding Brightline Blue
01:02 Building Up Speed
01:14 Two Miles a Minute
01:45 Turning South to Miami
02:03 Brightline West Palm Beach Station
02:21 Miami Central Station
02:32 Weekend in Miami
02:42 Mary & Mary Bar Miami
02:55 Returning to Orlando
03:22 125 mph Toward Orlando
03:40 Arrival in Orlando
03:57 Final Assessment: Driving or Riding?
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ABOUT MY CHANNEL
Tex Done That is about what Tex done. It’s my look at the world around us. Discovering new places, remembering the history I’ve seen up close, and having fun.
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[@darkwoodmovies]

Seeing the train speed past a highway full of cars puts the biggest smile on my face. This is the only way to convince people that cars suck and we need investment into mass transit again.

[@Ven100]

3:56 Is exactly on point. So many people want to quote "it only takes me 3 hours to drive". When? At 3AM when nobody is one the road? Then you have the people who say the train doesn't save much time over driving. What they don't realize is the time the train provides to do other things. Their car journey can easily be affected by traffic due to rush hour, weather, accidents, construction, or just the sheer number of cars on the road. The train will make its journey rain or shine, rush hour or not. While on the train the person can sleep, eat, drink (alcohol if they so choose), work, walk around, go use the bathroom, or just sit and take in the views as they cruise between 79-125 MPH. Upon arrival they'll be far more revived/relaxed than the person who's just sat in a cramped car for hours.

[@kaelon9170]

I completely agree with you and prefer to take the train myself for this very reason. What I think doesn't help though, is that Brightline has rather steep pricing for their fares to and from Orlando. $80 for a one-way ticket in the cheapest class makes even me hesitate.

[@ConcertShutterbug]

Much of Miami is transversed at 20 MPH...

[@matthews879]

I routinely travel to Philadelphia and New York from Central Virginia, well south of DC. Even in some occasions where the train would have taken slightly longer that doesn't account for the stops one makes driving the same time. The bathroom breaks, stopping to eat. I do all of those things on board without adding 15 minutes to the trip each time.

[@ql3670]

@@kaelon9170 At certain hours, the cheapest one-way ticket is only $50 now.

[@Ugh-Fudge_Bwana]

If I had the choice, I'd rather hang out in the cafe car of a train while traveling between cities, instead of risking getting shot by a road-raging driver, dodging semi-awake long distance truck drivers, or getting pulled over by some ticket-happy small town cop looking to fill his revenue generation quota. Florida is particularly bad about its speed trap towns.

[@frglee]

As we are also discovering in the UK, if you build new intercity railways, urban light rail and tram networks, or reopen closed lines, people will use them. Often in numbers that have astonished planners.

[@teuast]

If you build it, they will come. Imagine that.

[@nyxw]

Can't stress enough how important this is! I've read so many articles and seen so many videos of journalists and politicians treating High Speed rail as this monolithic thing. Unfortunately, you can only take the most out of High Speed rail by having other, slower forms of rail and public transportation. Otherwise, you have the same dilemma as Airports. Fast connections between City A and City B but one that takes a lot of time to travel to and from the Airport. It's fine if you're going close to downtown, but if you're going to some place 8 miles away from downtown and you don't have transit, how would you get there?

[@mrvwbug4423]

And the UK is extremely short on certain types of rolling stock. Mainly passenger locomotives of any flavor and diesel multi unit trains. UK has electric commuter trains out the wazoo, but lack diesel trains for their still extensive amount of unelectrified lines. They have a lot of recently retired loco hauled inter-city trains that could be repurposed, if they had the locomotives to pull them. Some of those recently retired trains were only 3 years old (the trans-penine Nova 3 sets). Wales and Scotland in particular rely heavily on diesel multi-units for their regional rail.

[@dylan_00]

This is a very well put-together video, I'm shocked you have so few views! I'm glad the US is finally getting some high(er) speed rail. It's about time we catch up with the rest of the world!

[@texdonethis]

Glad you enjoyed it! Feel free to share. I used to ride the Acela between DC and New York. Glad to see intercity service taking hold in the Southeast.

[@krane15]

That's because people don't understand trains. For most of us around today, this is a totally new invention. Imagine if trains hadn't taken that 100 year break what interstate travel would be like. In fact, intercontinental. When it comes to railway, North American is sadly lagging far behind the rest of the world. Especially the far east, like China and Japan where some those trains travel twice as fast.

[@highway2heaven91]

@@texdonethis How was the experience on Acela compared to Brightline?

[@texdonethis]

Very different. Acela has dedicated tracks so it's full speed all the way. Built for business trips. More reliable and comfortable than the hourly Delta Shuttle flights between National Airport and LaGuardia (it's a 45 minute flight) but the last time I flew, my flight was delayed almost 9 hours at LaGuardia). Brightline is all about the experience. The Orlando and especially the Miami Stations rewrote the book on rail stations. The trains are the same way, a lot more focused on a pleasant experience over simply letting people work remotely aboard Acela.

[@Gus5515]

Most countries are not as big as the USA, easier to have t4ain service in smaller countries. Reason most train service don't or will never work in the usa, easier driving to your point. Then being dropped off 50 Miles from it

[@enjoyslearningandtravel7957]

I’m excited to take this train from Orlando to West Palm later this month for the first time!!! Sure beats the stress of driving with all the bad drivers, such as ones speeding, driving after having drunk alcohol, driving after taking illegal drugs, driving after taking prescription drugs, driving and changing lanes without signaling, etc. Now instead I will relax and read my e-book.

[@cannedpineapple2702]

Saving this video for everyone I know in Miami who refuses to believe me about urbanism.

[@matthewconstantine5015]

As frustrating as trying to get places by train/transit in the States can be, I'll always choose it over the alternatives if I can. So much less stressful than driving. So much more convenient and human than taking a plane. Here's hoping the recent uptick in train investment & expansion continues. I'm normally not someone who looks to the past as a "better time," but when it comes to passenger train service, it certainly was. Maybe we can get some of that back.

[@philrabe910]

I made that drive just once. 6 hours with the last 3 in awful slow and go traffic and midday heat. Now, get those rails over to Tampa! or even (gasp!) Clearwater where I grew up. See if you can build it before Brightline LA to Vegas opens. Disney needs to kick in a few 5's of billions to "encourage" a close alignment to both rail projects for both US parks.

[@mrvwbug4423]

IMHO Tampa area should have a light rail or commuter rail system to connect the various surrounding communities like Clearwater and Largo to Brightline. It's already a big enough city to justify some type of LRT or commuter train.

[@Guy_Incognito118]

Weighing cost vs therapy for being stuck in traffic is brilliant.

[@Jon_Nadeau_]

If you need therapy from traffic then you've got a bigger problem. lol

[@ncard00]

Brightline should replace all of their trash cans at the stations with “smart” ones, which can compress the waste so there’s room for much more, and tell staff by itself, that it’s full and needs to be emptied!

[@immersion9880]

I love how much positive attention brightline is getting and it’s not even technically HSR! Gets me excited for the future of HSR in the US. Fingers crossed.🤞

[@mrvwbug4423]

Just shows you don't need a 200mph high speed train to be useful. I'd take 50 Brightlines spread all over various regions of the US over a handful of HSR lines, and you could build about 50 Brightlines for the cost of 5-6 HSR lines. Look at the Uk for example, the only high speed line goes from London to the channel tunnel, but the national rail network goes basically everywhere and the main inter-city lines operate at 125mph like Brightline does. They're building a second high speed line, but it's been cut down so much it will be mostly useless, going from a distant suburb of London to Birmingham (but not the main Birmingham station, so no easy transfer to regional rail).

[@slightlynuts]

Great video! Short and to the point! I'm grateful for Brightline, and wha they are doing for rail travel in the US. I see this as the 1.0 version, with the proposed Brightline West being the 2.0 version that California and Nevada needed 20 years ago. Hopefully we get it!

[@texdonethis]

Glad you enjoyed it! I think you’re right about Brightline 2.0, too.

[@tomhorrid]

I can never tire of watching americans discover the joys of train travel !

[@mrvwbug4423]

Those of us who've traveled to Europe already know

[@robertklose2140]

Nice video. I hope more people realize how congenial and environmentally friendly train travel is. Please bring Brightline to my home state of Maine!

[@learnerlove6853]

The beachline is wild. I took it all the time to community college daily for years. You can be 20 over the speed limit and there will be giant truck on your tail honking. Worth it to not drive through merritt island to the beaches

[@mrvwbug4423]

Brightline is a game changer for Florida, they just need to deal with the huge problem of people trying to beat the train at the grade crossings between Coco and Miami. It's really the first modern, European style inter-city rail line in the US. Amtrak operates at similar speeds in the northeast, but their trains are very dated, though new rolling stock should be coming in the next 2-3 years, the same rolling stock Brightline is using. I-4 in Florida is literally one of the worst roads to drive in the country, a huge selling point for Brightline.

[@ericnelius9062]

Great video! Your mixing of B-roll in with the talking shots was phenomenal!

[@J-Bahn]

Great video! There was a person online that claimed trains were a manner of collectivization of America (as if highways and airports weren’t already government owned) and that the reasons for increasing passenger rail were ‘flimsy.’ I dare that person to watch this video and ride bright line Also governor of Florida and legislature of Florida watch this video and help extend bright line to Tampa (the day the i4 median is destroyed by freeway widening is a day that will live in infamy).

[@mrvwbug4423]

but you could stick a rail line in the I-4 median ;) Brightline west is going to do exactly that, a high speed train running at 200mph down the median of I-15 between Vegas and LA.

[@jamallhayden2512]

Thank You!

[@loganbrown8282]

surprisingly good production, keep it up!

[@texdonethis]

Thank you!

[@TranscontinentalRailfan]

I love Brightline!

[@earnthis1]

Well said, Tex!

[@Thomas1980]

Great Video! Thumbs Up and Big LIKE

[@texdonethis]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[@adori1762]

Recommend to have the music fluctuate way less, its jarring when the music spikes and dips so I gotta lower the volume but now the voices are really quiet.

[@Pantherjonvideos]

Certainly 'seals the deal' for me when I head to Miami in March to catch a cruise! Looking at the map it almost looks like it could be within walking distance from the Miami station to the cruise port? Thanks for sharing!

[@texdonethis]

Looks like it's 1.5 miles from the train station to the nearest terminal. That's about a 34 minute walk according to Google but about an 8 minute trip with Uber. But its dropping you really close. Enjoy the trip!

[@maumor2]

Almost nothing is "walking distance" in Miami. Same with Orlando, so Brightline is more of a cute novelty but once at your destination (specially tourists at Orlando) a car is a must

[@highway2heaven91]

@@maumor2 In Orlando a car is a must for sure. Hopefully as Brightline expands and Orlando expands its Transit services such as SunRail, commuting without a car would be a lot better. In Miami, you could theoretically get away with using transit if your destination is well-served by buses or Metrorail.

[@texdonethis]

Think of it like flying somewhere. You're going to rent a car or Uber. The train falls into a middle tier between driving and flying. It's another option.

[@mrvwbug4423]

@@maumor2Both Miami and Orlando need a metro train system, they're both certainly big enough cities to justify it.

[@peterdavidson3268]

Brightline is certainly showing the way to go for travel in the USA but it represents only a miniscule step forward. 1. Even its top speed of 200km/h (or 125mph) is not real High Speed Rail [HSR] - just imagine if you could make this journey at 300km/h (186mph)? 2. No pathway or grade separation for this "new" rail infrastructure so the risk of collision between road users and trains is very real - and potentially lethal - I believe there have been multiple incidents quite recently? 3. Miami to Orlando represents only a fraction of the potential for rail as a modal alternative to road - imagine if the rail network in Florida encompassed Jacksonville and Tampa in addition to its existing limited market - and why not expand the network further afield, ie. out of state, thereby presenting a credible transport alternative to short-haul air links?

[@benjaminforeman9317]

they ar4e working on extending to tampa, its being built in stages

[@peterdavidson3268]

@@benjaminforeman9317 That is good news - a wider network will eventually deliver greater patronage - sadly the USA remains almost exclusively reliant on the private car as its preferred means of transport over short/medium (intra-state) distances and short haul air for longer (cross-state) journeys. Ironically, it is the USA that probably provides the most ideal market for High Speed Rail.

[@flipsolo]

😀100% on conclusion. I nice long train ride is calming and relaxing, and definitely cheaper than seeing a shrink!

[@kbtken]

It would be awesome if this went all the way up the coast and into Canada

[@mrvwbug4423]

It does, just not under Brightline. Amtrak runs all the way up the coast from Florida to the northeast and has trains that continue on to Toronto and Montreal. Line speeds vary, but a lot of the east coast route has 90-110mph line speeds, and the NEC between DC and Boston runs at 125mph for long stretches. Brightline only runs at 125mph from Orlando to Coco, then 90-110mph between Coco and WPB and 79mph (though often much slower) from WPB to Miami. Amtrak even has the auto train from Virginia to Orlando (Sanford which is an Orlando suburb) where you can take your car on the train with you.

[@thomaslou624]

It may be faster than a car but not to your final destination with a hefty one way price of 80 dollars minimum, not including parking at terminal and taxi service.

[@Jon_Nadeau_]

Exactly! A lot of people here are forgetting that the train is only PART of the trip, not the whole trip. When this guy says "this trip started at a bar" he's misleading. Trips start when you leave your home if if you're traveling by train you will likely need a cab/uber to take you to the train station. That will add extra costs and trip time. Then you're waiting for the train to arrive, board, and depart which will add more time. Then when you finally arrive at your city the trip is still not over. You will likely have to walk or uber again to your final destination. When you add everything up a car is sometimes faster and much cheaper.

[@sgentav]

Americans discover what europeans knew since the begining of the times: taking the train is much better than driving

[@davidschick6951]

High ball!

[@maumor2]

HSR is the way to go but I think Miami - Orlando is a waste. Both cities are very car oriented and getting there you need a car (or a fleet of ubers) For larger groups the car is a no brainer

[@highway2heaven91]

In Miami you could get away with transit depending on your destination but it depends on the service to the destination and the frequency of that service.

[@vanyac6448]

I mean, I heard Brightline operates a shuttle to take passengers into the station, so that kind of mitigates this effect.

[@mrvwbug4423]

@@vanyac6448Brightline tickets include a complimentary uber within 5 miles of the station

[@cannedpineapple2702]

1:37 Florida drivers are wild.

[@mrvwbug4423]

And Brightline takes many of them off the road, and I'm not talking about passengers. "Beat the train" seems to be the state sport of Florida.

[@earnthis1]

Yay Trains!

[@RichardDuinmayer]

Everything is better than driving

[@povertyspec9651]

I can see into the trains at night passing through Stuart. They are almost totally empty. I have no idea how they are making any money on the WPB-Orlando segment with 32 trains per day.

[@mrvwbug4423]

The daytime trains are much busier.

[@markiliff]

Her: "No, crocheting." You: "That's right." Forgive me for doubting your testimony on this point, but you've just called it knitting. It's a very man thing: try and scrabble into the expert's throne in the midst of being kicked in the arse for an error.

[@markiliff]

Thanks for taking it in good part ;-)

[@Patrick-yh5yd]

A stop in Fort Pierce? Really? That town has nothing. Cocoa better with Port Canaveral close by.

[@tim19962]

great u build yourself a german style ic line with a desiel circa 1965

[@mrvwbug4423]

you'd be surprised how many diesel intercity trains still operate in Europe. Also diesels didn't hit 125mph until the late 70s with the UK's class 43 HST, which still operates to this day (albiet only on limited routes as they're being retired).

[@christopherderasmo5041]

1:40 Sadly your wrong

[@christineytzen8269]

I drove the beachline yesterday and I 95 drivers go much faster. 85 is average lol!

[@davidmartin6215]

Just like the service with HSTs running into Paddington on the Great Western, introduced in 1976. You just need to get rid of those daft wasteful huge car parks at the stations!

[@mrvwbug4423]

The station car parks are a necessity in the US, outside of a few major cities there is often no regional or commuter rail connections to these stations. Brightline in particular has ZERO transfers to commuter rail from its stations, mainly because commuter rail is extremely lacking in Florida, even in Miami. They even make more sense in the US when you're using a train to get to the airport, park the car at the train station instead of the airport. Remember Us cities are huge, sprawling, car centric and commuter rail is designed to connect suburbs to the city center

[@KiranMachiraju]

So you say the train is great value for money

[@noelramirez1551]

Its just for people that dont want to drive ive driven to Miami from Orlando a couple of times and its just a nightmare i would rather pay the 80$

[@roachtoasties]

As long as the train doesn't smash into a bunch of cars on the way, the train is the best choice by far.

[@mrvwbug4423]

yeah, that is a distinct problem for Brightline. The problem of running a passenger railroad in Florida, all the Florida mans trying to beat the train at the RR crossing.

[@stevenikitas8170]

Driving is better. You need your car when you get to the other end...

[@chicagoelevatorphotography746]

No one agrees with you. Driving takes longer and adds to stress

[@stevenikitas8170]

@@chicagoelevatorphotography746 If you need to have someone drive 30 miles to drop you off at the Brightline station, and drive 40 miles to pick you up on the other end, that is stressful and uses a lot of time and fuel, on the reverse trip as well. (280 miles total driving)....

[@chicagoelevatorphotography746]

@@stevenikitas8170 better then driving 6 hours because of traffic

[@mrvwbug4423]

@@stevenikitas8170MCO is in the middle of Orlando, it's not a distant airport by US standards. The Miami Brightline station is in the middle of Miami. You have the same issue with flying, but train stations are usually closer to the center of a city than airports are. MCO is rare for a US airport being in the city instead of 20+mi outside of it.

[@VX2hugo]

Look at them poor 'Muricans exciting about 120mph train LOL

[@texdonethis]

Here’s the thing: Railroads built America into a superpower. But Brightline, in 2023, became the first PASSENGER service that ever turned a profit. Even in the age of oxen- or horse-drawn wagon trains, railroads only made a profit from hauling freight. As a result, almost all of the railroad infrastructure in America is designed for freight trains, which operate at low speeds. We finally have a company here in the states, that we use the technology, ingenuity, and business acumen that put humans on the moon to start building passenger train service in the United States. Brightline has plans for at least six regional lines similar to the one they have set up in Florida. if you look at them on a national map, you can see how they will eventually all be tied together sometime later in the century. Brightline is actually a real estate development company with a train. They buy undeveloped land that isn’t being adequately used building, walkable communities in those areas around the train station, and then providing high-speed rail - by American standards - two other cities. This is a model that can finally work in the United States.

[@nyxw]

That's a good reply @@texdonethis! I would just like to add 2 things. 1) For me, Brightline is very intriguing, at least when it comes to infrastructure. Me being in Portugal I couldn't possibly comment with 100% certainty of this, but from what I have seen, certain decisions made to the infrastructure built, for example the lack of electrification and the modernization of grade crossings instead of their outright removal does look weird. However, I think that if they had made those changes, the price of the project would jump drastically. Not even this, but other than engineers, enthusiasts and some specialists, drivers don't care about electrification or grade crossings. They care about the experience, so if the money was directed from electrification and grade crossing removal to nicer stations, nicer trains, real estate, etc, even though it wouldn't technically be the best in terms of operational speed, it would still be plenty fast and convenient. This is what makes me assume those two were ignored, but that's a theory. Often times, from what I have seen, infrastructure managed by other public companies in the US seems to do the inverse (can't guarantee it). 2) According to what I know, passenger train companies in the US used to be profitable. Maybe not that much but still profitable enough. However, that may have had more to do with the lack of any other competition, which ended with the introduction of the automobile for the masses and the jet age. Of course, the freight operations remained as those were still profitable. At least from what I heard. As for the OP, the fact is that the US hasn't received the same degree of investment into passenger rail as other countries. The money spent by the Federal Government every year on highways is higher than all the money invested into Amtrak since it's inception COMBINED. I could go into this a lot more, but I don't think it is necessary.

[@sometwo7429]

why dunk on a project that is actually making notable improvements in the development of American rail? These are the types of things we need to encourage

[@vanyac6448]

@@texdonethis Didn't know Brightline is a real estate development company with a train. I know that that's how a lot of privately owned railways in Japan work: if you count just the ticket revenue, they're actually taking a loss. But they still make a profit, because they own a lot of the land near the train stations and the train increases the rental income they get from the properties they own. Good thing that business model is coming to America!

[@mistatrollge3184]

Maybe fix your poor grammar before calling someone poor. My kitchen is worth more than your euro shack.

[@fcjose31]

Necesitan tiempo para competir contra China, incluso contra Europa, o contra España con dos compañias LowCost a 300 km/h o 190 mph, de Madrid a Barcelona a 620 km de distancia o 385 millas 9€ trayecto en 2,30 horas, kzbin.info/www/bejne/omOqoaVroK9llZosi=-zW-xz1fVtt7Eax3&t=1