America’s new high-speed train has turned into a deadly failure

Brightline trains ply the route between Orlando and Miami - Eva Marie Uzcategui

I admit to having a soft spot for Brightline, the privately owned high-speed railway that spans much of South Florida. Not least as it came to my rescue a few years ago, when a fiasco with cancelled flights sent me to Orlando rather than Miami. Keen to keep my original hotel booking, I jumped on the three-hour train from the airport in Orlando to the heart of downtown Miami.

To say I was impressed with Brightline would be an understatement: the airport-style lounge before you board; the leather-bound seats and squeaky clean facilities; the offer of unlimited drinks with business class tickets – everything seemed light years ahead of any commuter train back home. And that’s before we get to the smiley service and super-speedy Wi-Fi.

Declining profits and accidental deaths

Beneath the surface, though, it looks like not everything was so shipshape. Earlier this month, it was revealed that Brightline – once touted as the start of a new high-speed rail revolution in America – could well be on a fast-track to bankruptcy. In short, the venture isn’t making enough profit to cover the massive debts it incurred during the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to some of its bonds being downgraded to junk status.

The project has another big problem, too: it keeps inadvertently killing people. While that might sound dramatic, it isn’t an exaggeration: in 2024, some 41 people died after being struck by Brightline trains, according to US government figures. That’s around three times the number of people killed during that period on the entire British rail network, which has more than 20,000 miles of track – Brightline, by comparison, has just 235.

The aftermath of a collision between a Brightline train and a fire truck in December 2024 - Sun Sentinel

Without wanting to sound morbid, one of the distinctive things about Brightline is that the vast majority of its fatalities are attributed to genuine accidents, rather than suicides. As the service runs on Florida’s old freight network, the track has dozens of crossing points with roads, most of which aren’t fenced. That means oblivious drivers sometimes end up crossing the track without realising that the high-speed train is hurtling towards them.

Thankfully, Brightline has been doing its bit to reduce deaths. Since 2021, it has partnered with satnav app Waze, which now warns drivers when there are trains ahead. It has also persuaded some local police departments to leave unmanned patrol cars by the crossings in the hope that it might make drivers slow down and spot the tracks. Federal grants worth more than $42m are also being put towards safety improvements, including additional fencing at crossings. But clearly, for the moment at least, the problem persists.

Broken promises

That’s bad news for those of us, like me, who hoped Brightline might genuinely kickstart a new era of high-speed rail in America. After all, if you’ve spent any time in the US, you’ll know that the country is almost entirely bereft of the sort of mass transit projects we take for granted in Europe.

On the face of it, they have Amtrak – the creaking, government-owned rail network that runs right across the States. But it’s a million miles away from being called high speed: apart from a small stretch by New York, most services trundle along at around 50 miles per hour, due to the dominance of freight trains on the network.

What’s more, almost all attempts to bring high-speed rail to the US have failed. Take the much-vaunted proposal to build a bullet train between San Francisco and Los Angeles. After being backed by Californian voters back in 2008, the project has descended into levels of farce and money wastage that make HS2 look like a byword for competence.

For a while, it looked like Brightline had bucked the trend – and with some style. Not only were the stations and trains state-of-the-art, but the service has offered some of the luxuries associated with first-class flights: during last year’s Art Basel in Miami, premium passengers were served with champagne and caviar when travelling to the festivities.

Our writer was impressed by the airport-style departure lounge, leather-bound seats and squeaky-clean facilities

End of the line?

For all the pizazz though, the service isn’t perfect. For a start, there’s little onward connectivity. While the Brightline can get you to various stops along Florida’s coast, it will be up to you to arrange a transfer to where you actually want to go. Given the sprawling geography, that likely means getting a taxi. What’s more, the current route doesn’t go to the theme parks or Cape Canaveral – easily the biggest tourism draws in the state.

Onward connectivity is one of the route’s shortcomings, and there are no stops for the theme parks - South Florida Sun-Sentinel/Tribune News Service

For all its flaws, though, I’ll keep my fingers crossed that the Brightline can stay on course. As the company has pointed out, bookings have been growing from one year to the next. Passenger numbers for the first quarter of 2026 were up 13 per cent on the year, with just short of a million total riders, although the growth hasn’t been quick enough to pay down those debts so far.

In the meantime, if you need to get from Miami to Orlando International Airport – and fancy a few complimentary cocktails en route – I can heartily recommend the canary-yellow charms of this exceptional train line. Ride it while you still can.

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