The Wait Is Over
Brightline officially begins its introductory service
January 2018 — After much anticipation and a few delays, Brightline finally began its introductory service this past Saturday between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
While Saturday’s rides were described as smooth, fast and comfortable by many excited passengers, the celebrations were dimmed by an unfortunate tragedy. During preview runs the night before, a 32-year-old woman was struck and killed by a northbound train when she ducked under the already lowered gates and tried to cross the tracks. Despite this dark cloud, riders are optimistic about the new service.
As the only privately owned, operated and maintained passenger rail system in the U.S., the Brightline train offers an unparalleled travel experience in South Florida. All passengers have access to free wifi, outlets and USB jacks while onboard.
A one-way ticket between Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach is $10 for its select service and $15 for its smart service. Seniors, active military and veterans receive a 10-percent discount, while children under 12 get a 50-percent discount. Trains will depart from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day, and the high-speed train makes the trip in about 40 minutes.
The Brightline service to Miami is expected to open in the coming months, and an opening date for the Orlando station has not yet been set.
For more information or to book a ride, visit https://gobrightline.com/.
Unemployment is at 4.9 percent, and we’ve added some 1.26 million private-sector jobs, which is double the national rate. Four years before I was elected, Florida lost 832,000 jobs. To tackle this, we cut 4,600 regulations, cut taxes 55 times and recruited 900 companies either to come to Florida or expand into the state. We’ve gone on trade missions around the world, and we’ve made sure that our universities are focused on where the greatest job needs are. We’ve asked “how can we help businesses here to be more successful than they are anywhere else?” That is our attitude, and we are better than anyone else in the country. We have to keep cutting taxes and reducing regulations. U.S. News & World Report has said Florida is first for higher education, but we have to keep getting better. We have to make education more affordable and make sure the colleges and universities are very focused on where the jobs are. We now have 25 percent of universities’ budgets tied to three things: What does it cost to get a degree? What field can you get a job in? How much money do you make? We’ve got to make sure we are focused on getting people ready for careers and dealing with the system.
When people think about Miami, often, they think about private art collections that have historically driven the arts scene. We are trying to reshape that conversation to include the importance of an institution. Our goal is to be one of Miami’s great public institutions, dedicated to international contemporary arts, reflective of our surroundings, representing the work of the Caribbean and Latin America and a place for community conversation and dialogue. Miami is rapidly evolving right now and is home to more and more arts institutions. There is a real sense of collectivity and a relationship to art and cultural institutions. But, we are also a city that is growing in every single way. Our artists are choosing to live here. We have great programs at the preschool levels up to high school like New World and DASH. Undergraduate programs at Florida International University and the University of Miami are also doing well. There is a foundation strengthening and the conversation is evolving. One of the most important trends has been the evolution of Miami as a year-round destination for arts and culture. There was a time when one talked about an “arts season” but over the years an explosion in the Miami arts scene has led to Miami- Dade being a must-visit location to see important work by a variety of artists throughout the year. One example of this is PAMM’s first major exhibition focused on Jean-Michael Basquiat’s notebooks that ran from August until mid-October. The beautifully organized retrospective of this very important artist and accompanying interactive gallery was well received by visitors and journalists alike during a time that was once considered “out of season.” Miami has indeed become a global arts capital. The biggest challenge is getting people to understand a level of civic interaction that is still part of a young, growing city with people who are coming from all over the world. The biggest challenge is getting everybody to buy in on the idea of representing who we are through our institutions, as opposed to as individuals. That is what we are working on.
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