4 ms·

I don't have access to stats, but is it really particularly successful? I just checked and the Boca - Downtown Miami route takes 51 minutes, compared to (not qu

I don't have access to stats, but is it really particularly successful? I just checked and the Boca - Downtown Miami route takes 51 minutes, compared to (not quite comparable) Boca - MIA on the Trirail in 61 minutes. This, with way fewer stops in between. I can't believe too many commuters are paying a premium price unless they're specifically wanting to go downtown for work.

bombcar 3y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline#Ridership_by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline#Ridership_by_year They had 1.2 million rides in 2022, that's good by any measurement. Pacific Surfliner in Southern California is a wildly successful intercity rail and only had 1.6m rides in 2022. Some people may use them to commute but it's not primarily commuter rail, would be my guess.
- cool_dude85 3y ago
  Compare to Trirail which now covers largely the same region, opened in 1995 with around twice as many riders (2.5 million). Last stats on the wiki are 4.5 million in 2019.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    Tri-Rail seems comparable to Metrolink or the Coaster - that's commuter rail and often has lower costs and higher ridership, because the average ride is shorter. The San Diego trolley has 63 miles of track and 34 million riders in 2022; but that's an entirely different type of rail that serves a different purpose. Even if it eventually reached all the way to Los Angeles there would still be uses for commuter and intercity rail. Many places in Europe have the various types of rail all sharing the same "lines" or stations, but the ICE is a completely different beast than the Regionalbahn or Regional-Express.
- cge 3y ago
  The Pacific Surfliner in 2022 may not be a great comparison, as what I believe is the most popular and frequent segment (between San Diego and LA) was out of service for the entirety of Q4, and apparently has been out of service since then, with the exception of 10 days in April.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    I didn’t know that - was it replaced by a bus or just completely gone? Edit: looks like it got bussed: https://www.railjournal.com/infrastructure/aamtraks-pacific-surfliner-to-resume-fully-in-southern-california-after-six-month-suspension/ https://www.railjournal.com/infrastructure/aamtraks-pacific-...

bombcar 3y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline#Ridership_by_year https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline#Ridership_by_year They had 1.2 million rides in 2022, that's good by any measurement. Pacific Surfliner in Southern California is a wildly successful intercity rail and only had 1.6m rides in 2022. Some people may use them to commute but it's not primarily commuter rail, would be my guess.

cool_dude85 3y ago
Compare to Trirail which now covers largely the same region, opened in 1995 with around twice as many riders (2.5 million). Last stats on the wiki are 4.5 million in 2019.
- bombcar 3y ago
  Tri-Rail seems comparable to Metrolink or the Coaster - that's commuter rail and often has lower costs and higher ridership, because the average ride is shorter. The San Diego trolley has 63 miles of track and 34 million riders in 2022; but that's an entirely different type of rail that serves a different purpose. Even if it eventually reached all the way to Los Angeles there would still be uses for commuter and intercity rail. Many places in Europe have the various types of rail all sharing the same "lines" or stations, but the ICE is a completely different beast than the Regionalbahn or Regional-Express.
cge 3y ago
The Pacific Surfliner in 2022 may not be a great comparison, as what I believe is the most popular and frequent segment (between San Diego and LA) was out of service for the entirety of Q4, and apparently has been out of service since then, with the exception of 10 days in April.
- bombcar 3y ago
  I didn’t know that - was it replaced by a bus or just completely gone? Edit: looks like it got bussed: https://www.railjournal.com/infrastructure/aamtraks-pacific-surfliner-to-resume-fully-in-southern-california-after-six-month-suspension/ https://www.railjournal.com/infrastructure/aamtraks-pacific-...