I have a work trip to Miami in a few weeks and I’m debating changing my flight home to leave from Orlando and taking the Brightline train from Miami to Orlando.
I’m curious about other people’s experiences, particularly in their “smart” class (regular) Most of the reviews are of the Premium class and the cost of the Premium class is more than 2x during the times I’m looking at. I am planning on working on the train so I do want to be comfortable.
Tagging @Bubblez and @Mike_vndt as they have taken the train based on posts.
Our experience with Brightline was great. The northbound train was about 15 minutes late, but aside from that, no issues.
The regular class is perfectly fine, I wouldn’t pay double the price for premium considering the regular class was comfortable all around. Probably less people in premium and complimentary food, I think.
Our train to Orlando was about half full, and the return train was completely full. Very quiet, but that can vary depending on what kind of people you happen to get near you
I’ve used plenty of trains around Europe and I’d say this was on par with any good european train. All the stations and trains are obviously brand new. Decent service on board the train - they had sandwiches, drinks (beer, sodas, oj, water), chips etc. for sale.
Obviously the best thing is that it’s faster and much more comfortable than a car!
I’ve only taken Amtrak from Miami to Orlando, specifically the Silver Meteor which takes about 5 hours. What I like is you can get a private compartment which includes meals. Or, the coach tickets are $39. The train leaves 8:10 and arrives 1:22. Since it starts in Miami it’s rarely late.
Brightline is faster, takes about 3.5 hrs but costs more in coach. The issue I have with Brightline is the high frequency of train collisions. Seems like every other week there is an article about a fatality. While many attribute this to ‘Florida man’ stupidity of people trying to beat the train, the high number of level crossings (300+) is also a factor. For comparison the Amtrak Northeast corridor has just 11 level crossing between NYC and Boston.
I highly recommend! I did do the premium tickets, which to me were worth it, but like everything else that’s mostly preference.
About the same time as driving, none of the hassle. It was nice to be able to get up and stretch my legs whenever needed and we had a ton of space to spread out and sleep/watch shows/eat/etc.
