TRANSPORTATION

Faster trains to begin carrying passengers as Amtrak’s monopoly falls

The only private operator of intercity passenger trains is about to launch new service in Florida. Next? Trains at 186 mph between Las Vegas and Southern California.

By Luz Lazo
August 30, 2023 at 9:42 a.m. EDT

ORLANDO — Amtrak’s decades-old monopoly on intercity passenger rail travel will fall in the coming weeks when Florida becomes home to the fastest American trains outside the Northeast Corridor.

Brightline, the only private passenger railroad in the country, is slated to open its newest station here later this year, providing a train connection between Orlando International Airport and South Florida in three hours. Meanwhile, work is progressing on high-speed projects in Western states and Texas, while Amtrak is eyeing its biggest expansion in 52 years.

[ The 5 higher-speed rail projects taking shape in the U.S. ]

Two years after the infrastructure law began pumping $66 billion into the nation’s aging rail network, domestic passenger railroads are showing their greatest signs of strength in generations. Amtrak’s singular grip on transporting U.S. rail passengers is slipping as private companies, states and the federal government look to fast trains as environmentally friendly alternatives to traffic-clogged highways, while developers promise speeds rivaling those in Europe and Asia.

Amtrak service and high-speed rail proposals

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Amtrak says it views other rail providers as complementary to its offerings, coming as the nation’s longtime passenger rail — newly flush with billions of federal dollars — embarks on its own plan to add 39 routes while linking dozens more cities. President Biden, whose fondness for the system earned him the nickname “Amtrak Joe,” is perhaps the bipartisan project’s biggest booster.

Launching with no federal help, the modern debut of private passenger rail connecting two major metropolitan areas will come to fruition when Brightline riders arrive in Orlando from downtown Miami. The Federal Railroad Administration expects to sign off within days, triggering a three-week testing period before Brightline carries passengers. The company will then set its sights on a $12 billion high-speed railway from Las Vegas to Southern California, a massive undertaking that could put trains traveling at 186 mph on America’s tracks by 2028.

“We’re much closer than we’ve ever been. It’s going to happen,” said former transportation secretary Ray LaHood, putting the Western U.S. project at “the top of the list” of major corridors that could place the nation on the high-speed rail map.

The test case for the U.S.’s passenger rail ambitions is taking place in car-dominant South Florida, where a gleaming station has transformed a long-overlooked Miami neighborhood three miles from the southern terminus of Interstate 95.

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Story editing by Tim Richardson. Photo editing by Mark Miller. Copy editing by Grant Johnson. Design by Jennifer C. Reed.

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By Luz Lazo
Luz Lazo is a transportation reporter at The Washington Post covering passenger and freight transportation, buses, taxis and ride-sharing services. She also writes about traffic, road infrastructure and air travel in the Washington region and beyond. She joined The Post in 2011. Twitter https://twitter.com/luzcita