Brightline
Brightline on Sept. 18 celebrated the first anniversary of its extension to Orlando and is looking to serve Tampa, too. “We’ve already announced that we’re going to be building a station in Cocoa,” Brightline Senior Vice President of Marketing Barbara Drahl told local media outlet WKMG-TV, according to a Sept. 23 Newsweek report. “We’re looking at the Treasure Coast and, of course, ultimately wanting to go out west to Tampa….We’re really creating the blueprint for what it means to travel on high-speed rail in America.”
Brightline covers 235 miles between Miami and Orlando (see map above). It launched the first phase of its South Florida operations in 2018, connecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. Stations in Boca Raton and Aventura opened in 2022. Construction of its 170-mile, $6 billion phase two extension from West Palm Beach to Orlando began in 2019 and service launched in September 2023.
Since the latest launch, Brightline has logged 2.6 million rides, according to Newsweek, and Drahl reported that the railroad “is focusing on providing more convenient travel options as ridership continues to increase.”
While the timeline for a Tampa extension is uncertain, having the railroad reach that city “is generating interest from local officials and business leaders,” Newsweek reported.
“I’m excited by the progress that’s being made to bring Brightline to Tampa,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor was quoted as saying in the Tampa Bay Times, according to Newsweek. “The stakeholders involved are committed to making this route a reality and to overcoming any challenges presented by an infrastructure project of this scale.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis “has made it clear that state taxpayers will not be responsible for funding the rail’s construction, although he indicated that space along the I-4 corridor has been reserved for the project,” Newsweek reported.
The “primary focus” for Brightline now is “on expanding its services in Central Florida and maintaining its ambitious timeline for other projects,” including the 218-mile, $12 billion Brightline West high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas and Southern Californial, according to Newsweek.
CapMetro
Community Impact on Sept. 24 reported that a FY 2024-2025 budget of $704.8 million has been approved for CapMetro, which provides more than 70,000 daily weekday trips on its trains, buses, paratransit, and vanpool vehicles, and serves a population of 1.2 million-plus in its 543 square-mile service area.
Of that total, the newspaper said, $229.8 million will be used for capital projects, including
- “$15 million toward CapMetro Pickup, a neighborhood on-demand transit service
- “$2.4 million for the city’s Bikeshare operations and expansion, adding 150 e-bikes and 12 stations
- “$149.1 million, over five years, for the North Demand Response Facility and new headquarters
- “$21.5 million, over five years, toward bus stop enhancements and infrastructure
- “$21.2 million toward [the $7.1 billion] Project Connect, including new CapMetro MetroRapid routes and South Base Demand Response Facility.”
Approximately $97 million has been allocated “for salaries and benefits of an anticipated 676 full-time employees, which includes room for the expansion of the Transit Police Department,” according to Community Impact.
The newspaper said planned projects for FY 2024-2025 include:
- “Beginning the incorporation of fully electric buses and explore hydrogen powered bus options
- “Constructing 50 new bus stops and 25 bus shelters
- “Finalizing the construction of the 4th & Sabine Rail, Bike and Pedestrian Crossing project
- “Developing the Transit 2035 planning document
- “Implementing wayfinding technology throughout the transit network to increase accessibility for those with disabilities.”
In a related development, Capital Metro was recently awarded a $1 million Technical Assistance Grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to explore an Equitable Transit-Oriented Development pilot site.
NYMTA
New York MTA on Sept. 24 opened its first data challenge in an aim “to transform its vast volumes of open data into web apps, maps, data visualizations, written reports, or art works that shed light on how New York moves.”
For the month-long competition, members of the public can choose from 134 open datasets across transportation modes and subject areas, including ridership, service performance, operating budget, OMNY fare card adoption, elevator availability, safety, and more, according to MTA.
Projects in any medium are welcome as long as at least one MTA dataset on data.ny.gov is used.
Submissions must be emailed to opendata@mtahq.org by 11:59 p.m. EDT on Oct. 25, 2024. The email subject line should be: MTA 2024 Open Data Challenge Submission. Included as email attachments must be the project; project description (500 words or less), including the participant’s name, name(s) of any additional contributors to the project, a link to the project if one is publicly available, and the link(s) to the MTA open dataset(s) on data.ny.gov used in the project; and a completed and signed submission form allowing for public sharing of the project.
MTA said submissions will be judged on “creativity, utility, execution and transparency.” Click here for full competition guidelines.
The winner will receive an item from the vintage New York City Transit memorabilia collection, and the winning project will be featured in a blog post on the MTA’s Data & Analytics blog and on the MTA’s social media accounts.
The new data challenge coincides with the three-year anniversary of the MTA Open Data Act, signed by Governor Hochul in October 2021. The MTA Open Data program is managed by the Data & Analytics team.
In a related development, the Transit Tech Lab, a joint initiative of the MTA and the Partnership Fund for New York City, has released the proof-of-concept results for its three latest challenges. Also, MTA on Sept. 18 released its proposed 2025-2029 Capital Plan that would invest $68.4 billion in rebuilding, improving, and expanding its system of subways, buses, commuter railroads, bridges, and tunnels; and on Sept. 22 announced the launch of an Avoided Carbon Calculator, a new feature on its TrainTime app that will allow MTA Metro-North and MTA Long Island Rail Road customers to track how the transit choice fights greenhouse gas emissions, based on their trips purchased.
