west point wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 10:31 pm
Brightline short of capacity? What a nice position to be in? Not at all!! Just think how much MCO - MIA revenue is being lost. There is precedent as Amtrak is having capacity problems as well. We can be certain that BL management is trying to come up with solutions, They probably do not want to tarnish BL image by borrowing some other equipment that would need to be refurbished & would be considered sub-standard.
west point wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 10:31 pm
probably best solution is to get Siemens to speed up deliveries of additional cars?
Since Brightline is operating high(er) speed rail here, it is highly unlikely they would be allowed to borrowing equipment from other passenger railroads. I know I wouldn't trust some of the NJT passenger cars going 130MPH.
Bob Roberts wrote: ↑Fri Mar 22, 2024 12:37 pm
So this leads us to a question I have had for a while. How much track capacity does Brightline have on the FEC? Seems like Grupo México will need to run at least a couple of intermodals a day from Miami. But Brightline is talking about higher frequencies (although longer trains would also address this capacity issue), and the city of Miami just got federal funding for Adventura commuter service on the FEC. Add in a few WPB to Miami trains and you have a pretty busy double tracked railroad (from Grupo México and Dade, Browerd and West Palm Beach counties (lots of crossing gates down) perspective anyway).
From what it seems, it seems like Brightline starts to stop running trains by midnight, and then the trains start back up around 5AM. I'm sure this varies depending on the day, any special occasions/holidays, and which station. In any sense, there is probably at least a 2 or 3 hour window where Brightline is not operating trains, and FEC can run what they need.
In addition, the ROW Brightline and FEC uses could probably fit extra tracks, if needed. Of course, in places like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Stuart, you have some chokepoints.
Alex M wrote: ↑Sat Mar 23, 2024 7:49 am
Regarding FEC freight trains was there an idea put forward to re-route these trains over the ex-CSX line that Tri rail now uses south of WPB?
CSX still has trackage rights over Tri-Rails tracks. IIRC, CSX still does a lot of freight on that line, I can't imagine they would be happy to have the FEC run on their territory. I wouldn't be surprised if legally speaking, CSX is the only freight operator allowed to run on Tri-Rail's existing trackage.