Discussion about Florida passenger rail operations including proposals. Official web-sites:
Miami/Dade Metrorail, Sunrail (Orlando), and Tri-County Commuter Rail Authority
For Virgin Rail/Brightline: Virgin Trains Worldwide (includes Brightline)

Moderator: Kurt-Trirail

  by BandA
 
Are these vehicles owned or leased? Is $9M annual cost reasonable for this service? (one of those links gave that as a number)
  by GojiMet86
 
I passed yesterday by the yard at Metrorail Transfer and saw the five DMU units there, if anyone was wondering.
  by Pensyfan19
 
Been a while but does anyone know the current status of these bilevel DMUs? I heard that one was destroyed in a fire, but I'm not sure about the other set.
Last edited by Pensyfan19 on Wed May 06, 2020 11:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
  by Backshophoss
 
The builder has long gone,the cars are now orphans and have NO support or parts.
Most of these were sidelined after a major part failure,
  by trainhq
 
I remember when all this went down about 15 years ago or so. The idea of an FRA compliant DMU made (and still made) a lot
of sense. Unfortunately, the people who built them were not known for building quality railcars in volume. That's why they
were never able to convince anyone besides Tri Rail to take a chance on them. In the end, that's how it turned out;
their products simply weren't reliable enough for public service (one of them actually caught fire), and the other agencies
didn't but any. A good idea that didn't pan out.
  by ohioriverrailway
 
Recall looking at a demo unit during an APTA conference in Vegas in 2001 or 2002. Always wondered what happened to the concept.
  by west point
 
About 18 months ago saw them north of the Sanford Auto train parked along with a couple Su Rail cars. Have not been in that area since so ???????????????????