TRANSPORTATION
STUART LIKELY LOCATION OF BRIGHTLINE STATION
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Work is underway on rail lines extending north to the Space Coast and west to Orlando that will bring
Brightline’s high-speed trains to the Treasure Coast.
TCBusiness.com
The Treasure Coast hasn’t seen passenger
rail service since the 1968 union strike
against the Florida East Coast Railway, and
might have to wait another seven years
before the Brightline high-speed rail service
between Miami and Orlando Regional
Airport and points west adds a station in
either Martin or St. Lucie County, according
to Brightline officials.
Brightline has shown an interest in adding
a station on the Treasure Coast and
one on the Space Coast. Cocoa is the most
likely location for the Space Coast station
due mostly to its proximity to the Port
Canaveral cruise lines.
Both the cities of Fort Pierce and Stuart
are jockeying for a high-speed rail stop
and according to published reports,
Brightline officials have indicated Stuart is
the most likely location.
“I personally feel that if the train must
go through here, that if it stops here we
have some advantage as a whole for the
businesses,” says Patty O’Connell, Stuart
businesswoman and owner of Gumbo
Limbo Coastal Chic and Coastal Kidz shops
in downtown Stuart. “It would have an
impact on us, for the tourism market and
for our economic well-being here.”
Doris Tillman, director of Main Street
Fort Pierce, has a slightly different take on
the station location.
“If you think of it like a gambling ship,” she
says, “with a gambling ship, the cars drive in,
the people get on the ship, they sail out and
when they get back early in the morning,
they get in their cars and go home. They
don’t really spend a lot of their money in
the community. So, I’m guessing it is similar
to that with the train. People would come
in and park, go on the train and come back
and get in their cars to go home.
“Now, some may spend the night and
that would be a way of income, and
parking would certainly bring in income.
People may enjoy their stay in Fort Pierce. I
think there are a lot of advantages to it.
“We are on such a great pace of growing
in a natural, nice way with King’s Landing
coming in and the possibilities of Fisherman’s
Wharf and Derecktor. With the
things that are happening here, I am not
sure the train is going to be the No. 1 thing
over all of that.”
While there has been much contention
ELLEN GILLETTE PHOTOS
over the development of the railway
regarding noise and safety concerns, the
company is spending $1.5 billion to upgrade
rail crossings from Miami to Cocoa,
including double-tracking, improvements
to the signaling systems and upgrading
grade crossings to meet FDOT and Federal
Railway Administration safety standards.
Work has been ongoing along the Treasure
Coast for some time and in May Brightline
officials celebrated the 50% completion
of the Cocoa to Orlando Regional Airport
leg at the site of its planned high-speed
train maintenance facility in the Boggy
Creek area just south of the airport.
St. Lucie County officials are putting
their money on the line, with projected
spending of $750,000 to purchase and
install seven traffic lights at small railway
crossings along Old Dixie Highway in the
northeastern part of the county near St.
Lucie Village. Brightline will be installing,
and paying for gates at the crossings, as
well as any upgrades needed as part of
their $1.5 billion package.
The high-speed trains are expected to
travel 110 miles per hour between West
Palm Beach and Cocoa and up to 125
miles per hour on the stretch between
Cocoa and Orlando Regional Airport. In
2020, Brightline entered an agreement
with officials at Walt Disney World to open
a station in Disney Springs after the airport
location is completed. From there, the rail
line will extend to Tampa. v
BY PATTIE DURHAM
Brightline’s high-speed trains have been running in the West Palm Beach to Miami corridor.
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