South Florida by the numbers: Brightline to restart & more

“South Florida by the numbers” is a web feature that catalogues the most notable, quirky and surprising real estate statistics.

After 18-plus months of being cooped up and quarantined, intrepid travelers and commuters are ready to hit the road. Whether by land, sea or air, people are once again on the move in South Florida with ease and style, getting us closer to some semblance of – dare we say it? – normal. As new companies relocate and open offices in the region, improved travel, transportation, and infrastructure options dramatically enhance its profile as a top real estate and business destination. We go smoothly from Point A to Point B in this month’s “South Florida by the numbers.”

8
Date in November 2021 when Brightline will re-launch its rail service between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. In November, “Smart Ride” travelers will get their first train ride free through the new Brightline app, and all riders will have a new door-to-door service that will include private and third-party vendor vehicles supporting point-to-point service beyond the train.
[Local 10]

320
By 2028, total number of expected miles in Brightline’s network stretching from Miami to Orlando to Tampa Bay. Trains will take a little more than three hours to travel between Orlando and Miami, and tickets will cost about $100 one-way. Brightline’s executive vice president of infrastructure said the company is “challenging the way that we move between city to city” as well as “challenging the automobile.”
[Florida Today]

$70 million
Amount taxpayers voted to give Brightline to build a Tri-Rail station at its MiamiCentral station in 2016, which still hasn’t opened. However, Tri-Rail will soon have access to Brightline’s downtown Miami tracks to begin testing, according to a spokesperson for the agency that runs the trains. Once completed, the public rail system will have service all the way from Palm Beach County’s Mangonia Park to downtown Miami.
[The Next Miami]

200
Number of new employees hired by Spirit Airlines as the company launched service out of Miami International Airport this month. The South Florida-based air carrier will start with nine destinations, including Atlanta, Atlantic City, Boston, Newark, and Port au Prince, eventually extending to 31 by January. Spirit’s full schedule will immediately make it one of the airport’s busiest passenger carriers, as it is already the largest airline at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
[CBS Miami]

2,700
Passenger capacity aboard the Disney Magic cruise ship, which will return to PortMiami this month after more than a year and a half of pandemic-related delays. The 2,500-passenger Disney Dream will homeport there beginning in 2023, with both ships sailing to destinations in the Caribbean and the Bahamas.
[South Florida Business Journal]

This column is produced by the Master Brokers Forum, a network of South Florida’s elite real estate professionals where membership is by invitation only and based on outstanding production, as well as ethical and professional behavior.