The Grift Behind the Brightline (and why we can't have mass transit in Florida)
Whether the half-penny tax or the Brightline, we can never get a serious vision for a truly modern and comprehensive mass transit system.
In the early 2010s, there was hope that the massive state of Florida, bigger than some European countries, could be connected by high-speed rail. The Obama administration was pushing a multi-state, federally funded system that had the potential to revolutionize travel in the United States.
Unfortunately, then-Governor Rick Scott killed the project, which would have connected Tampa and Orlando via high-speed rail, to the great benefit of Floridians. Why did he do it?
Scott killed public high-speed rail in Florida because he instead wanted to do it through a so-called public-private partnership. Scott and his wife invested millions of dollars in a credit fund for Fortress Investment Group, which owned Florida East Coast Industries, which owned a little company called All Aboard Florida, now known as Brightline.
Yes, the same Brightline train that earned infamy through social media videos showing multiple fatal crashes against pedestrians and motorized vehicle drivers. Scott said through a spokesperson at the time that he wouldn’t personally profit from the Brightline because his investments are not directly tied to the rail project. Still, on its website, Fortress Investment Group featured the launch of Brightline as one of its "investment highlights.
Fast-forward to today and the Brightline is finally a thing, and it’s not great, to say the least. The train made headlines for its steep increase in prices. A bundle of 40 tickets between Miami and Palm Beach was recently priced at $340 but it will soon go up to an eye-popping $1,400, leaving many commuters in the lurch.
But even on a regular day, the Brightline is pricey. I recently looked to buy a ticket from Downtown Miami to Aventura. At 2 pm on a weekday, it cost me $35, while an Uber cost me $29. That’s without factoring transportation to and from the Brightline stations both at the point of departure and arrival! This is because planners refuse to address the last mile problem, meaning how do I get to a public transit departure point and then home from my point of drop off? Miami-Dade simply is completely lacking in terms of a comprehensive and interconnected public transit system.
Some people might argue that Brightline never branded itself as a local transit option, which justifies the expensive prices for a local commute, but that’s just not true. The Aventura station was subsidized by the Miami-Dade County Commission using taxpayer dollars, and they did so while claiming that it would be a transit option for county residents. It’s obviously not.
The Brightline is a transit project designed to make people frustrated at the idea of mass transit. It’s expensive, difficult to use, and does not operate at scale. It’s not Miami-Dade residents’ first rodeo when it comes to half-baked transit projects that turn out to be a bait and switch. In 2002, voters countywide decided to implement a half-penny Charter County Sales surtax called the People’s Transportation Plan (PTP).
It was supposed to raise money over several years to develop the ironically named smart plan, which consisted of 5 new rapid transit corridors. The ballot language approved by voters mandated “Plans to Build Rapid Transit lines to West Dade, Kendall, Florida City, Miami Beach, and North Dade,” but not a single one of those lines has been built.
The money instead is used for routine maintenance and replacement of fleet vehicles, not the visionary expansion of mass transit that residents explicitly voted for. The money is being misappropriated plain and simple.
Miami-Dade residents who hope to one day not be condemned to relying on a car in an increasingly congested city must feel like Lucy and the football. Whether it’s the half-penny tax or the Brightline, it seems like we can never get a serious vision for a truly modern and comprehensive mass transit system.
This article was co-written with David Quiñones a former Miami Herald and Fusion reporter.