Brightline recently started service between South Florida and Orlando to much fanfare but is this really a good alternative? With this new train service, you now have three primary options to get from one place to the other: driving, train and plane. Let’s assume you have no interest in driving which is kind of the purpose behind this train in the first place. On a good day, driving takes about three and a half hours but there’s just not a lot of these good days. Traffic could easily add an hour or more to this drive. Gas and tolls could exceed $120 on a round trip (gas of course varies depending on several factors).
Avoiding this horrible drive was kind of the reason for building Brightline according to their CEO. Brightline CEO Mike Reininger said most of Brightline’s Miami-Orlando passengers will come from those who drive the route regularly and others who stay home because they hate the drive.
Prime targets are families headed to Orlando’s theme parks and travelers to South Florida’s nightlife, concerts, sports and cruises. Reininger said his company’s challenge is to convince travelers that its trains’ amenities make any extra cost worthwhile. The train “gives you the ability to use your time that you are dedicating to travel in any number of ways that you can’t do when you are behind the wheel.”
But I wanted to look at this from another perspective. What about those out-of-state travelers that are in one area of Florida and want to visit another area to create a two-for-one trip? Let’s say you are in Orlando for a week but you can only do so many parks. Checking out the South Florida nightlife scene and then hitting up the beach the next morning would be a great way to change things up. Or maybe you’re in Miami for the week and a quick trip to Orlando would be nice. Does the train make sense then?
Since we’ve eliminated driving (we’ll assume you didn’t even rent a car), your options at this point are the train or a plane. Let’s look at your options. We’ll consider Orlando to Miami and Orlando to Fort Lauderdale. Note that it really doesn’t matter whether you’re going from Orlando to South Florida or from South Florida to Orlando. Everything we’ll consider is the same.
Time
The train from Orlando to Miami takes 3 hours and 33 minutes. The train from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale takes 2 hours and 54 minutes. A flight from Orlando to Miami takes 1 hour and 14 minutes. A flight from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale takes 1 hour and 10 minutes. So on the surface, it’s much faster to take a plane right? Well not exactly and for those of you that have ever been to MCO (Orlando’s airport), you know what a disaster that place can be even if you have pre-check. Showing up 2 hours before your flight leaves is pretty much a must there which evens out the time. MIA isn’t exactly a fun place to be most of the time either. FLL isn’t too bad. Still, you can’t exactly show up 15 minutes before your flight leaves and expect to make it.
With Brightline, that’s all you really need to do. You can show up 15 minutes before your train leaves and then get right on. Avoiding the airport chaos alone could be worth it but when you factor in all the time associated with both methods of travel, they are pretty equal.
Options throughout the day
Brightline gives you more options with eight trains between Orlando and South Florida spaced out from early morning until evening. While flights will vary, right now there are just seven flights between Orlando and Fort Lauderdale but three of those flights take off around the same time. Thus, there’s really only four options. There’s almost a dozen flights between Orlando and Miami but when you factor in similar times, there’s only about seven. There are some flights that are later than what Brightline offers.
Baggage
This is going to vary by airline and how much baggage you need for a short trip. If you can stuff everything you need into a small backpack, then Spirit Airlines or a basic economy ticket on another airline will be good for you. However, if you’d still like to bring a carry on bag (or two) for an overnight trip, then this is going to increase your costs. Since you’ll have to pay for bags both ways, this could add $80 or more to your airfare. With Brightline, you’ll get two carry-on bags for free.
Cost
For purposes of this discussion, we’ll assume you only have a small backpack so there’s no other costs associated with your airfare. Airfare can change from day to day so this makes comparing things more difficult. Nevertheless, I picked random dates in October of 2023 to make a comparison. Brightline’s fares are more steady. For purposes of this discussion, I assume you’re going down for the night and coming back later the next day to fit the concept of a quick day trip. Let’s look at the fares:
Although the trip to Fort Lauderdale is shorter, the price is the same.
As you can see, the price of airfare to Miami is comparable to Brightline. However, it is much cheaper to fly to/from Fort Lauderdale since you can fly on Spirit. If you don’t need to bring anything other than a small bag, you’ll save over $90 by flying Spirit.
These prices also assume that you are booking in advance. If this is more of a last-minute trip, airfare is going to be higher. I ran these same searches just a few days out. Prices to Fort Luaderdale almost doubled. Prices to Miami were almost $450. Brightline’s prices were exactly the same. Thus, this is definitely a great alternative for those last minute getaways when you decide you’d like a little change of scenery.
Delays
Florida is known for thunderstorms and with those storms come flight delays and cancellations. While no method of transportation is 100% perfect, Brightline doesn’t have to worry about storms, the flight crew being stuck somewhere else or back up on the tarmac. You can expect Brightline trains to run on time and to get you to your destination on time.
Amtrak
I didn’t include Amtrak here because I just don’t see this as a valid option for visitors. While significantly cheaper than Brightline, you’re looking at six to eight hours and that’s without any significant delays. Amtrak is famous for their delays since they have to share their tracks with freight rail.
Conclusion
I’m a big fan of going to one city and visiting another. It’s a great way to create a two-for-one trip. This is more common in Europe but not so much here in the U.S. Perhaps that’s due to the lack of quality mass-transit. While Amtrak connects cities across the U.S., the trains can be slow and delays are common.
With Brightline’s new service to Orlando, visitors to Florida now have an opportunity to take a quick trip to Orlando or South Florida without breaking the bank. While taking a quick flight has always been an option, flight delays, costs for baggage and going through airport security can make this an unattractive option. While taking a quick day trip or overnight trip may not be for everyone, this could be a great way of seeing more of Florida in one trip.
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