Virgin Trains, formerly Brightline, first began service in January 2018 offering a stress-free, car-free way to travel around South Florida. This past June it celebrated its latest milestone — one million riders.
One million residents and visitors have turned to Virgin Trains over the past year to access the best of South Florida — with stops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach — with riders using the service for both business and leisure. Among corporate customers, the legal industry leads the charge in terms of total rides, followed by real estate, technology, hospitality and finance.
“This milestone shows the demand for new ways to travel and the need for greater connectivity in South Florida and other areas of the country.” said Patrick Goddard, Virgin Trains president. “While we’re still in the adoption phase, our inaugural year showed great promise and tremendous opportunity to reinvent passenger rail in America.”
One million rides not only delivered significant time and cost savings to passengers this past year but also a positive sustainable environmental and economic impact to the communities where Virgin Trains currently operates. From 2018 to 2019, one million rides roughly translated to:
• 400,000 less car trips on the road (average party size of 2.5 passengers);
• Reduction of 15 million pounds of CO2 emissions;
• 750,000 less fuel gallons on the road, representing roughly $2 million in savings, and
• Cumulative time savings of 76 years (each passenger saved an average of 40 minutes by choosing rail over highway).
Virgin Trains initiated service in January 2018 and full service between all three stations launched in May 2018. The company has experienced a steady ramp up in ridership comparable to other passenger rail lines around the world.
