Virgin Trains USA, the company planning a $3.1 billion express passenger service between Orlando and Miami, has yet to tell Brevard County officials how it will make local tracks and crossings safe enough for speeds up to 110 mph.
“We were informed more than two years ago they would provide us with final plans (by December) showing the requirements and all they were going to install,” Brevard County government spokesman Don Walker said last week.
“That was two Decembers ago, and we’re heading into our third December and, to date, have seen nothing,” he added.
And that’s a common complaint heard by state Sen. Debbie Mayfield (R-Melbourne) as she tries to make sure Virgin keeps its word and makes the new service as safe as possible.
Officials in Indian River County, Brevard’s southern neighbor, are also trying to get final plans for track and crossing improvements, records show.
And Virgin is anticipated to start work there later this year, with the company saying construction is “imminent.” The target completion date for the entire Miami to Orlando run is three years.
“They keep sending plans they say are complete,” Mayfield said. “But when the local government questions (the lack of detail), they are told that set of plans is incomplete.”
Virgin Trains USA wasn’t ready last week to respond to Mayfield’s concerns. Company Vice President Rusty Roberts couldn’t be reached. And Michael Hicks, a new corporate spokesman, said he didn’t know yet when the company would be improving tracks and crossings in Brevard County.
“I still have the 30,000-foot view,” Hicks said of the larger picture. “I haven’t get gotten into the nitty-gritty.”
Company officials were excited in the meantime, he said, by breaking ground for its terminal at the Orlando International Airport. Virgin Trains are already running between Miami and West Palm Beach, with a stop in Fort Lauderdale.
Mayfield said her safety concerns are based on Virgin Trains already seeing 19 deaths since May 2018, when it started its first-phase passenger rail service on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks through communities and downtowns in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Virgin officials have protested that those victims were trespassers at fault for trying to cross the tracks. But Mayfield said Virgin hasn’t installed enough fencing or other obstacles to keep them off the tracks.
The goal of Virgin Trains – previously known as All Aboard Florida and then Brightline – is to offer 16 round trips per day between Miami and Orlando to connect the state’s top tourist destinations.
That’s 32 train trips a day. And to meet the company’s promise of about 3 hours one way – as an alternative to frequently congested Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike – Virgin Trains will have stops only in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Orlando.
Brevard and other counties along the way have demanded stops as well, but Virgin Trains officials have said they will need to see ridership figures first. The more local stops, the less the ability to meet the 3-hour promise.
Meanwhile, the FEC Railway will continue running about 20 freight trains per day on the tracks.
And that calls for adding a second track from West Palm Beach to Cocoa for the passenger service, and laying new tracks along State Road 528 between Cocoa and Orlando.
One frustration for Mayfield is a gap in state regulations for higher speed trains (80-110 mph) such as Virgin Trains’ proposed service. Trains going slower than 80 mph are regulated, as are those going faster than 110 mph. This was spelled out in an Oct. 31 report by the Office of Public Policy Analysis & Government Accountability.
Requiring fencing along the tracks in populated areas is among the regulations FDOT could consider, the reports says.
Mayfield said she wants state Transportation Secretary Kevin J. Thibault to take more responsibility for the 80-110 mph trains. She held off filing a bill for the 2019 session, giving Thibault some slack, since Gov. Ron DeSantis had only appointed him in January. But she’s filing that bill for the 2020 session, she said.
In an exchange of letters in April, Mayfield questioned why Thibault has been reluctant to require fencing along the new track. The Oct. 31 report had said fencing could save lives.
“The (FDOT) currently does not set requirements for fencing and has concerns that this action would be subject to issues with legal authority for right of way and private property ownership,” Thibault responded.
Thibault didn’t wholeheartedly embrace her concerns, Mayfield said. “But this bill will make sure he is more embracing,” she added.
Staff writer George Andreassi contributed to this report.
