BOCA RATON, Fla. — Daily train travel is on the rise in Boca Raton, proof that the demand for rail service across Florida is growing.
Brightline says new federal funding will finally bring long-delayed safety upgrades to its South Florida corridor.
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Riders like Sofia Savino say the service has become part of their daily routine.
“I travel a lot to Orlando because my sister lives up there. It’s super easy don’t have to get stuck in traffic,” Savino said.
According to Brightline, ridership across Palm Beach County has increased over the past year. The company plans to expand its Boca Raton schedule from 19 daily trips to 28.
“We’ve seen a lot of demand and a lot of growth from the Boca residents and the Boca market,” a Brightline representative said.
Brightline said in a statement announcing the network expansion that 80% of South Florida trains and 90% of Orlando-bound trains include a Boca Raton stop.
But as ridership climbs, so does the need for safety. Since Brightline began operating in Florida in 2018, more than 100 people have died in train-related incidents.
Company officials say $42 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT)- funding that had been backlogged since 2022- will be used to address critical rail safety projects.
The grant will go toward four major projects, including the following: fencing, signage, new technology, and enforcement programs in Palm Beach County. Here is the full list of projects according to Brightline:
- A grant for $24,934,138 announced in August 2022 to the Florida Department of Transportation for improvements to 330 highway-railroad crossings, along 195 miles of corridor, including fencing, crossing delineators, crisis support signage and other intrusion prevention mitigations.
- A grant for $1,648,000 was announced in September 2023 for a Trespassing Identification and Classification System under the CRISI Grant Program for FY22. The project will advance a technology that will provide real-time alerts and aggregate data to generate heat maps of trespassing and potential collision events on the Florida East Coast Railway right of way from Miami to Cocoa.
- A grant for $15,440,000 was announced in June 2023 to increase safety at 21 grade crossings along the Brightline/Florida East Coast Railway corridor with additional crossing gates and delineators.
- A grant for up to $150,000 was announced in October 2024 for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to support overtime costs for targeted enforcement of pedestrian trespassing at identified hot spots.
Ashley Blasewitz, director of media relations for Brightline, said the company is prioritizing education and prevention.
Every one of these instances is tragic, but they’re also preventable,” Blasewitz said. “Making sure that the education, enforcement, and engineering solutions are in place — and letting people know they cannot beat the train, to stay behind the white line, to obey the safety protocols — is one of our top priorities.”
