Long-anticipated passenger rail service between Orlando and Miami was inaugurated Friday (Sept. 22) with the arrival of ‘Bright Pink,’ the first Brightline train, in the central Florida city. The inaugural service is the first privately funded passenger rail service over a century.

Brightline launched operations in South Florida in 2018, connecting Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach. Stations in Boca Raton and Aventura opened last year. It now covers 400 km between Miami and Orlando and the new route takes between 3 and 3.5 hours depending on South Florida station stops.

Construction on its US$6 billion 275-km extension from West Palm Beach to Orlando began in 2019. Construction teams worked for four years to complete the project. A further leg is expected to continue on to Tampa.

On Saturday, Bright Pink, arrived in Orlando at 11:05 a.m. and was greeted by more than 500 elected officials, business leaders, community partners and company leaders from across the state.

A decade in the making, the project has revitalized Henry Flagler’s original vision for the Florida East Coast Railway and promises the potential of reenergizing train travel across the US, offering a blueprint to connect city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive.