A Slice of Life
Bill Lites
Prolog
To give you a little background on the Brightline High-Speed train in Florida; it is said to be the only privately owned and operated inter-city passenger railroad in the United States. Planning for the development of this inter-city route began way back in March 2012. Construction on the first leg of the route (Miami to West Palm Beach) began in 2014 and passenger service was inaugurated in 2018. Phase-2 of the inter-city plan (West Palm Beach to Orlando) began around 2018 with use of some segments of the existing Florida East Coast (FEC) railroad track system, and passenger service for that leg of the route started in 2023. I’ve heard that the ultimate goal of the Brightline system will include passenger service connecting the now operating, Miami to Orlando leg, with connecting legs to the Tampa/St. Petersburg area sometime in the not-to-distant future.
Photo Credit: wikipedia.org/wiki/Brightline#/media/File:BrightLine
I have been waiting all these years for Phase-2 of the Brightline high-speed train route, from Orlando to West Palm Beach, to be completed so I could take a ride on that train. Then on New Year’s Day, January 1, 2024 I got my chance. I guess Brightline was afraid that the holiday might not produce the mass of travelers they needed to keep revenues steady (or some other reason) and they offered ½-price tickets for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. I jumped on that offer and my son, Billy, and I bought our New Year’s Day e-tickets for a day-trip from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale and return on-line.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
When I researched the Brightline airport parking at Terminal ‘C’, the directions seemed a little confusing to me, with all the new construction going on at the airport, so I chose to use the Wally Park off-site parking. I purchased a one-day car reservation on-line so I wouldn’t have to worry about parking at the airport. I Goggled the Wally Park address, near the Orlando Airport so I could enter it into my Waze that would take me right to it on New Year’s Day morning.
Photo Credit: Bill Lites
So, now I was all set, and looking forward to that grand adventure with my son, Billy. I’ll be telling you all about our experiences, beginning next week here on “All Things R New” with my blog called “My Brightline Train Trip Part 1.” So, stay tuned for all the fun.
—–To Be Continued—–
Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 65 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing. He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville. Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.
One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is: John 10:10
Old Things R New 