The Trump administration on Monday announced it is committing $42 million to address safety concerns along the Brightline route, as officials respond to the train’s record as the deadliest major passenger railroad in the nation.
U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the agency is releasing funding for four grants that had first been announced under the Biden administration but were lacking finalized agreements.
At a July congressional committee meeting, one day after the Miami Herald and WLRN published an investigation revealing that more than 180 people have been struck and killed by Brightline trains, Duffy addressed the issue after U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat, called the high fatality rate a “crisis.”
There have been “way too many deaths,” Duffy said at the time, adding that “we have to try to get that number to zero.”
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In Monday’s announcement, Duffy attributed delays in the release of funds to an “unprecedented backlog” of grants under the Biden administration that he said put the public at risk.
“Their failure to execute on these rail grants — some of which stretch back years — put Brightline’s three million annual passengers and Florida communities in unnecessary danger,” Duffy said.
In a statement, Brightline applauded the federal government’s recent efforts.
“We commend Sec. Duffy and this administration on working diligently to accelerate the distribution of these funds to address safety projects and are proud to partner with agencies including FDOT,” Brightline vice president of operations Michael Lefevre said.
Rep. Wilson also praised the release of the federal funds, calling it “a critical step toward saving lives and preventing the devastating collisions between trains and pedestrians.” In a statement to the Herald, she said she’s “long advocated for stronger safety measures, including more fencing, improved crossing delineators, and investing in the necessary infrastructure to keep our communities safe.”
The four grants that have now been “obligated,” meaning the government has committed to disbursing the money, include $25 million in federal funds that were originally announced in August 2022. Those funds will pay for critical safety measures like 33 miles of protective fencing and landscaping at trespassing hotspots, warning markings at rail crossings and 168 crisis-support signs meant to address people who are suicidal.
In an interview with the Herald/WLRN in May, Amit Bose, who led the Federal Railroad Administration under President Biden from 2022 until this past January, said the $25 million award wasn’t quite finalized during his tenure despite a “sense of urgency.”
“That was just one particular grant that didn’t reach the finish line,” Bose said. “I know it was very close to reaching the finish line.”
The Florida Department of Transportation and Brightline have each committed an additional $10 million for the measures. Construction is expected in 2026, U.S. Department of Transportation spokesman Nate Sizemore said.
In an application for the grant, officials predicted the enhancements would help avoid about 146 crashes and 95 deaths over 20 years.
Since August 2022, when the grant was announced, 108 people have been struck and killed by Brightline trains, according to the Herald/WLRN’s analysis of federal and local fatality records. Many others were struck and injured, but survived.
The vast majority of those killed were in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, and most were pedestrians with access to open, unfenced tracks. Brightline, which began service in South Florida in 2018 and now runs from Miami to Orlando, travels just feet away from major highways like U.S. 1.
Brightline has attributed each death to someone breaking the law by walking or driving onto the tracks and disregarding gates and warning signs. The company has not been found liable for any fatalities.
The Herald/WLRN investigation compared Brightline to other passenger trains in the U.S. and found it stands out because it runs at high speeds almost entirely at street level through densely populated areas.
Funding for quiet zones, A.I., trespassing enforcement
The grant funding announced Monday includes more than $15 million to add gate arms and delineators at 21 Brightline crossings in Broward County, an award that was first publicized in June 2023. The funding is intended to address a spike in deaths within the county’s “quiet zone” — where trains are not required to sound their horns except in emergency situations — that prompted a rare federal review.
Another grant, for $1.6 million, will help Brightline use an A.I. monitoring system to track trespassing activity. It was first announced in September 2023. Cameras at the front of Brightline trains will collect data “which will be used to develop and train an A.I. model to identify unsafe behaviors around the corridor,” the company said at the time. “This information will empower Brightline to more accurately identify areas for additional community outreach, law enforcement presence, or engineering projects.”
An additional grant for up to $150,000 will cover overtime pay for the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office to enforce pedestrian trespassing laws along the rails.
Since test runs began in 2017, Brightline trains have struck and killed 185 people, reporters found. Brightline is the deadliest major passenger train in the U.S. based on deaths per million miles traveled.
So far this year, 22 people have been killed in Brightline strikes. The most recent was 83-year-old Eleanora Mitchell, who police said drove onto the tracks in Rockledge on Sept. 12.
Many of the pedestrian deaths involved people who tried to beat the train or didn’t notice it until it was too late.
On Sept. 2 in North Miami Beach, a homeless 57-year-old named Holly Eckert died as she tried to cross the tracks. The train conductor told police that he blew the horn but hit her at full speed, 79 miles an hour.
“The female was carrying several cardboard boxes and appeared to be trying to outrun the train,” police wrote after viewing video from inside the train’s cab.
A significant number of Brightline deaths — about 42 percent — have been ruled suicides.
The first Brightline death, on July 24, 2017, was 18-year-old Madison “Maddie” Brunelle, who struggled with her mental health. Her death was ruled a suicide.
Her mother, Amy Brunelle, told reporters earlier this year that signage and fencing to help deter vulnerable people like her daughter should have been installed long ago.
“I don’t understand why there’s a delay. I don’t get it,” she said. “Would it have alleviated all these tragic deaths? No. But it probably would have prevented quite a few. And now we’ve got all these families in Florida that are dealing with the death of loved ones.”
