The nation’s top transportation official committed this week to making the Brightline corridor safer, saying there have been “way too many deaths.”
His remarks came the day after the Miami Herald and WLRN, South Florida’s NPR station, published a joint investigation revealing that Brightline trains have killed 182 people since beginning test runs in 2017 — averaging one death every 13 days of service.
“We have to try to get that number to zero,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday at a congressional committee meeting.
Duffy was responding to U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat, who said the Herald/WLRN investigation highlighted the need for “stronger rail safety commitments in South Florida.”
Even now, years after launching, Brightline lacks basic safety improvements, reporters found. The nation’s only privately owned city-to-city passenger rail has blamed victims for the high death rate and turned to the public to pay for safety upgrades. Federal authorities have been slow to release money earmarked for safety. And local officials have balked at closing dangerous crossings while banning trains from blowing their horns as they approach them. As a result, Brightline remains the deadliest major passenger rail in America.
“This is a distinction that I want to end,” Wilson said, calling the high fatality rate a “crisis.”
Brightline runs between Miami and Orlando and through Wilson’s congressional district. It travels through densely populated areas on tracks that are at the same level as streets and sidewalks.
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“The death of almost 200 people by one train is unconscionable and is definitely unacceptable,” the congresswoman said in a statement Thursday to the Herald/WLRN. “Brightline needs more transparency and is on the brink of a cease-and-desist order from the citizens of Florida. Enough is enough.”
Wilson said she remembers riding Brightline with transportation committee members on a test run in January 2018 and learning that later that day, the train struck and killed a 32-year-old woman. It was ruled an accident. Brightline launched its service the next day.
“We cannot place the full burden of these tragedies on the victims,” Wilson said.
Brightline has not been found at fault for any of the deaths, most of which involved people on foot. Company officials have consistently said that the dead recklessly put themselves in harm’s way.
In a statement Thursday, the company said it appreciated Wilson’s “support of our safety efforts.”
The company said it had spent “more than 15 hours” with Herald/WLRN reporters as they reported the story, conveying that “safety is Brightline’s top priority, and we have invested millions of dollars, countless hours on education programs, initiatives with law enforcement agencies and played a leadership role on this issue.” The company did not dispute the findings.
The Herald/WLRN team reported the previously unknown death toll on Tuesday, outlining risks along the Brightline corridor that make it more dangerous than other rail systems. Among them: “quiet zones” where the train doesn’t blow a horn; miles of open track that are easily accessible to pedestrians; busy streets carrying traffic across the tracks; and a road layout that allows cars to queue up onto the tracks, trapping drivers in the path of a train.
Brightline shares two sets of parallel tracks with much slower freight trains, sometimes coming from opposite directions at the same time. Reports from local medical examiner offices and police show some victims were caught by surprise by the speedy, quiet Brightline.
At Wednesday’s meeting of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Wilson didn’t say the name Brightline, but Duffy knew.
“In regard to Brightline, I think, is what you’re referring to,” the transportation secretary said. “ ... It’s a big story in regard to just people not following traffic signs. There’s some suicides, and there’s accidents, as well. And I commit to working with you to drive down the number of deaths, making investments along that line. I’d welcome that opportunity.”
Wilson, a ranking member of the committee, said she’ll follow up with Duffy. She urged an “all-of-the above approach,” including more federal funding for safety improvements and for the closure of railroad crossings, installing fencing and adding four gates at crossings to more effectively prevent drivers from getting across the tracks when a train is coming.
U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat who represents a deadly span of the Brightline corridor in Palm Beach County, said running fast trains through densely populated areas presents safety challenges, which is why federal funding can help.
“Rail travel helps reduce automobile traffic,” she said in a written statement Thursday, responding to the Herald/WLRN investigation. “With that said, this report highlights the need to do more to better protect people along the route.”
It remains to be seen how Duffy’s support will translate to programs, policy or funding. A Republican and appointee of President Donald Trump, Duffy was sworn in this year to lead the U.S. Department of Transportation. He is a former Wisconsin representative who entered Congress in 2011, the same year Wilson did.
The Federal Railroad Administration, which falls under Duffy’s Department of Transportation, has authority over local quiet zones where train horns are silenced, offers grant funding for safety upgrades and was integral in setting safety standards for Brightline.
At the end of May, Duffy approved the release of a long-awaited grant that will pay for 33 miles of protective fencing and landscaping along Florida’s Brightline tracks, warning markings at crossings and crisis-support signs for people who are suicidal. Under terms of the grant, Brightline will spend $10 million, while federal and state governments will spend a combined $35 million. In June, he approved a Broward-specific $15.4 million grant for rail safety improvements along the Florida East Coast (FEC) tracks that Brightline shares with the freight line.
Duffy’s personal experience could play a role in his decision making. He, his wife and eight of their children were aboard an Amtrak train that crashed into a trash truck in Virginia in January 2018. The truck had evaded the gates. One man in the truck died, and others were injured.
“It’s also hard if you’re on a train where someone loses their life,” he said at Wednesday’s meeting. “It’s horrible, for everybody involved.”
