By Andrew Corselli, Managing Editor, Railway Age Magazine; December 3, 2019
According to a report from the Associated Press, Brightline and its higher-speed Florida trains boast the highest U.S. death rate.
Brightline—recently acquired by Virgin Group—trains travel at speeds upwards of 79 mph through some of Florida’s most densely populated cities; a full-speed Brightline train takes a quarter-mile to stop. The first death occurred in July 2017 during test runs, and, since then, 40 more people have been killed—a rate of more than one death per month, or one death per 29,000 miles traveled, according to the AP, making it the worst per-mile death rate of the 821 U.S. railroads. Brightline trains officially launched in January 2018.