Brightline Train Florida Review: Universal Studios to Fort Lauderdale

The United States finally has high-speed rail! Well, sort of, kind of, not really. It goes about half the speed of the bullet trains in other regions of the world.

But I’ll take it. It’s a start.

In fact, I went drastically out of my to test it out.

In January 2024, My girlfriend and I took the new Brightline Train from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale to catch a direct flight from FLL down to Perú. This South America trip is part of our ongoing Urban Backpacking adventures.

Why were we in Orlando? Well, I got my girlfriend tickets to Universal Studios for her birthday (she just finished reading the Harry Potter books for the time.)

But between you and me, half the reason for this was to give me an excuse to check out this train.

Here’s my full review, from leaving the hotel in Orlando until we got to our terminal at the Fort Lauderdale airport. We got the regular base fare. Nothing fancy.

From Universal’s Resort to the Orlando Airport

The Brightline station in Orlando is at Terminal C of the airport. First, we had to figure out how to get there.

I’m starting my review here and not with the train itself because with transit no single piece of infrastructure exists in a vacuum.

Once a train or plane brings you to a city, you still have to get to where you’re going. Usually, this works in favor of trains, because they often go to city centers, whereas airports typically on the outskirts. Since the Brightline Orlando station is at the airport, that wasn’t the case here.

This means the local transit options will play a big role in the overall, point-to-point experience. I’m sad to admit that Orlando’s public transit didn’t help Brightline’s case.

We stayed at Universal’s Endless Summer Resort. In retrospect, this was a great decision because when you stay at Universal’s hotels, you get early access to the park. This is KEY because you want to be first in line for Hagrid’s ride, which is by far the best one in the Wizarding World parks. Anyway, I digress.

Orlando is a mess of suburban sprawl, Which Means Getting to the Station on Transit isn’t easy.

There’s no rail, and buses are definitely only used by those who don’t have cars. Well, I suppose the Hogwarts Express is rail, probably the most profitable piece of rail infrastructure in the whole country, but I can’t count that.

Fortunately, an 8-minute walk from the hotel we caught a direct bus to the airport. The downside is it took an hour and only came every 30 minutes, even at peak times.

An Uber or Lyft would’ve taken 25 minutes, or more with traffic (remember, it’s a mess of suburban sprawl), and would’ve cost $40 after tip.

So we took the $2 bus. This means our adventure to the Fort Lauderdale airport began early.

Taking The Bus

The Orlando bus was like most US buses in mid-sized and big cities. It stopped a lot but got us there. It came infrequently (every 30 minutes at peak, every 60 the rest of the day) but if you plan for it’s no big deal. I journaled and read on the bus, so I was happy as a clam and felt like I could relax for a bit.

When we got to the airport, we then had to take the inter-terminal tram, which was about a 15-minute trip including walking to the train station.

Including the walk to the bus, waiting for it, and walking to the Brightline, it was a 90-minute trip from Universal to the Brightline station.

The big takeaway here is the reminder that Brightline will be more appealing once Orlando, West Palm Beach, and Miami improve transit in their cities. Hopefully, the Brightline will spur demand for improvements.

High-speed rail partially succeeds in places like Barcelona and Madrid because when you get off the train, it’s connected to world-class metro systems. Florida’s Brightline doesn’t have that advantage.

Cost matters a lot here too. In Madrid and Barcelona, it’s only the additional price of a metro ticket to go to and from the train. In this case, the option was a $40, 30 min Uber, damn near the price of the train itself, or a $2, one-hour bus ride. At that point, many might think, “I might as well drive.”

But, let’s not let perfection be the enemy of progress.

The Waiting Area

We got to the station about 30 minutes before our departure time. There’s a quick security check before you go into the Brightline waiting area, but it’s no TSA. No need to take shoes off or any of that crap.

After security, the waiting area had everything we could have hoped for. It had comfortable seating for working with plenty of outlets and good wifi.

There’s a bar with coffee, alcoholic drinks, reasonably-priced sandwiches, and more. I got myself a green tea for $3, so they don’t crush you on prices.

Think of the waiting area like a decent coffee/co-working space plus an airport bar.

Decent stuff, Brightline.

Fortunately, unlike flying, we only needed to get there a few minutes before, so weren’t there long.

I can’t tell you anything about the premium lounge, but it looked bougie from the outside.

The Train Experience

The train experience itself was about as good as the high-speed trains I’ve taken in Europe. Minus, of course, its relatively modest speed. It hits up to 125 miles per hour compared to 200mph for true high-speed trains.

The Key Points

• It came on time
• Lots of legroom and wide seats
• It has ample outlets, but between seats and by your feet.
• HUGE tray tables. My favorite part.
• Functional wifi

Wifi and Working on the train

I had a super productive three hours on the train. One of the beauties of taking trains, thanks to the comfort and the wifi, is you get the time back. Even if driving were faster, I wouldn’t do it. I don’t want to lose half of a workday, and I don’t want to deal with the stress of driving.

I wouldn’t trust the wifi for calls, but for browsing and other work I had no issues at all.

All of the attendants were super nice. I have sympathy for flight attendants because you can often tell on their faces they’re burnt out and overworked. These people working at Brightline seemed like they actually slept well at night.

I got through most of my work on the train. The day was won.

Brightline Legroom

It’s about on par with the Amtrak for legroom. Obviously, it exceeds flying in economy.

Food on The Brightline Train

The food was okay. It was expensive, not that big of a portion and really not that good. I got an egg salad sandwich for $12. I recommend eating at the station over the train itself, for sure. Next time I would bring my own lunch.

Next time, I will get the premium and report back.

Here’s the menu from our “smart” (basically regular coach/economy) seats.

The Brightline Bathroom

It’s definitely better than the cramped bathrooms on planes and the Amtrak.

From Fort Lauderdale’s Station to the Airport

When we got to the train station in Fort Lauderdale, next we needed to get to the airport.

We had lots of time before our flight, so we decided to stay at the Brightline station in Fort Lauderdale for about an hour to finish up all our work. The Fort Lauderdale Brightline station had all the same amenities and comfort.

Again, we run into the discussion of the transit infrastructure to get from the station to where you need to go.

At this station, Brightline has a $10 per person shuttle to the Fort Lauderdale airport. But the station is next to Fort Lauderdale’s main bus terminal, so we took a direct bus for $2.

While a 15-minute drive, including the airport terminal bus it took us 30 minutes to get to our terminal. Not bad. Better than Orlando.

Overall Experience: Is It Better Than Flying or Driving?

I think it’s clearly better than flying.

Benefits of The Brightline Over Flying

• No TSA. Hooray for liquids over 100ml!
• No getting there hours early, which ultimatley makes the travel time the same.
• No paying for wifi that you can only use once you’re in the air anyway. It’s useless for short flights.
• No tiny foods trays that don’t even fit your laptop.

Benefits of The Brightline Over Driving

Point to point, it’s about the same time as driving depending on the traffic.

However, the key point here is you get your time back and don’t deal with the stress of driving.

If it’s a rental, no sitting at the airport rental desk. If it’s your car, no dealing with parking.

Total Cost Comparison

The costs between the three are also in the same ballpark. I paid $59 for a ticket plus $4 in buses so $63 per person from Universal’s hotel to the Fort Lauderdale airport. With two of us, getting a rental would’ve been cheaper, but not by much.

Rental car costs vary, but for a day from different points let’s say $75 + $20 in gas. Conservatively that’s $95. Cheaper for two people, but more expensive for one.

but I didn’t have to take any time off work. Looking at it this way and knowing what I value my time at, it was a better financial investment.

I’ll also say here briefly, that the costs of driving in the US are wildly subsidized. Our roads are continuously paid with tax dollars and our gas prices are artificially lowered thanks to the billions in subsidies we give to oil companies. Not to mention, the lengths we go to work with petro-states with questionable human rights records, and the even further lengths our military goes to extract oil. All of that is disgusting. So even if you’re not footing the full cost of driving, your tax dollars (and more) are. Plus, the human rights and war stuff. To me, that means if I have the choice to take the train, I will.

Flying costs vary widely, but if you’re checking a bag you won’t get it that cheap.

Even if you only have a carry-on (and remember, airlines often charge you these days for overhead space), you’ll be hard-pressed to get something much cheaper than $63 point to point including transit from the airport.

All told, I believe Brightline is the best option. For me at least, it definitely is.

Climate Benefits: The Extinction of Orlando to Miami Area Flights

The airline industry is going to be one of the last to decarbonize. This is covered excellently in the book Flying Green: On The Frontiers of Aviation.

Couple this with the massive amount of emissions flying causes, and any alternatives to flying will be big wins. In fact, countries like France have moved to ban short flights, which few people complain about because their high-speed rail is so effective. In my opinion, building rail to compete with these short flights is a no-brainer.

It’s a better experience and it’s better for the environment.

Will Orlando to Miami and Fort Lauderdale flights go extinct? Probably not, but they should. (With that said, Palm Beach to Miami flights absolutely should go exist. They’re only an hour and ten minutes apart on the Brightline now.)

The fact that the Orlando Brightline station is at the airport means it can more directly compete against flights. While this is typically not ideal for train stations, in this case it makes sense because of Orlando’s sprawl. The “city center” isn’t the main destination in Orlando, and there isn’t good transit expanding out, so I guess the airport is as good as any spot.

Flight Comparison: Florida vs SPain

Orlando and Miami are 245 miles apart driving. Madrid and Valencia are 223 miles apart. There are only two nonstop flights between the latter per day, with trains coming all day long every few minutes. The train is the ubiquitous preferred method. For these Florida cities, I’m counting 17 flights on a random day in February.

It’s no surprise that we see so many of the proposed rail projects tailored towards these short busy routes.

First, there’s clearly an existing market for it already. It’s also the right distance where trains have more advantages. Over longer distances, planes make more and more sense.

The California High-Speed project aims to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco. Brightline West will connect LA to Las Vegas.

Amtrak’s busiest and most profitable routes are in the northeast corridor. There’s a huge demand for more rail between DC and Boston, passing of course through Philly and NYC.

For more on the next intercity train in the US to be built, this video from City Nerd is an excellent overview.

Should You Take It?

Of course, I’ll say yes. But who cares what I think, because it’s not my community. I was a tourist going from one of Florida’s tourist traps. I think the success of this transit project, like most, depends on the community it is in.

Will Floridians Use It?

Will people take it from West Palm Beach to Miami (about 50 minutes on the train) instead of driving?

These are the people who could use it regularly instead of commuting by car. It takes cars off the road, thereby alleviating some traffic, and gives these commuters their time back as well as likely dropping their cortisol levels by a few points.

I like to think they would, just like people in the New York metro area take the Metro North, NJ Transit, and Long Island Railroad instead of driving.

Based on my preliminary Reddit research, some locals love it.

Time will tell whether it succeeds.

My experience suggests Brightline needs support from the local transit authorities. It’s also possible that dense urban housing, as happens when we build trains, will form around these stations. That’s because there’s now more incentive to live within walking distance of, for example, the Fort Meyers station. You could commute to Miami car-free.

This was part of the inspiration behind building the NYC Subway in previously undeveloped areas. The presence of the station led to dense, walkable urban fabric built around it.

I believe if it’s only used by tourists like me without local buy-in, adoption, and subsequent improvements in surrounding infrastructure, it won’t achieve its potential.

With that said, I do think it will succeed, despite its imperfections. It’s a great step for the US in helping us move away from complete car and plane dependency.

Brightline Florida Train Experience FAQ

Brightline themselves are a better place to go for a lot of info, but I’ll give some specific to my experience.

Should You Book Way Ahead of Time?

In Spain, I know lots of people just show up to the train station and get the ticket there. That’s because they run every few minutes and the price may be more expensive but not drastically so.

I wouldn’t recommend doing that here. First, they run every hour during the day. Which is actually really good for the U.S! But still, you don’t want to get there and wait for 55 minutes. You might as well plan which train to get.

I booked about a month out and got a good price. So I’d view more like buying a flight than like getting on a metro train.

Can you bring bags on the train?

Yes! And it doesn’t cost extra like flying.

DO you have to go through security at the station?

There’s a quick security check that you put your bag in. It takes two minutes and it not at all like TSA. It’s more like when you go to a concert or sports game.

How Early Should I Get to the Station?

You can get there two minutes before if you like to live on the edge. (I actually did this on my second Brightline trip.) Typically, though, I’m a 20-minute-early-to-the-train-kind-of-guy. As they say, if you’re 5 minutes early, you’re 15 minutes late.

Can you Get to the Brightline Stations on transit?

Yes, you can, but it’s not always so easy. It Miami it is, as it’s right downtown and connected to Metro Mover.

In Fort Lauderdale, the station is at the cities largest bus station, so there are buses that can take you everywhere, including the airport.

The Aventura, West Palm Beach, and Orlando stations all have buses that serve them nearby, but they won’t be the most convenient option.

More on Transit

My Amtrak Roomette Review: Overnight From Pittsburgh to Chicago

Newsletter: I’m a Slut for Public Transit

Urban Backpacking: 49 Tips for Long-Term City Travel

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