By Mary Hladky
The number of commuters using Brightline continues to slide downward, exacerbated by the company’s decision to eliminate on June 1 a reduced-fare monthly trip pass.
While long-haul ridership to and from Orlando sets records, short-haul riders dropped from 149,536 in June 2023 to 84,062 this June. In July, they fell to 76,907, according to Brightline’s ridership and revenue reports to bondholders.
Brightline’s prioritizing long-haulers has prompted commuter complaints — and raised questions about whether the rail line’s Boca Raton station actually is the economic boon to the city that its leaders expected.
City officials, however, want residents to know that Brightline is not letting the city down.
“Brightline is a catalyst that has allowed us to re-envision” part of downtown, Mayor Scott Singer said at an Aug. 26 Community Redevelopment Agency meeting. Its benefits should be measured in years and decades rather than short periods of time, he said.
“To say Brightline is a failure is a completely inaccurate statement,” said Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker.
“Brightline certainly is not a failure,” said Council member Marc Wigder, adding that it creates opportunity for the city.
City Manager George Brown agreed. “We are very fortunate to have it here,” he said. “It is being used.”
Singer aggressively lobbied Brightline officials to build a station in Boca Raton. Council members agreed to a long-term lease of 1.8 acres of city-owned land to the rail line for $1 per year where the station now sits and paid the $10 million cost of a parking garage.
Brightline does not release ridership information for each of its stations, so it’s not possible to know if fewer people are traveling to and from Boca. But it seems likely that if fewer commuters are using it, that affects the city.
Another problem commuters have faced, in addition to higher fares, is that Brightline’s overall ridership has grown to the point that often there are not enough seats for all who want to ride.
Brightline now says it will be getting new passenger cars soon that will increase the number of cars per train to five from four.
Regardless of any uncertainty, the Brightline station remains key to the city’s plan to create a transit-oriented community (TOC) for the area around the station and the adjacent 30 acres of city-owned property where City Hall and the Police Department now sit.
The idea is to allow for residential, retail, entertainment and recreation, as well as city functions, in the TOC. The city also anticipates a public-private partnership with a developer that would bear at least some of the cost of redevelopment.
Council members are now figuring out exactly what they want to see in the TOC.
CRA chair Fran Nachlas asked her colleagues on Aug. 26 what each envisions.
They offered general ideas that have been floated before, but no concrete plans.
Singer wanted residential, office, retail, restaurants and great landscaping “to create a vibrant district,” along with a new City Hall and Police Department. Others generally agreed with that.
He also suggested building affordable housing for city employees to help attract and retain them.
“I have a very open mind on what the campus should look like. That extends to where things go,” Council member Andy Thomson said. But city employees need a new City Hall to replace the crumbling, 60-year-old existing one, he said.
Singer and Nachlas said they, too, are open-minded.
“Everything is on the table,” Singer said.
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