News

The walls and roof were added to Brightline’s Boca Raton station in June as construction continued next to the Downtown Library. Crews were also reconstructing the train crossing on Northwest Second Street, a project scheduled to be finished on July

By Mary Hladky

With the Boca Raton Brightline station expected to open in December, the city soon will begin work to make the streets to and from the station and downtown more attractive and pedestrian and bicycle friendly.
Brightline originally wante

As Brightline works to build its Boca Raton station, railroad crossing reconstructions near the station site east of the Downtown Library will cause road closures and detours in June.
The Florida East Coast Railway crossing at Palmetto Park Road will

By Mary Hladky

Steve Abrams intends to resign as executive director of Tri-Rail following controversy over construction defects that delayed the commuter railroad’s extension of operations into downtown Miami.
Tri-Rail has long planned to run trains i

By Mary Hladky

Mayor Scott Singer is hitting the pause button on his idea to bring in Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. to build underground tunnels to transport people around town.
Singer first raised the possibility in May as Miami Mayor Frank Suarez and F

City Council members Yvette Drucker (l-r), Andy Thomson, Monica Mayotte, Andrea O’Rourke, Mayor Scott Singer, Brightline President Patrick Goddard and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch shovel ceremonial dirt on Jan. 25 at the site of the new train station next to

City Council members Yvette Drucker (l-r), Andy Thomson, Monica Mayotte, Andrea O'Rourke, Mayor Scott Singer, Brightline President Patrick Goddard and U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch shovel ceremonial dirt on Jan. 25 at the site of the new train station next to

By Mary Hladky

Two years after ecstatic City Council members approved a deal that allowed Brightline to build a Boca Raton train station, construction has begun.
Brightline announced on Dec. 21 that it has started work on a 4.5-story, 455-space parkin

By Mary Hladky

Brightline will resume passenger service between Miami and West Palm Beach on Nov. 8.
The rail company halted its trains in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic but has been working on opening stations in Boca Raton and Aventu

By Mary Hladky

Now that the City Council has given its long-awaited approval, construction of Brightline’s Boca Raton station is imminent. Council members unanimously authorized construction of the station and adjacent parking garage on Aug. 24.
“Thi

By Mary Hladky

Should Elon Musk’s The Boring Co. dig a tunnel to connect the city’s Brightline station to Mizner Park?
Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer has raised that possibility and is inviting the company to make a presentation to the City Council.
Thi

Celebrating the new garden are (l-r) Brightline President Patrick Goddard, City Council members Andy Thomson and Andrea O’Rourke, Mayor Scott Singer, council members Monica Mayotte and Yvette Drucker, Junior League President-elect Jamie Sauer, incomi

By Mary Hladky

At long last, Brightline is about to start preliminary work on its Boca Raton station.
The company is planning to begin constructing a temporary parking lot in March, Ali Soule, Brightline chief of staff, said in an email.
The parking l

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded the city a $16.35 million grant in September that will offset a substantial portion of the costs of building a Brightline train station and parking garage immediately east of the Downtown Library.
Under th

By Mary Hladky

Brightline’s parent company is scrapping a “strategic partnership” with British billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Enterprises, and its Miami-to-West Palm Beach rail service once again will be known as Brightline.
The company announce

Patrick Goddard, president of Virgin Trains, speaks during a news conference after the City Council’s 5-0 vote to OK a station in Boca Raton. From left are Andrea O’Rourke, Mayor Scott Singer, Jeremy Rodgers and Monica Mayotte. Tim Stepien/The Coasta

By Mary Hladky

Boca Raton soon will be home to a Virgin Trains station.

The City Council unanimously voted in favor of an agreement on Dec. 10 that allows construction of a one-story station and 455-space parking garage on city-owned land east of the

By Sallie James

When it comes to fast and furious, Brightline — Florida’s neon-yellow passenger express train service — has proved to be the deadliest train system per mile in America.
According to an Associated Press analysis of Federal Railroad Admi

This south-facing image shows Dixie Highway on the left and a vegetative buffer between the proposed parking garage and the Library Commons neighborhood on the right. Rendering provided

Related Story: Brightline tries to deal with nation’s worst dea

By Jane Smith

Some South County coastal residents reported hearing an unusual number of train horns recently even though quiet zones had been established nearly 18 months ago.
Engineers of Brightline, soon to be Virgin Trains, can blow the horns when