U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg took an afternoon Brightline train from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday to help underscore the Biden Administration’s efforts to fund improvements at airports, seaports, rail line and roadways in Florida and elsewhere around the nation.
The ride came after the secretary delivered an hourlong speech about the state of transportation nationally before a sold-out audience of business and political leaders at The Forum Club of the Palm Beaches at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.
At both the speech and in an interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel aboard the train, Buttigieg said the Biden Administration is focusing on safety, enhancing economic power and equity for the public, innovation, and coping with climate change. And he had encouraging words for Brightline, the higher speed rail line now serving a 235-mile stretch between Miami and Orlando, as a precursor for the development of future rail expansion elsewhere in the U.S. on a regional scale.
“It’s a key part of the (rail) network and it also reflects, I think, the principle that seeing is believing,” Buttigieg said during the ride south from West Palm Beach. “There’s this idea that’s taken hold that somehow Americans can’t have or don’t want high quality passenger rail, and we just don’t believe that’s true.”
“What excites me about what Brightline is doing in this regional segment is demonstrating that there are areas where it makes economic and logistical sense for passengers to have access to this kind of service,” he added.
Started in 2018 as a three-county inter-city passenger railroad in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties, the company recently expanded its service to Orlando to add to the five existing South Florida stops in Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and West Palm Beach.
In the interview, Buttigieg suggested it’s too early to adopt a formula or template for financing future projects like Brightline’s.
“I think this is so new that we haven’t yet found all of the patterns that will apply over time,” he said. “It really is case by case.”
“We want to make sure we are helping where we can,” he said. “We made massive federal investments in supporting cars and drivers. We should do the same for trains and real passengers.”
At the West Palm Beach station, Brightline’s top executive team, including President Patrick Goddard, CEO P. Michael Reininger and Chairman Wes Edens, greeted the secretary and gave him a tour. Before the 3:17 p.m. train departed, Buttigieg visited with the driver in the cab of the locomotive, an aide said.
Before The Forum audience, Buttigieg made a solemn reference to the massacre in Israel committed by Hamas sponsored terrorists who murdered and kidnapped hundreds of people near the Gaza Strip, and the subsequent response by Israel.
“We are all transfixed by the pain and violence brought about in the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilians “and everything that is now playing out,” he said. “There is unbelievable pain and fear not only in Israel but I know for so many here for whom this hits so close to home.”
“And I am glad that our President, who is on his way to Israel, spoke with moral clarity about the evil nature of what was visited upon civilians in those attacks, and was unequivocal about our support for our friend and ally, Israel,” Buttigieg added.
Buttigieg has been among various Biden Administration officials who have toured the country publicizing the benefits of billions generated from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which was passed by Congress in 2021. The law allocated $108 billion for various public transportation projects around the U.S.
Millions of federal dollars have been directed toward safety improvements along the Florida East Coast Railway line, which is used by Brightline. The money has come via the Federal Railroad Administration, a regulatory agency under the U.S. Department of Transportation umbrella.
Late last month, the FRA awarded Brightline a $1.648 million grant to develop an Artificial Intelligence-backed monitoring system to collect data about trespass activity along the railroad’s tracks. The data will be used to help Brightline decide how and where to deploy more improvements along the line.
Tri-Rail, meanwhile, the publicly subsidized commuter line between the West Palm Beach area and Miami International Airport, is receiving a $71.4 million federal grant to upgrade its aging train sets.
In the universe of road building and repairs, Florida is expected to receive approximately $13.3 billion over five years in highways and bridges, according to the DOT. To date, $5.4 billion has been announced for specific road, bridge and safety projects.
A two-day tour
On the train and at the stations in West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Buttigieg met Tuesday with local government leaders and workers from all three counties “to hear how the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is benefitting South Florida.”
Among those to meet Buttigieg at Brightline’s stations on Tuesday include Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, Broward County Mayor Lamar Fisher, and Palm Beach County Mayor Gregg Weiss.
For all of the local officials, a meeting with Buttigieg loomed as an opportunity to make a pitch for funds for a proposed local commuter rail service along the Florida East Coast Railway line that has been under study for years by the Florida Department of Transportation and is gaining political traction in Miami-Dade and Broward.
At the Fort Lauderdale station, Buttigieg met privately for a few minutes with Trantalis, who has been advocating for a tunnel to be built beneath the New River to supplant the current drawbridge that blocks marine traffic when it is lowered to allow Brightline and Florida East Coast freight trains to pass over the waterway.
Afterward, he was asked by a reporter if he had received a pitch from the mayor for a tunnel.
“The mayor definitely has that on his mind,” Buttigieg replied, “and I know the mayor well. and having been a mayor, I know how important it is to listen to those local voices.”
“Again we really appreciate the chance to highlight how these federal dollars through President Biden’s plan are creating opportunities here in this area, whether it’s roads and bridges, whether it’s rail improvements whether it’s transit or whether it’s the work we’ll be highlighting at the (Miami) port coming up” he told reporters.
On Wednesday, the secretary is scheduled to meet with Miami-Dade County Mayor Mayor Daniella Levine Cava for a news conference at PortMiami. There, the leaders will discuss federal investments in port infrastructure “to improve the efficiency and resiliency of our supply chains — helping to bring down shipping costs,” according to the DOT statement.
The secretary is also scheduled to meet with TSA security workers at Miami International Airport.
