All Aboard Florida (AAF) announced at an event in Miami on Monday that its trainline from Central Florida to the southern parts of the state will be called Brightline.
AAF also unveiled the brightly colored trains they will run between Orlando and Miami.
“With the introduction of Brightline, we set out to reinvent what traveling by train can mean in America, making it a forward-leaning solution that is a smarter alternative to more cars on crowded roads,” said AAF President Michael Reininger.
All Aboard Florida noted the Rockwell Group, a prominent design and architecture firm, handled much of the design.
“Brightline is built to be an intuitive transportation option aligned with the emerging preferences of our customers for mass transit solutions and keyed to providing access to the primary destinations of Florida’s residents and visitors alike,” Reininger said. “With the extraordinary design expertise of Rockwell Group, we’ve blended train travel and hospitality, creating a new and innovative travel experience focused on providing customer service that extends well beyond the trains and stations.”
“We’re thrilled to be working with All Aboard Florida on the creation of Brightline,” said David Rockwell, founder and president of Rockwell Group. “The project provided us with a wonderful and rare opportunity to combine deep ethnographic research with our extensive hospitality experience to re-envision train travel. We believe that our holistic and collaborative approach will result in an entirely new travel experience that is welcoming, comfortable, fun, and seamless from departure to arrival.”
Siemens is building the trains which will come in bright colors: blue, green, orange, pink and red.
“Typically, trains have been one color, either gray or silver, and tend to blend into the background,” Reininger said. “As our trains pull into the stations, their colorful entry will be another way that Brightline takes the gray out of travel.”
Opponents of the rail line insisted the new branding was an attempt to boost AAF’s image. Citizens Against Rail Expansion (CARE) fired away at AAF on Monday.
“Today, All Aboard Florida announced a name change in a transparent attempt to distance the enterprise from a growing backlash of citizens who oppose or have serious concerns about the project,” CARE said in a statement released on Monday. “This PR move is intended to communicate the impression that All Aboard Florida is a done deal, when in fact, the project is far from finalized. Citizens Against Rail Expansion believes that this latest attempt to reinvent All Aboard Florida is to substitute a bright new impression of a tarnished project image.
“By any name, All Aboard Florida still puts public safety at risk, jeopardizes access to first responders, adversely impacts antiquated maritime bridges and waterway traffic, and will damage the quality of life we all enjoy. ‘Brightline,' 'Frightline' or by any other name, it is all the same—it will have a very negative impact on our region,” CARE added.
The train is scheduled to travel from Orlando to Miami in three hours starting in the summer of 2017.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
