Florida’s About To Get The Country’s First High-Speed Train

Courtesy Brightline

No more need to road trip from Disney to the beach: by the end of December, you’ll be able to hop between Orlando and Miami on the country’s first private high-speed train line.

The Brightline Express train will send passengers from Orlando to Miami in just three hours. It takes about four hours to drive between the two cities, but onboard the new trains you get to be hands-off as it chugs along at speeds of 79 to 125 miles per hour.

The best way to skip traffic? Skip the car. #gobrightline pic.twitter.com/MxMwpFbvxp

— Brightline (@GoBrightline) December 4, 2017

Brightline will also connect Miami to Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. From Miami, it’ll be 30 minutes to Fort Lauderdale, 60 to West Palm Beach and another two hours to carry on to Orlando.

2 locomotives + 4 passenger coaches = room for you + 239 of your closest friends. #gobrightline pic.twitter.com/BPVptheDUZ

— Brightline (@GoBrightline) November 16, 2017

The train follows the path of a passenger train line that stopped running in 1960. According to NPR, the privately owned train project has been controversial due to traffic, housing and cost concerns. But project leaders hope the trains will reduce traffic on Florida highways by about 3 million cars.

Now, these trains aren’t moving at the kind of high speeds you’ll find in Germany or China, but they are the first step toward getting the U.S. into the speedy train game and getting fewer cars clogging up the highways. And who doesn’t love the glamour of traveling via train?