Let's get rollin': Short train trip sparks desire for more rail adventures | Suzy Leonard

Suzy Fleming Leonard
Updated ·3 min read

A good adventure requires four important things:

  • An element of the unknown.

  • The possibility of danger.

  • The probability of fun.

  • A pal who’s willing to take the risk.

With those ingredients in mind, recent Cocoa Beach transplant Ann Maloney and I set off early one Friday morning to catch the Brightline train to Miami.

I’ve been intrigued by Brightline for several years now, since the tracks started taking shape along the Beachline and U.S. 1. As a lifelong Southerner, passenger trains hold a certain mystery for me. Other than a couple of trips to Europe and a long-ago jaunt from New York City to Boston, trains have been little more than extras in the movie of my life.

A Brightline train breaks the tape on Sept. 22, 2023, as it reaches the finish line of the inaugural run from South Florida to the Brightline terminal at Orlando International Airport.
A Brightline train breaks the tape on Sept. 22, 2023, as it reaches the finish line of the inaugural run from South Florida to the Brightline terminal at Orlando International Airport.

A friend’s book event in Coral Gables offered the perfect opportunity to indulge my inner Sheldon Cooper.

I packed light the night before our trip, stuffing toiletries, makeup and a change of clothes into a backpack, and woke up several times during the night, worrying about traffic and where to park and lines for security. After all, does it count as an adventure if you sleep well before embarking?

Ann arrived a little before 6 a.m., her own backpack in tow, and we were off.

Traffic is light at that time of day, so we sailed along the Beachline in high spirits. When we arrived at the airport, Ann was an excellent co-pilot, directing me to Terminal C and into the giant parking deck, aka our first element of the unknown.

We had plenty of time, with 45 minutes until our train. We began creeping through the labyrinth of parking spaces. Panic set in as we wove our way higher and higher. The clock was ticking.

Finally, we inched up the ramp to the uncovered top of the deck and voila! We’d found parking nirvana and plenty of wide open spaces.

We hopped on the elevator and took it down to the fourth floor, where we looked for signs to the train station. We wandered about. We were down to 25 minutes before departure time. We sensed the possibility of danger. We were going to miss our train!

After some nervous pacing and a quick a check-in with Google, we discovered the skybridge to the station was on the fifth floor.

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Another elevator ride and some directions from a kind airport employee later, and we were there with plenty of time to feed our backpacks into the luggage scanner and make two trips to the ladies’ room before boarding.

The train was clean and spacious with huge windows and plus-size restrooms.

We settled into our seats, ordered mimosas and watched the Florida scenery slip by.

In three and a half hours, we disembarked in Miami.

We were in SoFlo for about 26 hours, just enough time to enjoy lunch in Coconut Grove, drinks and the book talk in Coral Gables, plus a beachfront brunch and rooftop wine in Fort Lauderdale. (We made the trip from Coral Gables to Fort Lauderdale the old-fashioned way: A friend drove us.)

A southbound Brightline train carrying passengers from Orlando to Miami crosses the St. Lucie River railroad bridge in Stuart, Fla., on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023, the day the high-speed rail carrier increased its Miami-to-Orlando service from 16 to 30 trains daily.
A southbound Brightline train carrying passengers from Orlando to Miami crosses the St. Lucie River railroad bridge in Stuart, Fla., on Monday, Oct. 9, 2023, the day the high-speed rail carrier increased its Miami-to-Orlando service from 16 to 30 trains daily.

We were dropped off at the Fort Lauderdale Brightline station with seconds to spare, collapsing into our seats for the return trip as the train chugged out into the sunshine.

So how was our Brightline experience? Sure, there were a few minor glitches, and traveling from Rockledge to Orlando tacked an additional 90 minutes to our travel time, making it quicker to drive. It would help if the signage in the Orlando parking garage was more prominent. And while the all-in-one water and hand blow-dryer gadgets in the train restrooms were cool, it’s not easy to keep your hands centered under the water in a rocking train. It’s disconcerting to have the blow-dryer come on while your hands are still sudsy.

Overall, though, it was excellent.

“So civilized,” Ann said.

Would we do it again? Absolutely. I see many train adventures in our future.

The Cocoa Brightline station can't get here quickly enough.

Suzy Fleming Leonard spent more than four decades as a journalist before retiring from FLORIDA TODAY in February 2024.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: A high-speed train and a pal at my side? Sign me up | Suzy Leonard