Brightline Gives A Tour Of Their New Train Maintenance Facility

Earlier this morning, Brightline executives Patrick Goddard, Michael Cegelis, Tom Rutkowski, and several engineers led a behind-the-scenes tour of Basecamp, a state-of-the-art train maintenance facility in Orlando, Florida. According to Brightline, the $100 million facility has started commissioning new Brightline trains and servicing the existing ones. The facility will operate 24/7 and “employ 175 highly skilled workers including engineers, conductors, technicians, and inspectors” when Brightline’s Orlando station opens later this year.

“Today, we welcome you to the most advanced train maintenance facility in the Southeast, and I would venture to say the country – Brightline’s Basecamp,” said President Patrick Goddard, Brightline. “This impressive facility was developed by Brightline and is an essential component to our service from Miami to Orlando launching this year.”

Brightline’s Basecamp Features Cutting-Edge Technology

Brightline states the facility is 135,805 sq. ft. or the length of two football fields. It also includes:

• Truck Shop: where coach and locomotive trucks can be disassembled, cleaned, and rebuilt for additional use
• Drop Table: a 25-foot deep drop table that operates between the heavy maintenance track and the truck shop and can swap out trucks quickly to get trains back into service
• Parts Warehouse: an 11,000 sq. ft., 3-story tall parts shop
• Wheel True Facility: where wheels are cut or “trued” back to their original profile, allowing for maximum ride quality and performance
• Two Fueling Islands and a Sand Island: an 80,000-gallon biodiesel fuel farm
• Train Wash Facility: can wash a four-coach train and two locomotives in 15 minutes using 75 percent recycled water

“This world-class facility has everything under one roof to maintain our trains, will provide highly paid, highly skilled jobs to the region, and will be a bustling hub for train maintenance, maintaining eight of our ten trains here nightly, said Michael Cegelis, Executive President Infrastructure for Brightline. “Currently, we are more than 90 percent complete with our construction to Orlando, and once completed, we will follow a rigorous certification and verification process. We are closer than ever to connect Florida with high-speed rail.”

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Brightline’s Basecamp will also be able to service up to 16 trains at once in its undercarriage pits. There will also be multiple overhead cranes, including one than can remove 30,000-pound engines and storage tracks larger than the length of more than two football fields.

Brightline recently made history as it became the fastest train in Florida after it reached 130 mph during a test between Orlando International Airport and Cocoa, Florida. 

Will you be traveling on the Orlando Brightline later this year?

By Niko Balkaran