Brightline picks Stuart for its next station along new extension to Orlando, reports say
Brightline has picked Stuart as the first additional station stop for its newly opened 170-mile extension from South Florida to Orlando, according to multiple news media reports.
Michael Mortell, the Stuart city manager, made an announcement that his city had prevailed in a competition among Treasure Coast municipalities that started last October. A Brightline announcement is scheduled for March 11, according to online and television station reports.
The Miami-based high-speed passenger railroad has not issued a statement, and a Brightline spokesman did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Tuesday.
On the day Brightline launched its inaugural train to Orlando in late September, backers of a station for Stuart appeared along the tracks with welcoming banners. Firefighters sprayed water on the train as it slowly passed through town.
Mortell himself was among those aboard the first train to Orlando International.
“We’ve always tried to work toward it,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel amid the fanfare at the airport station. “We’ve been trying to get their attention since they were All Aboard Florida.”
Brightline, which started operating in 2018, turned its attention to the Treasure Coast after the Orlando opening, and after it had added stations at Aventura in Miami-Dade County and Boca Raton in Palm Beach County to supplement its original stations in the downtowns of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach.
Under a settlement agreement designed to resolve litigation with Martin County, Brightline was obliged to locate a station in Martin or St. Lucie counties within five years of starting the Orlando service.
In the past, Brightline has said construction on a station along the Treasure Coast would start in 2026 and open two years later.
Fort Pierce was among the suitors for a station, serving up two proposals.
New drawbridge planned near Stuart
Last December, Stuart, a city with a population of around 20,000, announced it had received a $130.5 million federal grant to help fund a $218 million replacement of the Florida East Coast Railway drawbridge that carries both freight and Brightline passenger trains over the nearby St. Lucie River.
The city, according to Mortell in an announcement, was the lead applicant on a joint application with Brightline and the Florida Inland Navigation District. Additional funding for the span is coming from the Florida Department of Transportation.
The new drawbridge would located west of the existing railway bridge and support double railway tracks with a 16-foot vertical clearance over the river. The clearance for marine vessels traveling beneath the current span is six feet, six inches.