Passenger Trains > A Brightline meet on the New River Bridge (Fort Lauderdale)

A couple of recent threads mentioned the Pirate Republic restaurant on the south bank of the New River in Fort Lauderdale, with its clear view of the FEC drawbridge.. I've been meaning to go check the place out, so yesterday (Friday) I did..

..and here are a few cellphone photos...

Bridge was up when we arrived for our late lunch, but a few minutes after 2pm, a horn sounded, the bridge started closing, and the message board (visible to river traffic) displayed "BRIDGE DOWN FOR 2 TRAINS". (I was surprised that there was no warning before the bridge started moving - it seems to me that I've seen messages on that board advising the river traffic that a bridge closing was expected in XXX minutes.. but there was none yesterday.)

All was quiet for at least five minutes after the bridge went down, but then we heard horns... and the northbound Brightline was the first to appear.. followed almost immediately by the southbound. 

Then a couple of minutes after the trains passed, the bridge went back up again, and the backed-up river traffic was clear to proceed. (This is a pretty busy river, and unlike all the other drawbridges on this river, the RR bridge has almost no clearance when it's in the down position - if it's taller than a kayak it ain't gettin' through..)

It was cool to see two trains at once on the bridge - I'm sure the local nautical traffic is glad they don't need to do two separate closings for the two trains!

:-)
LC

p.s. The food was very good!! Their regular (dinner) menu is kinda pricey - $25ish for most seafood entrees - but the lunch menu is fairly reasonable. Definitely adding this place to our regular restaurant rotation.



 

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last three photos..


p.s. here's a funny little detail..

My friend - a retired professional drawbridge operator - noticed that the "swing light" - that's the lantern suspended from the middle of the bridge - was not swinging. It's supposed to hang straight down regardless of the position of the bridge (and change to green when the bridge is fully open and river traffic is once again clear to proceed).  We couldn't see if it turned green but it was pretty clear that the thing was not hanging down like it's supposed to!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/20 19:53 by LooseCaboose.

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I wonder if the schedule is timed in such a way to minimize the number of closings or if this is a happy accident.

Posted from iPhone

If scheduled intentionally, there is also the necessity of the trains and crews being capable of operating with that kind of precision.

DJ-12 Wrote:
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> I wonder if the schedule is timed in such a way to
> minimize the number of closings or if this is a
> happy accident.
>
> Posted from iPhone


I was wondering the same thing, actually, but didn't bother looking at the schedule till just now.

For the day I picked (next Monday), almost all the southbound departures out of Fort Lauderdale (14 out of 17) are scheduled at :19 past the hour, which would put the train on the drawbridge at about :20 past.

The northbound arrivals into Fort Lauderdale are mostly scheduled for :21 past the hour, which would put the northbound train on the drawbridge at about :20 past.

So this looks pretty deliberate!

I do recall that when Brightline was in its early stages, there was a cry of protest from the nautical community - they were already upset with the long downtimes of that bridge for freight traffic (especially since the bridge would often go down quite some time before a train would arrive) and they probably figured that the bridge would go down just as long for each of those additional trains (nevermind that a short fast train gets by a lot quicker than a long slow one..). So this timed-meet-on-the-bridge thing seems pretty likely to be deliberately designed to reduce how long the bridge is in the down position. 

And Gene Poon makes a good point: the schedules are probably just half the battle.. all personnel have to make an effort to run the trains on time for these meets to occur on the bridge. But hey, this is a FOR-PROFIT passenger railroad and speed (and, therefore, operating on the advertised) is a big part of their value proposition!! 

Ft. Lauderdale is definitely on a building boom!  That's ALOT of new apartments!!

coach Wrote:
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> Ft. Lauderdale is definitely on a building boom!
>  That's ALOT of new apartments!!

you're so right.. That one building alone (right behind the bridge there) is 600-something new units.  And you can see another one going up in the background on some of those photos (and most of those other towers were built in recent years, too). 

Meanwhile, the infrastructure has not been maintained - over the last month the city had several major sewer-line ruptures in different neighborhoods that required major cleanup (City Hall is now making that a priority but we're still suffering from the effects of years of neglect). And I sure hope that a lot of those new residents plan to use Brightline or Tri-Rail or Amtrak (or bicycles!!) rather than clogging the roads with thousands of additional cars!!

This might give more info on the bridge.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/10/23/2019-23047/drawbridge-operation-regulation-new-river-fort-lauderdale-fl

So much for the "sea level rise" fantasy!  Would these billions be being spent if the bankers, investors, and developers really believed that their investments will be wiped out in 20 years?  I've lived along the Chesapeake Bay (a salt water tidal estuary, opening into the Atlantic Ocean) for 30+ years, and see no noticeable rise in water levels.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> If scheduled intentionally, there is also the
> necessity of the trains and crews being capable of
> operating with that kind of precision.

It CAN be done. There are two Cascades per day scheduled to happen at the short siding at Stanwood (516/517, 518/519). The schedules have been that way ever since the Stanwood short siding was built, something like over a decade ago. They are based on setting the leaving times at Seattle and Vancouver BC. 518's Seattle time is based on setting the leaving time at Portland. The meets occur there with great regularity.

TAW

PRR1361 Wrote:
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> So much for the "sea level rise" fantasy!  Would
> these billions be being spent if the bankers,
> investors, and developers really believed that
> their investments will be wiped out in 20 years? 
> I've lived along the Chesapeake Bay (a salt water
> tidal estuary, opening into the Atlantic Ocean)
> for 30+ years, and see no noticeable rise in water
> levels.

Try searching "Florida Keys flooding" in Google and see what comes up. Seems pretty real to those people....

PRR1361 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So much for the "sea level rise" fantasy!  Would
> these billions be being spent if the bankers,
> investors, and developers really believed that
> their investments will be wiped out in 20 years? 
> I've lived along the Chesapeake Bay (a salt water
> tidal estuary, opening into the Atlantic Ocean)
> for 30+ years, and see no noticeable rise in water
> levels.

Oh my god, you're so right! Who else could possibly understand more about earth science than real-estate developers!

Wait... aren't they investing billions in all sorts of new buildings in California also?? Hey!!! We've just proved that earthquakes must be a hoax too!!!


 

LooseCaboose Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Ft. Lauderdale is definitely on a building
> boom!
> >  That's ALOT of new apartments!!
>
> you're so right.. That one building alone (right
> behind the bridge there) is 600-something new
> units.  And you can see another one going up in
> the background on some of those photos (and most
> of those other towers were built in recent years,
> too). 
>
> Meanwhile, the infrastructure has not been
> maintained - over the last month the city had
> several major sewer-line ruptures in different
> neighborhoods that required major cleanup (City
> Hall is now making that a priority but we're still
> suffering from the effects of years of neglect).
> And I sure hope that a lot of those new residents
> plan to use Brightline or Tri-Rail or Amtrak (or
> bicycles!!) rather than clogging the roads with
> thousands of additional cars!!

And there is another high rise going up a couple of blocks southwest of the Pirate's Republic.

I was boating on the New River last week when a southbound Brightline train passed a southbound FEC intermodal on the bridge. I was probably the only boater on the river that did not mind getting stuck behind the trains.

David Lyons has a small piece in the Sun-Sentinel about the rise in rents in Fort Lauderdale, and Miami / Boca Raton.  There's been an enormous amount of new construction for both condo and rental from West Palm Beach down to Miami, about one hundred miles. Brightline has a piece of this with ParkLine, adjacent to the WPB station, and another building under construction just north. Flagler Village in Fort Lauderdale is on the north side of the station.  It also owns a condo building adjacent to Fort Lauderdale station, and a rental apartment building directly above Miami Central. And another building on the far side of the Metro station adjacent to Miami Central.  There are a lot of new buildings under construction and older buildings being remodeled in Miami.

BrightLine also has a small but significant "commuter" traffic from WPB to MIA in the morning, and back in the evening. People wearing suits, real shoes, carrying briefcases. Greeting the security guys and staff by name. One additional evening train was added to serve this market.

(I've seen this story before. Several times, actually.  It rarely ends well,  But, it's a lot of fun while it lasts.)

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/fl-bz-south-florida-rents-ease-in-2019-20200122-wayqjgg2t5bwfah4ngymzgkvai-story.html#nt=oft-Double%20Chain~Flex%20Feature~homepage-top-heads~-dont-move-home-heads-1-2~~1~yes-art~curated~curatedpage

so there is not constant flooding on Miami Beach now?  Yea...