Passenger Trains > Brightline in West Palm Beach

While down in Florida last week I made the trip over to the West Palm Beach area to see and ride Brightline. I had visited the operation last year but never got to WPB. I also wanted to take the ride from WPB to Miami and return (more on that later). Hard to go wrong with the morning photos near the WPB station as evidenced by this very Florida like scene. BL 109 is on the "Solar Power" wrapped train February 19th, 2020.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

---

---

They sure love those car wraps. Which make outside viewing somewhat obstructed.  But most of my fellow passengers two weeks ago seemed more interested in staring at their phones than looking outside. Looking forward to your trip report.

andersonb109 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They sure love those car wraps. Which make outside
> viewing somewhat obstructed.  But most of my
> fellow passengers two weeks ago seemed more
> interested in staring at their phones than looking
> outside. Looking forward to your trip report.

They bring in advertising revenue. That's why they like them.

"Wrapping" a  car (or an entire train) is nothing more than painting over the windows.  I hate the concept - it is anti-passenger.

It's like trying to look through the dirtiest window you can imagine. It has been described as the view you get when trying to look through a microwave door.

Never thought Brightline would stoop to this -- but, apparently NOBODY can resist money - no matter how you get it -- even if it's an anti-passenger action.

Looks like a very large seagull dropped a splat on the front of the train!

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Wrapping" a  car (or an entire train) is nothing
> more than painting over the windows.  I hate the
> concept - it is anti-passenger.
>
> It's like trying to look through the dirtiest
> window you can imagine. It has been described as
> the view you get when trying to look through a
> microwave door.
>
> Never thought Brightline would stoop to this --
> but, apparently NOBODY can resist money - no
> matter how you get it -- even if it's an
> anti-passenger action.

Would you perfer that they raise fares then?

PHAL

false choise.  But, yes, I would prefer anything to actions that are anti-customer -- like painting over windows - and severly reducings visability,  Good Grief!
 

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> PHAL
>
> false choise.  But, yes, I would prefer anything
> to actions that are anti-customer -- like painting
> over windows - and severly reducings visability, 
> Good Grief!
>  

And I bet I know exactly how many passengers have complained about the reduced visability from the wraps.  Zero.
Getting where they're going and working wifi is more important to the majority of the passengers.

As for the wrap reducing the view, the train I rode wasn't wrapped so I can't give a firsthand opinion. I will say the Brightline isn't a scenic tourist train, it's mostly a means for business travel. The scenery out the window wasn't much to write home about, the highlight for me was passing the Goodyear airship hanger at Pompano. If I was a regular on these trains I wouldn't be looking out the window much myself. Aside from the nice city centers the view of junky backyards, the backs of warehouses, and a smattering of homeless tents would be enough for me to dive into the laptop.

Roger Durfee
Akron, OH

EL833 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As for the wrap reducing the view, the train I
> rode wasn't wrapped so I can't give a firsthand
> opinion. I will say the Brightline isn't a scenic
> tourist train, it's mostly a means for business
> travel. The scenery out the window wasn't much to
> write home about, the highlight for me was passing
> the Goodyear airship hanger at Pompano. If I was a
> regular on these trains I wouldn't be looking out
> the window much myself. Aside from the nice city
> centers the view of junky backyards, the backs of
> warehouses, and a smattering of homeless tents
> would be enough for me to dive into the laptop.
**************************************************
Shucks... you beat me to it!
Rich S

It wouldn’t be hard to leave the windows unwrapped and in this chase it wouldn’t take away from the advertisement. Best of both worlds.

I will be on Brightline next week and will be trying to look out the windows.

Posted from iPhone

To all you "Digital World" people who think painting out the "Real World" doesn't matter to train riders -  I have a great idea:

Paint over the locomotive windshield also - video cam the route ahead to the "train driver's" laptop.  Revenue is being lost by not painting those windows also.

Fits right in with your views, no?  The passengers don't care--why should the loco engineer?  He can drive the train from his laptop, right.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/20 06:34 by ronald321.

When I retired in 2003, I was commuting hoem of Metrolink's IOC line. At that time we had racous crowds in the cars laughing loudly and causing "hate and discontent among the folks who wanted to sit peacefully and get get home. Hence the emergence of the Quiet Car! My son and I have been frequect users of Metrolink to go to Los Angeles and Orange County. Now, most of the cars are almost silent due to laptops, people communicating via their smart and other people with earphones on! I would say that most of the cars are now Quiet!

ronald321 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> To all you "Digital World" people who think
> painting out the "Real World" doesn't matter to
> train riders -  I have a great idea:
>
> Paint over the locomotive windshield also - video
> cam the route ahead to the "train driver's"
> laptop.  Revenue is being lost by not painting
> those windows also.
>
> Fits right in with your views, no?  The
> passengers don't care--why should the loco
> engineer?  He can drive the train from his
> laptop, right.

Dumb.  This doesn't help your point, you don't HAVE to see clearly out the windows as the engineer does.

Looking through a wrapped window can't be much worse than some of the filthy Amtrak windows, especially looking into the sun when all you see is the dirt on the window.

OK, Cole321,  guess I'll have to explain the satire -- which is, that painting over coach windows is such a bad idea, that you wouldn't dream of doing it to the windows on the locomotive  --
even though the engineer can still see through.  Net point -- visibility is reduced so badly--that the engineer could not put up with what a trainload of customers is forced to endure,

But if this doesn't bother you, you're lucky--one less thing to worry about,  For me, I consider it one more negative action affecting rail customers.