Brightline has showcased its 135,805-square-foot train maintenance facility in Orlando ahead of the site commencing full service later this year.
The 100 million USD Basecamp has been built on 62 acres south of Orlando International Airport.
It has already commenced limited operations for commissioning the new Brightline trains, but will begin full 24/7 services when the operator opens its Orlando station later this year.
The facility will then employ 175 skilled workers including engineers, conductors, technicians and inspectors.
“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.
“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 a truck shop where coach and locomotive bogies can be disassembled, cleaned and rebuilt.
It is also equipped with a 25-foot-deep drop table that operates between the heavy maintenance track and the truck shop to swap out bogies quickly and get trains back into service.
Furthermore, the site includes an 11,000-square-foot parts warehouse, a wheel true facility, two fuelling islands, an 80,000-gallon biodiesel fuel farm, and a train wash facility that can wash 4 coaches and two locomotives in 15 minutes using 75% recycled water.
The facility will be able to service up to 16 trains at once in its undercarriage pits.
It will be equipped with multiple overhead cranes, including a 30-tonne crane capable of removing 30,000-pound engines, and storage tracks that extend the length of more than two American football fields.
“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 10 trains here nightly.
“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.”
Once it opens later this year, the Orlando Station will enable Brightine to connect two of the most congested city pairs in the nation: Orlando and Miami.
