Less than a month after multiple Brightline affiliates filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, South Florida’s higher-speed train line announced that traffic for September jumped by 18% versus the same month in 2025.
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Both long-haul traffic to Orlando and short-haul regional ridership in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties rose along with ticket revenue, the company announced in a ridership report released at the close of business Friday.
The train line itself, which is not operating under Chapter 11, said more than 2.6 million passengers rode Brightline through the first nine months of 2026, up 14% against the same period of 2025. Short-haul traffic surpassed the 1 million mark, rising 18% in the nine-month period. Long-distance ridership between South Florida and the Orlando International Airport station exceeded 1.5 million, a rise of 14%.
Average fares dipped slightly, making it a little cheaper to ride Brightline. Average short-haul one-way fares in September were down 7% to $22.25 versus the same month last year. And long-haul fares to and from Orlando eased by 6% to $72.17.
“The composition of our ridership continues to be heavily weighted toward Florida residents,” the report said. Of the passengers who rode Brightline in September, 89% were Floridians.
Since starting operations in 2018, the overarching challenge for Brightline’s management has been to generate sufficient revenue to run the railroad profitably, by paying off its crushing multi-billion dollar debt load. The Sept 24 bankruptcy filings of some 17 Brightline parent entities paved the way for $490 million in long-term financing by leading secured creditors who now control the company.
A prearranged “restructuring settlement agreement” must be approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Newark, New Jersey, where multiple Chapter 11 petitions were filed in late September. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 29.
Special trains
For the most of the year, Brightline has peppered the rail travel landscape with discounts and trains pegged to special events in a bid to attract more customers.
The latest offering: A one-night-only midnight train to transport Halloween Horror Nights fans at Universal Orlando back home. On the last Saturday before Halloween, visitors to Orlando from South Florida can ride the rails south to West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Aventura and Miami. The train starts running at 12:15 a.m. Oct. 25.
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