While the company would like you to think the mass majority of these deaths are suicides the numbers don't lie: Brightline is the deadliest train operator in America, and has killed 88 people since it opened service to Florida's Gold Coast in June of 2017. That's a death for every 32,000 miles traveled, ABC reports.
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Brightline train service has highest US death rateAccording to an ongoing Associated Press analysis of federal data that began in 2019, the high-speed train has the highest death rate in the country.
Brightline trains have the highest death rate in the U.S., fatally striking 98 people since Miami-West Palm operations began — about one death for every 32,000 miles its trains travel, according to an ongoing Associated Press analysis using data since 2019.
At least 88 deaths have now been connected to Brightline, Florida's privately owned passenger railroad, since it began operations in July 2017, running from West Palm Beach to Miami.
None of the deaths involving Brightline have been found to be the railroad's fault. Most have been suicides, pedestrians who tried to run across the tracks ahead of a train, or drivers who maneuvered around crossing gates rather than wait.
The Crash at Crush was a one-day publicity stunt in the U.S. state of Texas that took place on September 15, 1896, in which two uncrewed locomotives were crashed into each other head-on at high speed.
The nation's fastest train is Amtrak's Acela, which tops 150 mph. New Acela trains are expected to reach 160 mph when they debut next year — still below the 186 mph considered high-speed in systems across the world.
Compared to other popular forms of travel, such as cars, ships, buses, and planes, trains are one of the safest forms of transportation in the United States.
In 2022, the United States registered 950 rail fatalities and around 6,400 non-fatal injuries on the railroads. Injury and fatality numbers had fallen during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, but 2022 saw a resurgence of accidents above pre-pandemic levels.
The Middleton Railway is the world's oldest continuously working railway, situated in the English city of Leeds. It was founded in 1758 and is now a heritage railway, run by volunteers from The Middleton Railway Trust Ltd.
As of August 2022, the fastest train on Earth, based on its record speed, is the Japanese L0 Series Maglev with a record speed of 603 kilometers per hour.
The Glacier Express is the world's slowest train, taking more than eight hours to travel between Zermatt and St. Moritz in Switzerland at an average of 18mph. Along the way, it passes over nearly 300 bridges, travels through 91 tunnels and takes in endless stunning Alpine views.
Brightline, owned by Fortress Investment Group, began running trains between Miami and West Palm Beach in 2018, the first private intercity passenger service to begin U.S. operations in a century.