Brightline has finished work on a $100 million train facility that brings Orlando International Airport one critical step closer to connecting trains across the region later this year.
On Monday, March 27, Brightline officials announced the completion of Basecamp, its new, 135,805 square foot train maintenance facility that sits on 62 acres just south of the Orlando International Airport.
Although the facility is already in operation to create new trains and service existing ones, it will ramp up to 24/7 operation when the company opens its Orlando station later this year.
The company says the new facility will employe “175 highly skilled workers including engineers, conductors, technicians and inspectors.”
Company officials have labeled the operation as the “most advanced train maintenance facility in the Southeast” and possibly the country. It features a shop where coach and locomotive trucks will be disassembled, cleaned, and rebuilt, as well as an 11,000 square foot, 3-story parts warehouse.
Two fueling islands and a sand island will compose an 80,000-gallon biodiesel fuel farm. The facility will also feature a train wash facility capable of washing a 4-coach train and two locomotives in 15 minutes using 75% recycled water.
“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,” said Brightline Executive President of Infrastructure Michael Cegelis.