So you've heard about All Aboard Florida, the private railroad line that will connect Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach to Orlando set to be completed in 2017. Perhaps you've imagined one day ditching your car in favor of a ticket on the train for your next trip to Disney World, but you've been wondering just how much that would cost. Well, according to a new study, tickets will be about $143 for a one-way, business-class journey between the Miami and Orlando stations. Tickets from Miami to Fort Lauderdale will be around $11.
Those prices aren't official, but according to South Florida Business Journal, the company says that's about the price range customers can expect. They are much higher than an opposition study released earlier this year that suggested tickets between Miami and Orlando would cost about $34.
Tickets from West Palm Beach to Orlando are expected to about $99, tickets from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando will be $126. Coach class tickets will be somewhat cheaper. Those tickets from Orlando to West Palm Beach, Lauderdale, and Miami will run $66, $83, and $94.
The journey from South Florida to Orlando will take about three hours. Though that ticket price is more than the few tanks of gas, the ride will be shorter than the four to five hours it takes to get from Miami to Orlando by car. The tickets prices also aren't significantly cheaper than air fare. We just searched Expedia for a flight from Miami International Airport to Orlando in mid-July, and the lowest price was $266.60.
The system will have four stops in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, and Orlando. The Miami-to-West Palm Beach trek is expected to begin operation in early 2017, while the full system will be up and running by late 2017.
A new study from the company expects that ridership will reach 5.3 million a year by 2020, and 7 million by 2030. Revenues are expected to reach $400 million a year by 2030.
The company expects that ridership will be about evenly split between those taking the train all the way from South to Central Florida and those using it for transportation just in South Florida. They expect about 43 percent of travelers to use it for leisure and vacation, 30 percent to use it for business purposes, and 27 percent to use it for family and special events.