STUART, Fla. — As Brightline celebrates the end of the Orlando station's construction, concern is growing on the Treasure Coast about a new bridge schedule that officially took effect Wednesday.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Coast Guard released a new operating schedule for the St. Lucie River railroad drawbridge across the St. Lucie River.
Effective Wednesday, the bridge now opens for 15 minutes twice an hour, meaning the drawbridge will be closed half the time and open the other half.
In other words, half the time it's open to mariners and boaters, and the other half it's open to drivers and trains in an effort to be fair to both sides.
"That's the definition of equality right there," U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., who previously questioned the U.S. Coast Guard about it, said.
However, Mast and Stuart Mayor Troy McDonald said, in reality, it hurts everyone.
"It's a hostage situation," Mast said. "You either hold maritime hostage or hold vehicular traffic hostage."
Mast wrote a letter to the Federal Rail Administration addressing these concerns, saying he feels boaters and drivers are being held hostage because of the schedule.
If the drawbridge is open, trains are brought to a halt.
"They would have to stop 23 trains a day if they did that 15 minutes every hour," Mast said.
McDonald said that would cause traffic backups at intersections throughout the city.
"That creates all kinds of issues, not only traffic delays but then we get into public safety issues because now we've got to reroute ambulances and police cars, fire trucks," McDonald said.
He did say that first responders have a contingency plan in place to prevent an increase in response times.
McDonald added that if the railroad bridge opens, the road bridge on S Dixie Highway will too, shutting down the busy road 50% of the time to the nearly 60,000 drivers that the Florida Department of Transportation said cross it each day.
"I'm ready to get off, so I want this thing to go down," driver Tania Mclean said. "It's terrible."
"I probably cross this bridge six times a day," another driver told WPTV. "Yeah, it's going to cause some headaches. It's going to be a parking lot."
But the alternative, closing the drawbridge longer, will hurt those who depend on it being open, like Florida Offshore Fishing Company.
"Half-time closures are completely strangling all the boating traffic on that side of the river," Capt. Patrick Humphrey, who added it would absolutely impact the charter company, said. "Lack of business all around."
So what's the solution? Mast said it's imperative to build a new bridge, and McDonald added they'll need to reevaluate the schedule in the meantime.
All agreed, however, that something has to change, and soon.
"They're going to be stacked up during [the winter tourist] season, for sure, and this is off-season," a driver said.
It's hard to say how badly it will impact traffic and boaters until Brightline starts running trains across the bridge.
Brightline had originally planned to start testing high-speed trains over the bridge Wednesday, but postponed the testing, releasing this statement to WTPV, reading in full:
"Our testing schedule is always fluid and we are now testing in multiple locations at the same time between West Palm Beach and Orlando. Currently, we are running test trains between our Orlando station and Cocoa, which will continue through the week."
WPTV also contacted Brightline about the new schedule Wednesday, but we are still waiting to hear back.
As of right now, the bridge schedule is in effect through Dec. 17, but the Coast Guard is taking the public's input into account through Aug. 4.
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