I’ve always liked train travel. As a kid I would go to my grandparents home in northeast Pennsylvania by train, from Cleveland, with my folks sometimes. Took trips to New York City and Washington DC by train and I have to say even taking the Metra into the city or riding the South Shore into town from my days living in New Buffalo were kinda fun and relaxing. When Susie and went to London last year we set aside a day (not nearly enough time) to take the EuroStar to Paris. This is a high speed train (200 mph) that goes under the English Channel (The Chunnel) and gets you to Paris in a little over 2 hours. Quite a remarkable trip in it’s own right, but traveling at a high rate of speed, on the planet (not airborne), is not the norm for us Americans. High speed trains are the norm around the world, but other than maybe one from Philly to NYC and one scheduled to start traversing between LA and Las Vegas in 2022 there’s not an abundance of them around. These are high speed trains, but I was surprised to read this piece in this mornings Trib. by Terry Spencer about a new higher-speed Florida train that has the highest death rate in the nation. Say what? You hear about people crossing the tracks and trying to beat the trains way too often, but in this case most of these deaths have been suicides.

“After Richard Branson announced his Virgin Group would partner with Brightline, Florida’s new higher-speed passenger rail service, a train whisked the British billionaire, VIPs and journalists from Miami to West Palm Beach in just over an hour and then back, with no problems.

That was likely a great relief to railroad staff who have dealt with a higher than average number of deaths involving the sleek, neon-yellow trains, which travel at speeds of up to 79 mph through some of Florida’s most densely populated cities.

The first death involving a Brightline train, which officially launched in January 2018, happened in July 2017 during test runs. Since then, 40 more have been killed — a rate of more than one a month and about one for every 29,000 miles the trains have traveled, according to an analysis of Federal Railroad Administration data by The Associated Press.

That’s the worst per-mile death rate of the nation’s 821 railroads.”  Click here for the full article.

So I guess the phrase “get your ticket punched” or “speed kills” could apply, but I would hope anyone one out there who is contemplating suicide please think of the hurt you will leave behind with your death! 

Please call these folks and talk to someone. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

1-800-273-8255