The future of Brightline may depend upon public dollars for safety upgrades, critical infrastructure and for keeping the company's struggling finances afloat.

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Brightline, the first private passenger train to open in the U.S. in more than a century, is hailed as a national model for the future of rail. Since 2018, Brightline has sold millions of train tickets in Florida, and now the company is expanding to the West Coast. A yearlong investigation from WLRN News and the Miami Herald uncovers a glaring dark side: Brightline remains the deadliest passenger train in the country by far. According to federal data, someone is killed on average once every 13 days of operation. While the company has claimed most deaths are suicides, in fact, the majority were found to be accidents or their causes were undetermined. And while it’s a private venture, hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars are being earmarked for Brightline projects. In Killer Train, our team of journalists offers the most comprehensive answer yet to the question: Why is Brightline so deadly?

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