I’d love to have Brightline’s level of service, infrastructure, and amenities in the Triangle, too. But because they’re not a private-sector actor, can NCDOT truly copy Brightline in the first place?
To be clear, I think the Brightline train service has a lot to admire. But...
I think that was uniquely possible because the real estate company behind Brightline also owned its train tracks until 2017. That means FECI, Brightline’s holding company, was motivated to offer high-quality train service ASAP, so they had a business case for seeing good transit as a solid investment.
NCDOT doesn’t work like that, though. They’re a public agency that exists to give good-enough mobility to as many people as possible, and they’re not rewarded based on returns-on-investment. This means NCDOT’s instincts are to spend enough money to help residents move as they need. That means the state can help make commuter rail happen even if the private sector (NS/CSX) doesn’t want to, but they’re also not as motivated to perfect their solutions unless the average opinion shifts and there’s public pressure.
If NCDOT (or GoTriangle, FTA etc.) can make the case for splurging on better infrastructure and get the money for it, that would be awesome! But I’m not sure if they’re capable of doing that in the first place 
On the bright side, though, maybe there’s some hope for regular, convenient train timetables? This presentation to Durham’s MPO for next week looks at a commuter rail service of 12 trains in peak hours and 8 off-peak (trains every 15min and 30min, respectively, extrapolating from here) as a possible dream scenario in the 2050 metro transit plan.
The alternatives analysis for that idea and others are scheduled for release next month. If we’re lucky, maybe that could start nudging the commuter rail study towards supporting that kind of service?