Torres: Sorry but I'm not drinking the Brightline Kool-Aid.

There's been a lot of excitement about the new high-speed passenger trains making their debut this summer. Just don't blink, you might miss it altogether.

I'm not sure what all the excitement is about. I mean, I guess if I was flying into Orlando and wanted to wave to my friends in Brevard County on my way to Miami I'd be excited. As it stands now? Not so much.

Nope, I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid until Brightline puts a train station in Brevard and does better by our smaller municipalities when it comes time to shelling out funds to maintain crossings.

Brightline will run 16 roundtrips daily, resulting in 32 trains a day along the route. Trains heading from Miami to Orlando will go through the Treasure Coast at speeds up to 110 mph before accelerating to 125 mph between Cocoa and Orlando International Airport. It will be the fastest train operating in the southeast.

If Brightline wants to zoom its trains through Brevard County then they should give us a stop, though I'm afraid that ship has sailed — sorry for mixing metaphors. Sure, Brightline is saying all the right things about considering Brevard County, needing to do their due diligence, being willing to talk about a station...yada, yada, yada.

And yes, that talk has folks in Melbourne and Cocoa excited about enticing Brightline ― in reality a real estate developer owned by a Japanese hedge fund ― to build a station in their city. I did a poll this week asking our readers where they'd like to see a station. There were three options to vote for, Melbourne, Cocoa or other and there was no clear winner with Cocoa getting 48 percent of the vote while Melbourne garnered 46 percent.

This month Brightline CEO Mike Reininger was asked about the possibility of Cocoa and/or Melbourne getting a station. It comes down to profitability.

"You have to look at, what's the customer base?" he said. "How many people are looking to go to that particular destination? And, what are the costs associated with opening that business? It's really a pretty straightforward business evaluation,"

More: Will Brightline stop at Disney Cruise Line at Port Canaveral and other things to know

Only time will tell if my poll was an exercise in futility. Regardless, the Brevard County Commission really dropped the ball at its Dec. 7, 2021, meeting. That was when Brightline needed the county to approve the issuing of bonds in excess of $7.5 million in order to continue the line through Brevard.

"Unfortunately the board negotiated very poorly. We held all the cards. Could we have negotiated a station?" said County Commissioner John Tobia, who voted against the resolution along with then-commissioner Bryan Lober. "We were the last county to sign off so we would have been able to do anything we wanted."

At that meeting, Lober supported a station in Brevard and urged the board to take no action at that meeting in order to let Brightline know they could not simply dictate terms and the county would just "rubber-stamp" it.

So, what did Brevard County get from Brightline when we "held all the cards?" Well Brightline agreed to maintain the rail crossings for their tracks for two cycles or eight years, whichever came first.

That's it? Cue the Bronx cheer.

Our neighbors to the south on the Treasure Coast were a little more aggressive and sued Brightline. The result? They are getting a station. As part of a 2018 lawsuit settlement, the company committed to building a station on the Treasure Coast once infrastructure was completed, service was begun and ridership and other data was reviewed.

Us? We got a few years reprieve of paying for costly maintenance projects. Yep, that's right, we'll be using taxpayer dollars to maintain rail crossings for a private for-profit company. The county coffers won't feel much of a debt but what about the smaller municipalities?

Pat Reilly, mayor of the Town of Malabar, said he expects the costs to go way up.

"Brightline has added more safety devices at the Jordon Blvd. crossing," Reilly said. "This will drive up the cost of the yearly routine maintenance which the Town of Malabar pays.  Also, every 7 to 10 years, they perform a major maintenance of the railroad crossing which is a tremendous burden to the town as it is nearly a $100,000 bill that we have to pay. Since there are now two sets of tracks, that cost will probably double."

The Town of Grant-Valkaria, incorporated in 2006, has three crossings to maintain.

"The Town knows we are at the mercy of the Florida East Coast Railway on these crossings for when they want to rebuild them, which come about every seven years," said Town Administrator Jason Mahaney. "To keep the taxes low and remain debt-free we plan for this expense every budget cycle and save for this. It will be an additional expense with the second track going through town but thankfully, the Brevard County Commissioners and their staff negotiated prolonging this expense which allows us time to save."

Mahaney raised another point however, wondering why the small towns have to rebuild crossings at the same rate as bigger, busier municipalities, when they don't come anywhere near the traffic count.

No offense to our friends on the Treasure Coast, but I would think Brevard would be a much more profitable stop for Brightline with Port Canaveral (largest cruise port in the world), the Kennedy Space Center and Cocoa Beach to name a few tourist destinations.

A station won't help Malabar or Grant pay for the upkeep of rail crossings but it would alleviate some of the sting of Brevard being bypassed altogether.

For State Rep. Tyler Sirois, a station would bring with it obvious economic benefits but more importantly, as far as he is concerned, a much-needed safety benefit.

"If we had a stop in Brevard, I think it would be good for the economic growth of the area good for our residents in terms of having another transportation option to the airport," Sirois said. "But it also requires the train to slow down. When you look at a train heading northbound, and I'm not an expert on locomotives, I would assume to make a stop at Cocoa that by the time you hit Melbourne you've got to start slowing down, especially if you're going you know upwards of 90 to 100 miles an hour. I imagine it takes a few miles for the train to to come to a stop so you know it it adds a new safety element along the corridor."

I'll count myself among those not holding their breath.

Contact Torres at jtorres@floridatoday.com. You can follow him on Twitter @johnalbertorres or on Facebook at facebook.com/FTjohntorres.

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard taxpayers get no Brightline station, pay for rail crossings