One Broward County bus route crosses the gap Brightline and Port Everglades both leave blank
Broward County Transit Route 40 runs all week from Broward Central Terminal to SE 17 St. and Eisenhower Blvd, the corner Port Everglades names as one of its three entrances. The published fare is $2.00 in cash. Neither Brightline nor the port publishes any other way to cross.
Brightline Fort Lauderdale Station stands at 101 NW 2nd Avenue, and Port Everglades runs eight numbered cruise terminals behind three gated entrances. Both issuers assert that the two are connected. The cruise page Brightline keeps prints a double headed arrow between the station name and the port name. The port’s own cruise FAQ tells guests that “the port is accessible by car, taxi, ride-share, bus and rail.” Neither sentence carries a mode, a distance, a duration or a fare.
Everything below was read in September 2026 against one fixed trip: two adults stepping off a train at Fort Lauderdale on embarkation morning with a checked bag each, sailing seven nights. The rows with no price in them are the finding, not a gap in the reading.
| How you leave Brightline Fort Lauderdale Station | What the issuer publishes | Published cost for two adults | Where the published leg ends | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route 40 eastbound, Broward County Transit | An all week timetable with timepoint 6 at SE 17 St. and Eisenhower Blvd, and a $2.00 cash fare (Broward County Transit) | $4.00 | The corner Port Everglades calls its SE 17th St. entrance | Two adults with carry-on bags and a morning to spend |
| Brightline Airport Connector Shuttle to FLL, then a taxi | $12 per Guest plus a $3 fuel surcharge (Brightline) and an average taxi fare of $18 to $21 (Port Everglades) | $48.00 to $51.00 | The terminal curb, by way of the airport | A party that wants every leg priced before it books |
| Taxi from the station curb | Metered rate only, and “Flat rates are NOT allowed” on port property (Port Everglades) | Not published by any issuer | The terminal curb named on the boarding document | Four suitcases and an assigned check-in time |
| Rideshare from the station | A heading called “Taxi and ride-shares” with a taxi fare under it and no rideshare fare (Port Everglades) | Not published by any issuer | Not published by any issuer | One traveler taking the price the app sets that morning |
| A Brightline vehicle to the port | Nothing. The company has published the word “near” once, in a press release dated February 20, 2024 | No such service is sold | No such service is sold | Nobody, which is why the row is printed |
Brightline has published exactly one word about the distance to Port Everglades
The Get To Your Cruise page works by pairing. MiamiCentral goes with Port Miami, Fort Lauderdale with Port Everglades, West Palm Beach with Port of Palm Beach, and Orlando with Port Canaveral. Under those four lines sits a single operating instruction, and it concerns the train: guests are encouraged to arrive at the station at least 30 minutes before departure to check baggage. Nothing on the page describes a crossing.
The one prose sentence Brightline has written about this port is two years old. Its press release of February 20, 2024 states that “Cruise Ports near Brightline stations include Port Miami, Port Everglades and Port of Palm Beach,” and the vehicle it offered was Brightline+, a complimentary door to port ride bundled with a PREMIUM ticket. That product has no page in September 2026: three plausible addresses for Brightline+ all return 404. The word “near” is the entire published measurement, and the same release describes a real mechanism for a different port, telling Port Canaveral passengers to connect to cruise line transportation at Orlando International Airport.
The company can write a walking figure when it wants one. Its Orlando station page tells guests that shared shuttles drop at Terminal C, “just a 13-minute walk to the train station,” and prices three surface lots at $20 a day. Compare that with what the company publishes about the last leg into the eight numbered terminals Broward County operates at Port Everglades, which is nothing at all: the Fort Lauderdale station page contains no occurrence of the words port, cruise or Everglades.
The only rail page on the Port Everglades website belongs to freight
Port Everglades makes the rail claim twice and documents it once. The Getting Here page opens by calling the port “easily accessible by car, taxi, bus, train and ship.” The cruise FAQ swaps ship for ride-share and keeps rail on the list. Then the page structure gives the game away: Getting Here carries headings for airport transfer, taxi and ride-shares, hotel transfers, Broward County Transit and rental cars, and no heading for rail at all.
Follow the site’s only Rail link and it lands under Cargo. The page describes a 43-acre near-dock Intermodal Container Transfer Facility operated by Florida East Coast Railway, with 9,000 feet of processing track, 12,000 feet of storage track, three rubber-tired gantry cranes and 508 cargo trailer parking spaces, built to divert an estimated 180,000 trucks from the roads by 2029. It is a serious piece of infrastructure and it moves boxes.
The bus entry is thinner than it looks too. The port writes that “local bus service stops at the Northport section of Port Everglades on SE 17th St., just north of the Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center,” gives the rider information line as 954-357-8400, and never prints a route number, a fare or a frequency. Everything useful about that bus sits on a Broward County Transit page the port does not quote.
Timepoint 6 on Route 40 is the corner the port calls an entrance
Route 40 carries an all week schedule from Broward County Transit, effective October 26, 2025, running from Lauderhill Transit Center to The Galleria at Fort Lauderdale via Sistrunk Boulevard, the 17 Street Causeway and A1A. Its eastbound timepoint 6 is SE 17 St. and Eisenhower Blvd. Port Everglades lists “SE 17th St., located at Eisenhower Blvd.” as the first of its three entrances. The county’s bus timetable and the port’s gate list name the same intersection, and neither page mentions the other.
| Route 40 eastbound timepoint | Number on the Broward County Transit map | First Monday to Friday time published | What the issuers put at that point |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lauderhill Transit Center | 1 | 5:30a | 1359 NW 40th Avenue, Lauderhill, one of four Broward County Transit transfer terminals |
| Sunrise Blvd. and NW 31 Ave. | 2 | 5:40a | A street timepoint with no facility named against it |
| Broward Central Terminal arrival | 3 | 5:55a | 101 NW 1 Avenue, Fort Lauderdale 33301, fourteen numbered routes plus the US 1 Breeze |
| Broward Central Terminal departure | 3 | 6:00a | The same building, timed separately so riders can plan a transfer |
| SE 17 St. and Eisenhower Blvd | 6 | 6:14a | The Port Everglades entrance where photo ID and cruise documents are checked |
Reading down the Broward Central Terminal departure column and across to timepoint 6, the published Monday to Friday leg runs 14 to 17 minutes. After timepoint 6 the route carries on east to SE 20 St. and Ocean Dr at Points of America and ends at the Galleria at Fort Lauderdale. Both Port Everglades and the Broward County Convention Center appear among the route’s points of interest, and neither is a timepoint: the timed stop is a street corner. The two directions do not even use the same corner. Westbound, the 17th Street timepoint is SE 17 St. and SE 15 Ave., a different intersection from the one the port names as its entrance, so the stop that brought you in is not the stop that takes you back.
The fare is the easiest figure on this whole trip and the easiest to get wrong at the farebox. The county prices a one-way adult cash fare at $2, an All Day Pass at $5 and a 10 Ride at $20, and states that “when boarding the bus, exact fare is required. Operators do not carry change.” Two adults reaching the gate corner therefore spend $4.00, against the $175.00 that seven nights at the $25.00 daily maximum Broward County charges inside the port since October 1, 2026 would cost the same party in a car.
Two Fort Lauderdale rail stations, and only one shares a block with the bus
South Florida has two passenger rail operators and both call a station Fort Lauderdale. For Brightline that address is 101 NW 2nd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311, in ZIP code 33311. The commuter railroad keeps its Fort Lauderdale station in a different quadrant of the city, and its own site is not among the sources behind this guide, so nothing here is attributed to it.
The bus map decides which station matters here, and it is the county’s. Fourteen numbered routes plus the US 1 Breeze are shown at Broward Central Terminal, 101 NW 1 Avenue, Route 40 among them, and Route 40 is the only one timed at an entrance the port lists. The Brightline station sits one avenue from that terminal. Same house number, different avenue, and the rail station that stands next to the bus reaching the gate is the one this guide can document.
The county also publishes that terminal building’s own hours as Monday through Friday 6AM to 8PM and Saturday and Sunday 8:45AM to 4:45PM. Those hours describe a facility, not a route. The same agency prints Route 40 as an ALL WEEK schedule with separate Monday to Friday, Saturday and Sunday timetables out of that terminal, so a rider who reads the building hours as the bus hours will write off a weekend departure that the timetable actually lists.
The one station Brightline ties to a cruise port publishes five day hours
Every Brightline station page carries a line called Station Hours of Operation. Five of the six read Mon – Sun. Fort Lauderdale reads Mon – Fri: 5:45 AM – Last Train Departure, and it reads that way twice, once on the station page and once inside the four station panel at the foot of the cruise page itself.
| Station on the Brightline network | Address the company publishes | Station hours the company publishes | Daily parking rate the company publishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Lauderdale | 101 NW 2nd Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311 | Mon – Fri: 5:45 AM – Last Train Departure | No rate on the page, only a gateless garage and QR codes on the signs |
| MiamiCentral | 600 NW 1st Avenue, Miami, FL 33136 | Mon – Sun: 5:00 AM – Last Train Departure | $12 pre-purchased and $20 walk-up in one block, $7 pre-purchased on the app and $20 walk-up in another |
| West Palm Beach | 260 Quadrille Plaza Drive, West Palm Beach, FL 33401 | Mon – Sun: 5:20 AM – Last Train Departure | No rate on the page |
| Boca Raton | 101 NW 4th St., Boca Raton, FL 33432 | Mon – Sun: 5:30 AM – Last Train Departure | No rate on the page |
| Aventura | 19796 West Dixie Highway, Miami, FL 33180 | Mon – Sun: 5:00 AM – Last Train Departure | No rate on the page |
| Orlando | 10705 Jeff Fuqua Blvd, Orlando, FL 32827 | Mon – Sun: 4:30 AM – Last Train Departure | $20 a day at three surface lots, and under $10 a day at an off-airport operator it names |
Whether that building genuinely locks on a Saturday is not something Brightline settles anywhere, and its own pages argue the other way: the Airport Connector Shuttle out of the same station is published as Mon-Sun 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The consequence is still real for planning, because of what Broward County Aviation publishes alongside it. Writing about return flights, the county names cruise days at Port Everglades as “Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.” Two of those four days fall outside the only station hours Brightline prints, at the one station the company pairs with a cruise port.
What two adults actually pay leaving the platform on sailing morning
Four arrivals, four winners, one set of premises: two adults, an assigned check-in time, a seven night sailing, and every figure read in September 2026.
Two adults with carry-on bags go to Route 40, and it wins on price by a factor of twelve or more. Four dollars in exact cash against $48.00 to $51.00 for the connector and taxi chain is not a close call. The nuance is where the win stops: the bus ends at a security checkpoint where everyone 18 and older must show government-issued photo ID and cruise documents, and no issuer publishes a walking distance from that corner to Cruise Terminal 2, 4, 18, 19, 21, 25, 26 or 29.
A party with four suitcases goes to the taxi, and wins on the only criterion anyone documents. Porters at Port Everglades deliver bags “to private cars, taxis and limousines,” by the port’s own description, and that is a category a bus rider does not occupy. The nuance is the price: taxis on port property run on the meter, flat rates are explicitly not allowed, and the only fare band the port prints starts at the airport rather than at a rail station.
A traveler already committed to routing through the airport goes to the connector, and wins on documentation. Its shuttle costs $12 per Guest plus a $3 fuel surcharge with a same-day fare ticket, and the port prices the onward taxi at $18 to $21 regardless of party size, so every leg of that chain carries a number. The nuance is that the chain doubles back: it pays $30.00 to reach an airport the port itself measures at 1.8 miles away, and then buys a second ride to cover those 1.8 miles. The last stretch is worked through in the account of what Broward County and Port Everglades each charge for the 1.8 miles from FLL.
A Saturday or Sunday sailing goes to Route 40 by default, because it is the only one of the two operators with a weekend line in print. The county publishes a seven day timetable for the route. The railroad publishes Monday to Friday for the station, a Monday to Sunday shuttle out of it, and no reconciliation of the two anywhere a passenger can read.
Details on these pages that decide a rail plan to Port Everglades
- Brightline publishes two different addresses for its own Fort Lauderdale station: 101 NW 2nd Avenue on the station and cruise pages, and 300 NW 2nd St on the Airport Connector Shuttles page. Both carry ZIP 33311.
- The connector’s FLL stops do not match between Brightline’s own pages. The station page sends Terminal 4 riders to Zone B; the connector page sends them to Ground Transportation Area 3, Zone F.
- Two issuers print the same shuttle’s hours backwards from each other. On the Broward County Aviation page it runs Monday through Sunday from 7AM to 8PM, with a note that the last shuttle departs the Terminal 3 stop at 8PM; Brightline says 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM.
- The county’s Brightline entry sends Terminal 2 riders to GTA-2, while an alert higher on the same page says GTA-2 has been closed until further notice since March 10, 2025. That closure names three affected services and the Brightline shuttle is not one of them, so both instructions are live at once.
- Broward County Aviation states flatly that “there are no free shuttles to the port,” and puts the drive from FLL at about 10 minutes, the only driving clock either Broward department publishes for this corridor.
- The port publishes distances to three airports and to no rail station: FLL at 1.8 miles, MIA at 27 miles and PBI (now President Donald J. Trump International, DJT) at 50 miles.
- Van on Demand, the port’s shared vehicle for parties of three or more, is priced from FLL at $11 per person, from MIA at $25 and from PBI at $45. There is no rail station entry, so the third passenger arithmetic that works from an airport has no station equivalent.
Where a train to Port Everglades stops being a plan
Booking a PREMIUM fare expecting a ride to the pier is the first failure, and a 2024 press release still live on Brightline’s own site invites it. The complimentary Brightline+ transfer belonged to that wave season; PREMIUM in September 2026 buys lounge access, a checked bag, priority boarding and a larger seat, and no vehicle beyond the platform.
Treating the Route 40 stop as the terminal is the second. Timepoint 6 is an intersection with a security checkpoint behind it, and the port’s own addresses show why the difference matters: its eight terminals are spread across SE 20th Street, SE 32nd Street, Eller Drive and SE 35th Street. Which building applies is decided by the cruise line, not by the county, as the reconstruction of which Port Everglades terminal each cruise line actually names sets out.
Planning the return on the outbound stop is the third. Eastbound the timepoint is SE 17 St. and Eisenhower Blvd; westbound it is SE 17 St. and SE 15 Ave. Passengers typically debark between 7 and 9AM by the port’s own account, carrying everything, and the port states that luggage cannot be left or stored on port property.
Arriving without exact change is the fourth, and it is the cheapest mistake on the list to avoid. Operators do not carry change, so a $20 bill buys one $2 ride and forfeits $18.
Assuming the station is open is the fifth. On a Saturday or Sunday sailing, the only station hours Brightline publishes for Fort Lauderdale do not cover the day of travel, and the company has not published a correction, an exception or a second line for the weekend on any page a passenger meets while booking a cruise.
How these Brightline, Broward County and Port Everglades figures were checked
The figures in this guide were verified in September 2026 against the sources named in each section. Parking rates usually change in January, shuttle fares and cruise line transfer prices change by season, and ship schedules change weekly; check the issuer’s page before you travel. No provider paid for placement here, and none can pay to appear. Where a booking link earns Lot and Gate a commission it is marked as sponsored and flagged in this line, and as of September 2026 no affiliate link is live anywhere on this site.
What riders ask before booking Brightline for a Port Everglades sailing
The answers below use the same September 2026 readings as the tables above, taken from Brightline, Broward County Transit, Broward County Aviation and Port Everglades.
Brightline stops at 101 NW 2nd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale and sells no vehicle onto port property. Its cruise page pairs Fort Lauderdale Station with Port Everglades using a double headed arrow and no mode, distance or fare. The only onward link either issuer prices is Broward County Transit Route 40.
Broward County Transit Route 40 runs eastbound from Broward Central Terminal, one avenue from the Brightline station, to SE 17 St. and Eisenhower Blvd, which Port Everglades lists as one of its three entrances. The published leg is 14 to 17 minutes on weekdays and the adult cash fare is $2.
No issuer publishes that distance. Port Everglades prints three distances on its cruise FAQ and all three are to airports: FLL at 1.8 miles, MIA at 27 miles and PBI at 50 miles. The one word Brightline has published about the gap is near, in a February 20, 2024 press release calling Port Everglades a cruise port near its stations.
Fort Lauderdale is the only one of Brightline’s six Florida stations without Mon – Sun hours: the company publishes Mon – Fri: 5:45 AM – Last Train Departure, and publishes that station’s Airport Connector Shuttle as Mon-Sun 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM. At the same time, Broward County names cruise days as Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The published price is $12 per Guest plus a $3 fuel surcharge with a same-day fare ticket, first-come first-serve, and Brightline runs the shuttle Mon-Sun 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM. It reaches Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, not the port. The Broward County Aviation page prints the same service as 7AM to 8PM and omits the figure.
Not on the route that reaches a gate. Route 40 is the only Broward County Transit route timed at the port’s SE 17th Street entrance, and it runs out of Broward Central Terminal, one avenue from the Brightline station rather than from the commuter rail station in another quadrant of the city. The commuter railroad’s own pages are not among the sources behind this guide.
The county wrote the timetable the railroad left blank
Brightline documents what it sells down to the door number, and the FLL connector proves it: three terminals, three zones, $12 per Guest plus a $3 fuel surcharge, departing 10 minutes after each train arrival. On the other side of the gap, every terminal the port operates is documented down to the square foot. The stretch between them belongs to neither, and the only party that has put a time and a price on it is Broward County Transit, on a bus timetable neither company links to.
That leaves the strongest published fact about this connection sitting where no cruise passenger would look for it. A rider can leave the Brightline platform, walk one avenue, board a $2 bus and reach a Port Everglades gate 14 minutes later, and can learn all of that only by opening a route schedule PDF that never uses the word cruise.