Pictured Left to Right: Reps Lee and Horsford, Senators Masto and Rosen, DOT Secretary Buttigieg, Governor Lombardo and Rep. Titus. (Photo: Brightline West)
Brightline West Breaks Ground on HighSpeed Rail Between CA And NV
The $12 billion rail project is expected to be completed by the 2028 Summer Olympics
By Megan Barth, April 23, 2024 12:01 pm
On Earth day, a group of bipartisan officials attended a ground breaking ceremony for Brightline West, the first high speed rail system in the United States that will connect Southern California to Las Vegas, Nevada. Nevada’s Democratic congressional delegation and Republican Governor Joe Lombardo welcomed Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, members of the Biden administration, California officials, Brightline executives and stakeholders to announce the estimated $12 billion project.
“This is a historic project and a proud moment where we break ground on America’s first high-speed rail system and lay the foundation for a new industry,” Brightline Founder Wes Edens told the more than 600 groundbreaking ceremony attendees, including union representatives, project supporters, federal officials, and state and local officials from California and Nevada. “Today is long overdue, but the blueprint we’ve created with Brightline will allow us to repeat this model in other city pairs around the country.”
Governor Lombardo noted that the project will create thousands of jobs and that Nevada leads the nation in annual job growth. “Nevada is open for business,” Lombardo said.
The end-to-end travel time between Rancho Cucamonga and Las Vegas will be about 2 hours 15 minutes with travel speeds of up to 220 mph and is estimated to remove 3 million cars from I-15 annually, serve 11 million passengers, reduce more than 400,000 tons of carbon emissions each year, and create 35,000 “good-paying union jobs.” The system is expected to create over 1,000 permanent jobs once operational. The transportation plan is to run 25 trains a day between Rancho Cucamonga and Las Vegas.
Billions of dollars allocated from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act will be proportionally used to fund this project. Brightline recently overcame some labor and regulatory hurdles by securing agreements with multiple unionized trade organizations.
A prior statement released by the Whitehouse highlights that the Biden Administration has invested $8.2 billion in 10 major passenger rail projects across the country. $3 billion of the $8.2 billion has been dedicated to Brightline West’s construction. The of the project will be funded through bonds and private investment.
Brightline officials expect the rail line to be finished in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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$400 for a round trip, and once in Vegas, you might have to rent a car.
Also at 180 mph, the tracks are going to have to be protected by a barb wire fence on each side of the track. Not much of a view fro m the train then. To keep wild life and people away from the right of way – it has to be fenced.
Also the station location in Vegas is in an area where dust blows in BIG time. Just talk to the people at the 7-11 at Warm Spring and Vegas Blvd.
So the tract of land in that area is going to have to be sprayed with dust control chemicals. .
The Florida operation has a high accident rate related to track easements.
Good idea, but not without potential problems. What if you get problem passengers on the train?? Look at flights into and out of Vegas. What do you do? Stop the train to remove drunks? So security is going to have to be an issue as well. Will they serve booze on train?