Feds backing $12 billion investment in transportation

By Ken Ritter

The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS A $12 billion infrastructure project to link Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area was dubbed the first true high-speed rail line in the nation on Monday, with the private company building it predicting millions of ticket-buyers will be boarding trains by 2028.

“People have been dreaming of high-speed rail in America for decades,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said before taking a stage with union representatives and company officials at the future site of a terminal to be built slightly south of the Las Vegas Strip. “It’s really happening this time.”

Buttigieg cited the Biden administration’s support for the project that he said will bring thousands of union jobs, boost local economies, and alleviate traffic and air pollution.

Brightline West, whose sister companyalready operates a fast trainbetween Miami and Orlando in Florida, aims to lay 218 miles of new track almost all in the median of Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, California. It would link there with a commuter rail connection to downtown Los Angeles. A station also is planned in San Bernardino County’s Victorville area.

Company officials say the goal is to have trains exceeding speeds of 186 mph comparable toJapan’s Shinkansenbullet trains operating in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.

“I believe we’ll look back at today and say, ‘This was the birth of an industry of high-speed rail,’” Brightline Holdings founder Wes Edens said Monday.

The company aims to link U.S. cities that are too near each other for air travel to make sense and too far for people to drive.

Las Vegas has no Amtrak service. The idea of a bullet train to Los Angeles dates back decades under various names, including DesertXpress. Brightline West acquired the project in 2019, and company and public officials say it has received all required right-of-way and environmental approvals as well as secured labor agreements.

Brightline West received the Biden administration’s backing, including a$3 billion federal infrastructure grantand recentapproval to sell $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. In 2020, the company won federal authorization to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.

Brightline West says electric-powered trains will cut the four-hour trip across the Mojave Desert to a little more than two hours. It projects 11 million one-way passengers per year, with fares that Edens said will be comparable to airfare. The trains will offer restrooms, Wi-Fi, food and beverage sales, and the option to check luggage.

Officials hope the train line will relieve congestion on I-15, where drivers often must bear miles of crawling traffic while returning home to Southern California from a Las Vegas weekend. An average of more than44,000 motorists per daycrossed the California-Nevada state line on I-15 in 2023, according to Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data.

Florida-based Brightline Holdings’ Miami line debutedin 2018 and expanded service to Orlando International Airport in September 2023 with trains reaching speeds up to 125 mph. The company offers 16 round trips per day with one-way tickets for the 235-mile trek costing about $80.

Other fast trains in the U.S. include Amtrak’s Acela, which can top 150 mph between Boston and Washington, D.C. But fast-train connections for other U.S. cities have been floated, includingDallas to Houston;Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina;Chicago to St. Louis; and Seattle to Portland, Oregon .Most have faced delays.

In California, a proposed 500-mile rail line linking Los Angeles and San Francisco was approved by voters in 2008 but has been beset byrising costs and routing disputes. A 2022 business plan by the California High-Speed Rail Authority projected thecost had more than tripledto $105 billion.

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