Uncle Sam Places Bet on Las Vegas High-Speed Line
$3 billion grant for Brightline West; $3.1 billion for California HSR
Las Vegas, NV, hasn’t had passenger train service since 1997 when Amtrak discontinued the Desert Wind, which ran between Chicago and Los Angeles via Denver and Salt Lake City. However, the gambling mecca’s luck is about to change thanks to a $3 billion grant from the US Department of Transportation. As early as 2028 the largest US city without passenger rail will be the eastern terminus for America’s first “true” high-speed railroad.
With another project in California that received a $3.1 billion federal grant the West Coast could soon become America’s high-speed rail leader. Although the Northeast Corridor, where the Acela Express reaches 150 mph in a few sections, will be getting $16.4 billion from the government, the funds will go mainly for rebuilding existing infrastructure rather than upgrading the line to HSR standards.
The new, electrified Las Vegas line, with top speed of 200 mph, will run for 218 miles, mainly in the Interstate 15 median, to Rancho Cucamonga, California. The trip is expected to take around two hours. Passengers will be able to transfer at Rancho Cucamonga to Metrolink regional trains to Los Angeles and other Southern California destinations.
Known as Brightline West, the line is affiliated with Brightline, a privately owned passenger railroad running between Miami and Orlando. Both are owned by Fortress Investment Group LLC, a diversified global investment manager with $44.7 billion of assets under management.
President Biden noted that his administration is making the largest investment in passenger rail since Amtrak was formed more than 50 years ago.
Last Friday, President Biden flew to Las Vegas to formally announced the award to the Nevada Department of Transportation, which will oversee Brightline West. The funds came from the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Grant Program, which was created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) passed in 2021.
The award for the Las Vegas – Southern California route was one of two Federal-State Partnership program grants for West Coast HSR projects announced last week. In addition, $3.1 billion was awarded to the California High-Speed Rail Authority to continue building a high-speed rail network that eventually will connect Northern and Southern California.
They, along $2 billion for high-speed rail projects in other states also announced last week, will help close the gap in fast and reliable passenger service between the United States and other developed nations. "We're not there today for the simple reason that you get what you pay for, and America disinvested over the last many decades in our rail systems," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on a call with reporters. "We're reversing that trend."
President Biden noted that his administration is making the largest investment in passenger rail since Amtrak was formed more than 50 years ago.
The $3 billion award for Brightline West is one of the largest federal infrastructure grants ever made to a private company. It will cover approximately one quarter of the project’s cost, estimated around $12 billion. The remainder will be financed through tax-exempt private activity bonds issued by Nevada and California, and private capital.
Brightline West construction is expected to begin next year and its owners plan to have the railroad in commercial operation in time for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The trip from Las Vegas to Los Angeles is expected to take two hours and 40 minutes, including the connecting Metrolink train from Rancho Cucamonga. Current trip time to Los Angeles Union Station ranges between 1:10 and 1:25, with hourly weekday service and less frequent on weekends.
The line will begin at a station to be built approximately five miles from the Las Vegas “Strip” and two miles from Harry Reid International Airport. Additional stations are planned in California at Rancho Cucamonga, Hesperia, and Victor Valley, where a connection with California High-Speed Rail could be built in the future.
Wes Edens, founder and chair of Brightline says his company is ready to get to work to bring “our vision of American-made, American-built, world-class, state-of-the-art high-speed train travel to America.” The company has been preparing to begin construction since taking over the project from earlier investors in 2018 and has acquired land for the stations and the right-of-way in the I-15 median.
Edens, who is a co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks and a co-founder of Fortress, called Brightline West a “remarkable project that will serve as the blueprint for how we can repeat this model throughout the country.” In the future it hopes to run direct to Los Angeles and build additional HSR lines to Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Denver.
With a two-hour running time between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, Brightline West will be twice as fast as driving. The railroad expects to eliminate three million of the 16 million car trips made annually between Southern California and Las Vegas and alleviate weekend and holiday traffic jams on I-15. In addition, since renewable sources such as solar and wind will generate electricity, Brightline West will support California and Nevada climate strategies by eliminating 400,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year.
The $3.1 billion award to the California High Speed Rail Authority(CHSRA) will keep a project going that has been plagued by problems since it was first authorized in a 2008 bond referendum. “This show of support from the Biden-Harris Administration is a vote of confidence in today’s vision and comes at a critical turning point, providing the project new momentum,” said California Gov. Gavin Newsome.
The funds will advance work in California’s Central Valley. This includes designing and constructing the Fresno station; completing design and right-of-way acquisition between Merced and Bakersfield and procuring trainsets to begin testing. Federal funding will help complete the full 171 miles of double-track electrified rail between those cities.
Currently construction is concentrated in a 119-mile stretch. Forty structures have been completed and another 30 are still being built. CHSRA has spent more than $11 billion so far and total project estimates range between $88 billion and $128 billion.
The Merced – Bakersfield line will comprise the initial operating segment. It isn’t expected to be placed into service before 2030. Once it is operational, work will proceed on the other parts of the system’s first phase. The line will be extended to San Francisco first and then to Los Angeles since the latter segment is still under environmental review. Further out, branches are to be built to Sacramento and San Diego.
Although the high cost has raised concerns, most Californian’s still support the project. A 2022 survey conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, and the Los Angeles Times found 56 percent of those polled want construction to continue, while 35 percent want it to stop.
CHSRA CEO Brian Kelly dismisses comments about the project’s cost and says they are in line with comparable projects in other parts of the world. The project has much more complex right-of-way acquisition and engineering challenges than confront Brightline West.
Mega infrastructure projects are always going to have targets on their backs. In the history books we learned about “Clinton’s Ditch,” aka the Erie Canal, which was built from the Hudson River to the eponymous lake. It gave New York the first route linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean, which helped New York earn the nickname Empire State.
California is already an economic powerhouse and the most populous of the 50 states. However, it can no longer rely solely on highways and airlines for its people to get around. It needs north-south high-speed rail not only to reduce congestion but also to help reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for climate change.
Last weeks’ announcements were important milestones in the seemingly endless quest to develop high-speed rail in this country. “We’ve been talking about this project for decades, now, we’re really getting it done,” President Biden said in announcing the Brightline West grant. Hopefully now the projects will proceed full throttle.