Brightline gets $25M grant to build high-speed train station between Vegas and Southern California
Brightline West’s proposed high-speed rail link between Las Vegas and Southern California took another step closer to reality this week.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced $25 million in funding to build passenger train stations in the California high desert towns of Hesperia and Apple Valley.
"This will provide a direct connection between the High Desert, Rancho Cucamonga, downtown Los Angeles and our own East Valley, reducing reliance on private vehicles for daily commuting, improving air quality, closing disparities in living conditions and reducing the cost of millions of jobs,” Raymond Wolf, executive director of the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, which received the grant, said in a news release issued Wednesday.
The award, which is part of the Biden administration’s effort to rebuild America’s infrastructure through the Discretionary Appropriations Initiative for Sustainability and Equity (RAISE), bodes well for the project. The real sticking point, however, is Brightline West's application in April for $3.75 billion from the Nevada Department of Transportation through the federal Intercity Passenger Partnership funding program. The program, authorized under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, publicly funds projects to expand or rebuild intercity passenger rail service.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has also approved $1 billion in private activity bonds to date, with actual borrowing being handled by California and Nevada.
Off track
Brightline West claims its $12 billion project will be the first truly high-speed rail system in the United States, with trains capable of reaching speeds of 200 miles per hour and outpacing car traffic along Interstate 15. Brightline predicts the average travel time from Las Vegas to Los Angeles to be 2 hours and 15 minutes.
According to Brightline, the project will remove 3 million cars from the transportation corridor each year and create 35,000 jobs, including 10,000 union construction jobs and nearly 1,000 permanent operations and maintenance jobs. In February, Brightline West reached an agreement with 24 railroad unions committing to using organized labor to operate and maintain the system.
The project will have an economic impact of more than $10 billion in California and Nevada, according to Brightline West.
Station to Station
In July 2021, Brightline purchased 110 acres of land on the Las Vegas Strip between Warm Springs Street and Blue Diamond Street for its Las Vegas terminal, just 3 miles from the southern end of the Strip . Brightline West is also expected to serve at the future Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport, expected to open in 2037, flying between Primm and Gene, Nevada.
At the Southern California end, the high-speed line will connect passengers on Metrolink's San Bernardino commuter trains for the final 40 miles to Los Angeles Union Station. The original plan was to build a California terminal in Victorville, California. But in October 2022, Brightline purchased 5 acres for a station in the town of Rancho Cucamonga, moving its terminal 40 miles closer to Los Angeles.
The slow train is coming
Brightline West hopes to have the rail line built in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Even under this optimistic timeline, the project would have taken nearly 20 years since initial planning.
Planning for a high-speed rail connection between Las Vegas and Southern California began in 2009, when the Federal Railroad Administration completed a draft environmental plan for the project then known as DesertXpress. Brightline acquired the project in 2018.
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Source: www.casino.org
