That company won the right from the Nevada High Speed Rail Authority in 2015 to build a 220-mile route adjacent to Interstate 15 from Las Vegas to Victorville, Calif. A total of 185 miles will be built as a sealed corridor with no at-grade road or pedestrian crossings.
Reflecting the real estate business model Brightline has employed in its Miami-West Palm Beach, Fla., corridor, the company is acquiring 38 acres of land on the Las Vegas Strip for construction of a station and mixed-use development.
A Brightline contact tells Trains News Wire that the company is reviewing the engineering work XpressWest has already completed, but the type of trainsets to be used and specific right-of-way construction options have yet to be determined, saying, “Construction is expected to begin in 2019 and Brightline is planning to begin initial service in 2022.”
In its press release, Brightline says it will, “provide a convenient alternative that will make the trip in less than two hours,” and refers to the operation as “high speed rail.”
The Siemens-built cars and locomotives Brightline currently uses in South Florida and on the planned “Phase 2” extension to Orlando are capable of 125 mph and will run at that speed over a short sealed corridor from Cocoa, Fla., to Orlando International Airport. As long as that velocity can be maintained over the mostly-straight arid Nevada and California landscape, that equipment could be utilized.
However, XpressWest originally announced a partnership in 2015 with a company called China Railway International USA that envisioned 220-mph electrified system, which would extend beyond a planned parking lot at Victorville to Palmdale, Calif., where Metrolink Los Angeles-bound commuter trains call and a future connection with California High Speed Rail Authority’s San Francisco-Los Angeles system is planned. Chinese investors were expected to provide working capital for the project, but the partnership fell apart in 2016 when the parties couldn’t come to an agreement.
Brightline says preliminary planning for additional stations and connectivity, presumably at Palmdale, “is underway,” but provides no details
According to Brightline, 50 million annual trips are made between Las Vegas and Southern California. Since Amtrak’s Desert Wind was discontinued on May 10, 1997, several ventures have proposed tapping the market over the existing Union Pacific-BNSF Railway trackage, but all efforts have failed to advance.
Trains News Wire will follow future developments as they occur.
If you build it, they will come.
I believe it was Winston Churchill that said; “The United States can always be relied upon to do the right thing — having first exhausted all possible alternatives.” I feel that high speed rail on iron has no future. Perhaps it is time to move aloft and give Mag-Lev a chance. We need to move past barriers, Environmental, NIMBY, etc. Chinese and Japanese people are whisked about their country at blazing speeds. Mostly using technology developed in this country. I remember in the early 90’s companies giving up on High Speed Rail. Most agreed Mag-Lev was the way to go. Perhaps Elon Musk’s underground Hyperloop is the answer. Either way it is time to move-on rather than sit in our private autos moving at 7.5mph as reported on the news this past Labor day via the I-15 South out of Las Vegas.
I agree with Paul Harrison. AAF is running over the Florida East Coast, which is a good, solid, class one railroad. BNSF and UP both know FEC and dealt with them before.
I agree with the criticism of the Western terminus here, but it’s worth pointing out that that was XpressWest’s decision, not AAF’s (I believe it’s AAF buying this despite media fixation on the Brightline brand, Brightline is the name of their Florida passenger service), and AAF almost certainly has its own ideas about how this should run, and, given their experience, probably will be taken more seriously by UP or BNSF if they proposed to use their lines for some of the journey. I wouldn’t assume the Western terminus will be in Victorville at this stage.
So, it seems that you need to start somewhere. You can’t build all of it at once so would you prefer they start in L.A. and build to Victorville? You seem to be missing the part of building from Las Vegas – TO – L.A. It’s not a video game where you click and point and poof it’s done.
David Wire,
There’s something wrong with your math, and it’s in the drive time from the Los Angeles basin to Las Vegas, especially on weekends. It’s roughly 270 miles between the 2 cities, and even at 70 miles per hour you’re looking at almost 4 hours, only I15 is a mess and you can’t make it in 4 hours, the normal drive is more around 5. Then you have to contend with all the accidents on I15(and there are a lot of them). So tell me, if you could drive to Victorville or Palmdale, leave your vehicle there, take a 2(two) hour train ride right to the Las Vegas Strip(remember, almost no one drives once they reach Vegas)…which would you choose…besides flying, if the price was competitive(you have to include fuel and food for the drive). Did I mention the horrendous traffic jams that form on I15 sometimes(when there’s an accident).
Brightline Just use SCRRA trackage north from LAUPT to Palmdale then you can use your own right of way to Vegas.. As stated below it’s pointless to start the journey at Palmdale or Victorville…
If Brightline were to use their same Siemens trainsets as in Florida, how long would it take for them to go from Victorville to LA’s Union Station, and would that be competitive with driving? I agree that they will struggle if they really think people will drive to Victorville and then pay for a train ticket.
This “low hanging fruit” of a route has been there for decades for Amtrak to seize as an opportunity. Good to see an operator with vision take a look.
Oh, and Palmdale isn’t much better.
Except that, like all the former proposals, they don’t answer the question: Since 99% of the market would have to drive themselves to Victorville, why on earth would they park the car and get on a train when they could just keep driving, be there nearly as fast, and have the car for their use in Las Vegas?
The worst part of the drive is getting to Victorville, at which point, from my house, at least, you’re halfway to Vegas already. A high speed train from downtown LA or even some place like Anaheim might get enough traffic to work, but not Victorville.