It was described at groundbreaking as the start of the United States high-speed rail industry.
But arguably, the Brightline West project is the best hope for establishing true U.S. high speed rail.
The April 22, 2024, groundbreaking ceremony in Las Vegas — on a lot south of the Las Vegas strip, next to Interstate 15, which will provide the right-of-way for much of the route — started the clock on the effort to be the nation’s first operating high speed system.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor Acela service only nibbles at the edges of high speed rail, relying on aging conventional infrastructure and reaching 150 mph on about a ninth of the 457-mile route between Boston and Washington. California’s project — slowed by legal opposition, early mismanagement, and soaring costs — is creeping toward the launch of service with an isolated 119-mile segment in the San Joaquin Valley. But Los Angeles-San Francisco service is still far in the future, and an incoming presidential administration that is openly hostile to the project isn’t likely to help its cause. And political opposition torpedoed the promising Texas Central project to connect Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston, although Amtrak now is involved in an effort to resurrect that route.
Brightline West appears to be much better positioned for success. The use of a right-of-way following I-15 eases the project’s environmental and permitting hurdles. So does the combination of widespread support among governmental bodies along the way — illustrated by the large number of elected officials among the 600 invited guests and media at the ground breaking — and the fact there are far fewer of those bodies along the sparsely populated 218-mile route.
“We’ve gotten massive cooperation from both Nevada and California on the right-of-way,” Brightline founder Wes Edens said after the groundbreaking ceremony. “We have construction permits for the right-of-way. … the heavy lift has already been done in terms of all the environmental and the permitting and all those processes. That stuff has taken years. We feel like that’s behind us now. It’s just a matter of literally putting shovels in the ground and building it.”
Financially, Brightline West looks to be less at the whims of changing political priorities. While it has already nailed down a $3 billion federal grant — officially awarded to Nevada’s Department of Transportation — it will also be able to tap private financing unavailable to a public project like that in California. Private activity bonds played a big part in financing Brightline in Florida; they will also play a significant role for the line between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. And, as was the case in Florida, figure that Brightline will benefit from real estate development around its stations. Edens told those at the groundbreaking to take a good look at the 110-acre Las Vegas station site, because it wouldn’t be a vacant lot for long: “I can pretty much guarantee that everything will be built on. There will be all kinds of communities, private apartments, offices, casinos, a lot of different things.”
If the specifics of the Vegas-LA market make it particularly attractive — as Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg noted, “I have never heard of a stretch of Interstate described as a parking lot more often than I-15” — it also has the potential to serve as proof of concept for high speed rail’s viability between city pairs that “too short to fly, too long to drive,” Edens said: “Our vision is this blueprint is can be repeated all over this country,” he said. “Houston-Dallas, Portland-Seattle, Atlanta-Charlotte — there are many trains that we need to build and will be built as a result of what we’re doing out here right now.”
The company’s goal is to have trains running in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, which begin on July 15, 2028. To that end, it moved quickly after groundbreaking to order rolling stock, selecting Siemens to build 10 “American Pioneer 220” trainsets, to be based on the Velaro platform widely in use in Europe. Siemens subsequently announced it would build a factory in New York for construction of those trainsets, while another company, Germany’s PCM Railone, is building a factory in Las Vegas to supply the specialized concrete ties needed for high speed operations.
Such factories — and the idea that Brightline West could be the first of several such short-to-medium-range high speed lines — give credence to Edens’ proclamation that the Las Vegas-Southern California service would be the launch of much more than a single route.
“There’s no reason,” he said, “the United States of America should not be the leader in the world for the high-speed rail industry.”
Previous News Wire coverage:
— DOT awards Brightline West $2.5 billion in private activity bonds, Jan. 23, 2024
— Brightline West groundbreaking hailed as ‘start of high-speed rail industry in the U.S.,’ April 22, 2024
— Brightline West clearly a different challenge than Florida’s project, April 23, 2024
— Governments in alignment as Brightline West work begins, April 24, 2024
— Siemens to build high speed trainsets for Brightline West, May 1, 2024
— Concrete tie maker to open plant in North Las Vegas, June 26, 2024
— First US high-speed rail production facility to set up shop in Horseheads, New York, Sept. 9, 2024
— Alstom lawsuit challenges waivers approved by FRA for Brightline West’s trainset order: Analysis, Sept. 18, 2024
— FRA finalizes $3 billion Brightline West grant, Sept. 26, 2024
Wes Edens must be the king of Corporate Welfare —- a basketball arena in Milwaukee and Brightline West, both courtesy of the taxpayers.