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Vegas-SoCal High-Speed Rail Secures $3B in New Funding

The high-speed train proposed by Brightline West to connect Las Vegas and Southern California chugged another step closer to reality on Tuesday. That’s when US Senator Jacky Rosen (D-NV) announced that $3B in funding is now secured to begin construction.

A rendering of the Brightline West train, which is expected to link Las Vegas with Los Angeles by 2028. (Image: Brightline West)

According to a news release announcing the funding, the money comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

This historic high-speed rail project will be a game-changer for Nevada’s tourism economy and transportation,” Sen. Rosen is quoted as saying in the release. “It’ll bring more visitors to our state, reduce traffic on the I-15, create thousands of good paying jobs, and decrease carbon emissions, all while relying on local union labor.”

Previously, the US Department of Transportation approved $1B in private activity bonds, with the actual borrowing up to the states of California and Nevada. It also awarded $25M in June to build passenger stations in the high-desert California towns of Hesperia and Apple Valley, from which the trains will connect to downtown Los Angeles.

Money Train

Brightline West claims its $12B project will be the first truly high-speed rail system in America, with trains capable of speeds of 200 miles per hour whooshing past vehicular traffic along Interstate 15’s right of way. Brightline projects an average Las Vegas-L.A. travel time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Brightline West estimates its high-speed rail “will remove 3 million cars from I-15 annually, reducing more than 400K tons of carbon emissions each year” and create “35,000 good-paying, union jobs,” including 10K union construction jobs and close to 1,000 permanent jobs for operations and maintenance.

According to Brightline West, the project will generate more than $1B in economic impact to California and Nevada.

Slow Train Coming

Brightline West said it hopes to build its rail line in time for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Even by that optimistic timetable, the project will have taken nearly 20 years from the time it was first envisioned.

Planning for a high-speed rail link connecting Las Vegas with Southern California began in 2009. That’s when the Federal Railroad Administration completed a draft environmental plan for a project, which was then known as DesertXpress. Brightline acquired the project in 2018.

In July 2021, Brightline purchased 110 acres for its Las Vegas terminus station at Las Vegas Boulevard between Warm Springs and Blue Diamond roads, only three miles from the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. Brightline West is also expected to include a stop at the future Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport, which is expected to open by 2037 between Primm and Jean, Nev.

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Brightline Wins $25M Grant to Build Vegas-SoCal High-Speed Rail Stations

The high-speed train that Brightline West has proposed to connect Las Vegas and Southern California chugged another step closer to reality this week. On Wednesday, the US Department of Transportation announced it had awarded $25 million for the construction of passenger stations in the high-desert California towns of Hesperia and Apple Valley.

A rendering of one of two high-desert stations Brightline West received a $25M public grant this week to build on the California side of its proposed 218-mile high-speed rail line to Vegas. (Image: Brightline West)

“This will provide a direct link between the High Desert, Rancho Cucamonga, downtown Los Angeles, and our own East Valley, reducing the need to rely on personal vehicles for daily commutes, improving air quality, and closing the live-work gap for millions of people,” Raymond Wolfe, executive director of the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority, which received the grant, stated in a press release distributed on Wednesday.

This award, made through the Biden Administration’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program, bodes well for the project. However, the real deal-breaker is the $3.75 billion that Brightline West applied for, along with the Nevada Department of Transportation, from the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail grant program in April. That program, authorized by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, publicly funds projects that expand or establish new intercity passenger rail service.

So far, the US Department of Transportation also approved $1B in private activity bonds, with the actual borrowing up to the states of California and Nevada.

The high-speed rail proposed by Brightline West will run along the center of Interstate 15 from Rancho Cucamonga in California to Las Vegas. (Image: Brightline West)

Off the Rails

Brightline West claims its $12 billion project will be the first truly high-speed rail system in America, with trains capable of speeds of 200 miles per hour whooshing past vehicular traffic along Interstate 15’s right of way. Brightline projects an average Las Vegas-Los Angeles travel time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.

According to Brightline, the project will eliminate 3 million cars annually from the travel corridor and create 35K jobs, including 10K union construction jobs and close to 1,000 permanent jobs for operations and maintenance. In February, Brightline West entered an agreement with 24 rail unions, committing it to use organized labor to operate and maintain the system.

According to Brightline West, the project will generate more than $10 billion in economic impact to California and Nevada.

Station to Station

In July 2021, Brightline purchased 110 acres for its Las Vegas terminus station at Las Vegas Boulevard between Warm Springs and Blue Diamond roads, only three miles from the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip. Brightline West is also expected to include a stop at the future Southern Nevada Supplemental Airport, which is expected to open by 2037 between Primm and Jean. Nev.

At its Southern California end, the high-speed rail will connect passengers to Metrolink’s San Bernardino commuter rail service for the final 40 miles to LA’s Union Station. Originally, plans called for a California terminus in Victorville, Calif, but in October 2022, Brightline brought its terminus 40 miles closer to LA by purchasing 5 acres for a station in the city of Rancho Cucamonga.

Slow Train Coming

Brightline West said it hopes to build its rail line in time for the 2028 Olympics Games in Los Angeles. Even by that optimistic timetable, however, the project will have taken nearly 20 years from the time it was first envisioned.

Planning for a high-speed rail link connecting Las Vegas with Southern California began in 2009 when the Federal Railroad Administration completed a draft environmental plan for a project, which was then known as DesertXpress. Brightline acquired the project in 2018.

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High-Speed LA to Vegas Railway Gets Bipartisan Backing

A bipartisan congressional group from California and Nevada asked the Biden administration on Monday to fast-track federal funding for a high-speed railway link from LA to Las Vegas that was first proposed in 2009.

Brightline West
This undated rendering illustrates the high-speed rail line proposed by Brightline from LA to Las Vegas. A bipartisan congressional group California and Nevada asked the Biden administration to fast-track the federal portion of its funding. (Brightline West)

In a letter to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, five of Nevada’s elected federal lawmakers, as well as four House Members from California, asked for $3.75 billion for the Brightline West project from the Biden-backed federal infrastructure law. The entire project will cost $10 billion, 70% of which will come from private funding, according to Brightline, using a combination of debt and equity.

The letter estimated that the project will create 35,000 union construction jobs as well as 1,000 permanent jobs, and will divert 3 million cars from the congested Interstate 15 “onto a faster, more efficient, zero-emission transportation option” that would stop the belching of 400,000 tons of CO2  into the air every year.

Brightline — which already runs a high-speed rail between Miami and West Palm Beach in Florida — plans to connect Las Vegas with Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., 220 miles southwest, via 200 mph passenger trains that run mainly within the I-15’s median. Brightline projects an average travel time of two hours and 15 minutes — half the time the trip currently takes in a car during the average weekend. Each train could transport up to 500 passengers.

California Democratic House members Nanette Barraga?n, Jimmy Gomez, and John Garamendi signed the letter — as did Republican Jay Obernolte. So did Nevada’s senior US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, and four House members, including Republican Mark Amodei.

Slow Train Coming

Amtrak passenger service from LA to Las Vegas ended in 1991 with the Desert Wind. That train regularly got stuck behind the increasing number of freight trains serving the growing desert region. Often, that trip took passengers 10 hours, and it feels like this high-speed rail project, first proposed in 2005, is moving with equal sluggishness.

It wasn’t until 2009 that the Federal Railroad Administration completed a draft environmental plan for the railway, which was then known as DesertXpress. Brightline acquired the project in 2018.

“After more than a decade of working to find a pathway, Brightline West will be the first true high-speed rail system in America and will serve as the blueprint for how we can connect major city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive,” read a statement from Brightline CEO Mike Reininger.

A draft environmental assessment for Brightline West was made public in October 2022 and the Federal Railroad Administration is expected to finalize permits in July.

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