A proposed high-speed passenger train connecting Las Vegas with LA has been given another boost with the approval of $2.5billion(£1.975billion) in extra funding.
The Brightline West railway aims to whisk passengers at 186mph (300kph) or more in electric trains across the Nevada desert in just two hours. It will cost around $12billion to create.
The latest funding – in tax-exempt bonds – was recently approved by the Biden administration.
It follows an unprecedented $3billion U.S. Department of Transportation grant in December and government authorisation in 2020 for the company to sell $1billion in similar bonds.
‘We appreciate the confidence placed in us by DOT and are ready to get to work,’ said Brightline founder and chairman Wes Edens.
A proposed high-speed passenger train connecting Las Vegas with LA has been given another boost with the approval of $2.5billion(£1.975billion) in extra funding. The Brightline West railway aims to whisk passengers across the Nevada desert in just two hours. Pictured is a Brightline train in Fort Lauderdale
Florida-based Brightline Holdings LLC is the only private passenger rail company in the U.S, linking Miami and Orlando with diesel-powered trains reaching speeds up to 125mph (200kph).
And it could soon also become the first in the country to complete a high-speed, electric-powered option if its new Brightline West project is successful.
The 218-mile (351km) railway will halve a four-hour freeway trip between Las Vegas and suburban San Bernardino County near LA.
It will make stops in Las Vegas, Victory Valley, Hesperia, and Ranch Cucamonga California where it will connect to the City of Angels’ Metrolink commuter rail.
Planners and politicians say the project has all the required right-of-way and environmental approvals, along with labour agreements, and should help alleviate weekend and end-of-holiday travel traffic jams that often stretch for 15 miles (25km) on I-15 near the Nevada-California line.
No date has been announced for work to start, but officials have said it might be operational by the start of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028
The new planned route is the brain child of Wes Edens, the billionaire part-owner of both the Bucks and Aston Villa FC
Brightline founder and chairman Wes Edens
Nevada U.S Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat who has backed the project in Congress, said she expects the long-sought rail link will boost Nevada’s tourism economy and create thousands of jobs while reducing traffic and pollution.
No date has been announced for work to start, but officials have said it might be operational by the start of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028.
The new planned route is the brain child of Wes Edens, the billionaire part-owner of both the Bucks and Aston Villa FC.
He helped found Brightline in 2012 to make his vision a reality, and is now thanking officials for their vote of confidence.
December’s $3billion grant is funded from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which, when it was passed in 2021, was billed as ‘a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness’.
The taxpayer-funded guidance seeks to funnel money into America’s roads, bridges and rails, while also expanding access to things like clean drinking water and high-speed internet.
It will also see cash injected into research on how to handle the climate crisis, as well as the advancement of environmental justice and communities that have too often been left behind.
Planners and politicians say the project should help alleviate weekend and end-of-holiday travel traffic jams that often stretch for 15 miles (25km) on I-15 near the Nevada-California line
At full operations, Edens and Brightline said they expect to sell 12million one-way tickets each year
Lawmakers and politicians in both California and Nevada, particularly Nevada, have claimed they fit the criteria, citing how a two-hour train trip would come as welcome news to the millions of Americans who travel from Southern California to Vegas on a yearly basis.
The lion’s share, statistics show, come from the City of Angels – with approximately 50million one-way trips made annually between the city and Las Vegas, mostly by car or bus.
At full operations, Edens and Brightline said they expect to sell 12million one-way tickets each year.
Last year, Edens, who previously worked as a partner at the now-defunct Lehman Brothers and also runs Manhattan-based Fortress Investments, said the demand is there, and it’s about time the U.S caught up with other first-world countries.
‘Vegas-to-LA is probably the best system in the world that hasn’t been built yet,’ he told Forbes in an interview, pointing to the US’s current lack of a bullet train.
‘Vegas-to-LA is probably the best system in the world that hasn’t been built yet,’ Edens said
‘When you look at the systems in Japan, at the systems in China, nine major cities in Japan are connected with true high-speed rail.’
The billionaire businessman went on to cite the struggles currently being felt by state officials in California, who for years have tried – unsuccessfully – to finish work on a separate bullet train that would connect LA to San Francisco.
That project has remained marred by setbacks for more 15 years, and has already cost taxpayers an eyewatering $108bn.
‘China has 26,000 miles of high-speed train routes. We have zero,’ Edens said.
By comparison, the businessman promised it would only cost him about $12billion to forge the 218-mile path, all in a fraction of the time – even after the Covid-19 pandemic uprooted his plans for a passenger rail future for three years.
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