LAS VEGAS – Work is scheduled to begin Monday on a $12 billion high-speed passenger rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, with officials projecting that millions of ticket buyers will board the trains by 2028.
Brightline West, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando, Florida, plans to build 220 miles of new track between a terminal to be built south of the Las Vegas Strip and another new facility in Rancho Cucamonga. , California. Nearly the entire distance will be built in the median of Interstate 15, with a stop in the Victorville area of San Bernardino County.
In a statement, Brightline Holdings founder and president Wes Edens called the moment “the foundation for a new industry.”
Brightline aims to connect other U.S. cities that are too close to each other for flying between them to make sense and too far for people to travel the distance, Edens said.
CEO Mike Reininger said the goal is to have trains operating in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is scheduled to attend Monday’s inauguration. Brightline has received $6.5 billion in support from the Biden administration, including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. The company obtained federal authorization in 2020 to sell $1 billion in similar securities.
The project is touted as the country’s first high-speed passenger rail line, designed to reach speeds of 300 km/h, comparable to Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains.
The route between Vegas and LA is largely open space, with no convenient alternative to I-15. Brightline’s Southern California terminal will be on a commuter rail connection to downtown Los Angeles.
The project outline says the electric-powered trains will reduce the four-hour trip across the Mojave Desert to just over two hours. Forecasts are for 11 million outbound passengers per year, or around 30,000 per day, with fares well below the costs of air travel. The trains will offer restrooms, Wi-Fi, food and beverage sales and baggage check-in options.
Las Vegas is a popular driving destination in Southern California. Officials hope the train line will ease congestion on I-15, where drivers often get stuck in miles of slow-moving traffic while heading home after a weekend in Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas area, now approaching 3 million residents, attracts more than 40 million visitors a year. Passenger traffic at the city’s Harry Reid International Airport set a record of 57.6 million people in 2023. An average of more than 44,000 automobiles per day crossed the California-Nevada state line on I-15 in 2023, according to with Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority data.
Florida-based Brightline Holdings already operates the Miami-Orlando line with trains reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h. It launched service in 2018 and expanded service to Orlando International Airport last September. It offers 16 round trips per day, with one-way tickets for the 230-mile distance costing about $80.
Other fast trains in the US include Amtrak’s Acela, which can reach 150 mph (241 km/h) while sharing tracks with freight and commuter service between Boston and Washington, D.C.
In recent years, ideas have emerged to connect other U.S. cities with high-speed passenger rail, including Dallas to Houston; Atlanta to Charlotte, North Carolina; and Chicago to St. Most faced delays.
In California, voters in 2008 approved a proposed 505-mile rail line connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the plan has been beset by rising costs and disputes over routes. A 2022 business plan from the California High-Speed Rail Authority projected the cost to more than triple to $105 billion.
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