High-Speed Rail to Connect Vegas and LA Thanks to $3 Billion Grant

The Biden administration pledged $3 billion on Tuesday to assist start constructin track for a planned high speed rail connection between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area, Nevada elected leaders said.

Brightline West's $12 billion project has been discussed for decades, U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen told reporters that all necessary right-of way and environmental permissions, as well as labor agreements, are now in place for work to begin on the 218-mile (351-kilometer) Interstate 15 corridor.

There was no announcement of a start date for the work yet, though.However, Rosen believes that electric trains might be transporting people by the time Los Angeles holds the Summer Olympics in 2028.

Rosen and the U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, both Democrats, headed a bipartisan group in April that persuaded Biden to commit up to $3.75 billion in federal infrastructure dollars toward what they term a public-private partnership. The group included all of Nevada's elected federal representatives and four House members from California.

Trains traveling at almost 200 mph (322 kph) could reduce a four-hour road drive from a station in Las Vegas to a suburban Los Angeles light rail line in the San Bernardino County city of Rancho Cucamonga in half, according to the planners.

They claim the service might help reduce weekend or end-of holiday travel traffic congestion on I-15 along the Nevada-California border, which can regularly stretch over 15 miles (24 kilometers).

Calls for a high-speed rail route to transport visitors over the Mojave Desert to Las Vegas stretch back to at least 2001, according to U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, a Democrat from the Las Vegas Strip. Over the years, the idea had beginnings, pauses, and many names until being derailed by the COVID-19 epidemic.

Brightline's Ambitious Expansion Plans in California

Brightline Holdings LLC of Florida, which established the only privately-owned and managed intercity passenger train in the United States, is planned to model the line on service it launched on Florida's east coast in 2014. That line presently connects Miami and Orlando, with trains reaching speeds of up to 125 miles per hour (200 kilometers per hour).

Other locations where high-speed trains have been suggested include the 240-mile (386-kilometer) Texas route between Dallas and Houston, as well as a 500-mile (805-kilometer) line between Los Angeles and San Francisco, which has been plagued by rising prices, funding issues, and other setbacks.

Brightline obtained a right-of-way agreement in 2020, allowing it to construct the 135-mile California section of the route in the center of Interstate 15. CalTrans will manage the building and operation of the rail line, which will begin in Apple Valley at a train station off Interstate 15's Dale Evans Parkway exit.