TRAVEL NEWS

High-speed rail line from Las Vegas to LA on track to break ground in 2021

Ed Komenda
Reno Gazette Journal
During the 2021 High Desert Real Estate Symposium, a “Brightline West Panel” is scheduled to discuss the high-speed passenger rail project between Apple Valley and Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS — A top executive behind a high-speed rail project that would lay tracks between Las Vegas and Southern California contends construction is on schedule to start in the second quarter of this year.

However, Brightline West CEO Mike Reininger did not give the Reno Gazette Journal, which is part of the USA TODAY Network, a definitive date on when shovels would strike dirt to commence the 170-mile Vegas-to-Victorville, California route.

“The world changed as a result of the pandemic, but we continued to work wherever we possibly could towards advancing the ball,” Reininger said. "The project remains a very high priority for us." 

Brightline, the country’s only privately owned passenger railroad, sent a letter to the Nevada High-Speed Rail Authority in January and revealed the pandemic year created significant hurdles to fund the train expected to reach top speeds of 200 mph.

A revised financing plan for Brightline West is expected to put the company’s high-speed passenger rail project, between Apple Valley and Las Vegas, back on track.

The company had made progress with intentions to sell private activity bonds allocated for the project by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the states of Nevada and California to pay for construction.

However, the letter said, “election uncertainty, the lack of approval of a Covid-19 vaccine, and lack of liquidity in the market did not allow us to price the bonds to provide long-term stability for the company.”

Last year, Brightline announced that Fortress Investment Group, its parent company, had put the brakes on the $8 billion privately financed XpressWest project when it could not complete financing.

In January, Brightline West President Sarah Watterson said her company was preparing a revised financial plan that could see a second-quarter 2021 groundbreaking date. 

“The tenor of the financial markets today is dramatically different,” Reininger said. "The stock market is doing incredibly well, people are optimistic about a massive rebound in the economy, jobs are heading in the right direction. That gives us confidence about our ability to keep the project on track."

Amtrak's eastbound California Zephyr pulls into the Truckee station on May 29, 2018.

Meanwhile, Amtrak has teased plans to possibly install a new line between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. If approved by Congress, President Joe Biden's proposed $2 trillion American Jobs Plan would provide $80 billion to Amtrak to cover its backlog of repairs, modernize existing rails – and connect new city pairs.

Amtrak released a map showing where it could expand service if it gets the funding.

Amtrak's proposed new routes.

New service would be added to major cities that currently have no Amtrak service, including Las Vegas; Nashville; Columbus, Ohio; and Phoenix.  

Other expanded services would run on the existing lines from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh; New York through Baltimore and Washington, D.C.; San Diego to San Luis Obispo, California; the Northwest corridor through Portland and Seattle; and several expansions and enhancements from Chicago. 

At Brightline, Reininger welcomed the prospect of having two rail lines between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

"Everything and anything that gets Americans thinking about, talking about and changing their habits towards trains as an acceptable and desirable mode of transportation, we are fervent fans of," he said. "Our service, we believe, will be superior."

Contributing: USA TODAY, Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz.