Brightline Buys XpressWest High Speed Rail which will connect Victorville to Las Vegas

Brightline is the nation’s largest and only privately owned operated express intercity passenger rail system. Brightline funded the Florida rail corridor previously. The Florida rail is a proven privately funded model for the Las Vegas Express. Brightline will now take over the construction, land acquisition. The initial phase is expected to build the right of way along Hwy 15 without pedestrian crossings. They expect construction to begin in 2019 with completion by 2022. The planned Las Vegas station is expected to run right to the resort corridor with access to limo’s, shuttles, taxi’s and rider sharing firms. The Victorville connection is 30 to 45 minutes from Los Angeles. They plan on additional stations and connectivity to the Metrolink which connects in Palmdale. They hope to also connect to the Cal High Speed rail likely at that junction also. Brightline’s ambitious plan is to complete the 190 miles from Victorville to Las Vegas in just three years. If they pull off their plan all privately funded then it will show Cal-High-Speed Rail authority’s costs and construction is way too expensive and slow. Overall it is good news for the high desert and Los Angeles.

XpressWest High Speed Rail which was called DesertXpress is Beginning to Take Shape

The plan is a brainchild of Marnell Corrao Associates a privately held company and it is backed and proposed by private funds. The initial plan is to connect from Victorville in San Bernadino County to Las Vegas with a connection to Los Angeles in Palmdale, Ca. It has further proposal to connect to Phoenix Arizona, Salt Lake City, and Denver Colorado According to reports the cost of the Victorville to Las Vegas section will cost $7 billion with $1.4 Billion coming from the Federal Railroad administration. The 50 mile connection between Victorville to Palmdale is part of an agreement with the LA County Metro Transportation Authority to explore a connection to Metorlink and potentially the Cal High Speed Rail. This looks to be a parallel construction. The initial proposed route between Victorville to Las Vegas looks to run along Hwy 15.This route is largely uninhabited desert land. Most of this land is owned by the Bureau of Land Management (Federal Government) and National Park Service. The uniqueness about the initial route is that there are no proposed stops between the two cities, so it looks to be a straight shot to Vegas. Further reports indicate that the investor group has applied for a loan as of Oct 2011 for a $4.9 billion through the federal Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing program. The loan and funding are far from approval as Senate and House leaders has indicated the project is a taxpayer risk. As recent as July 2013 news report indicated the loan was suspended. This essentially means denial of the loan, but the developer indicated they are proceeding without firm funding in place. The most recent report is interest from Chinese firms, but that is to build and operate the train, with no indication of Chinese funding. Thus it looks like a project under development costing billions with no firm plan in mind to accomplish it. It will most likely be part of the Presidential nomination cycle as Nevada is early on the primary list. Don’t rush to buy the land just yet.