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Construction begins this year on $12 billion high-speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas

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Construction begins this year on $12 billion high-speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas
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The project to link the Los Angeles region and Las Vegas with a high-speed passenger rail service reached a major milestone late last month.

Brightline West reached an agreement with several rail unions for the operations and maintenance of the service, which is a key step in enabling the project to proceed.

Construction on the US$10-billion private project is now expected to begin later in 2023 for an opening in 2027, making it the first high-speed rail system in the United States, and built just in time for the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Olympic Games.

“As the most shovel-ready high-speed rail project in the United States, we are one step closer to levelling the playing field against transit and infrastructure projects around the world, and we are proud to be using America’s most skilled workers to get there,” said Mike Reininger, CEO of Brightline Holdings, in a statement.

Brightline West will run next to Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Southern California, with a total route distance of 351 km (218 miles) and travel speeds of up to 322 km/hr (200 mph).

The eastern terminus station in Las Vegas will be conveniently located near The Strip, on a vacant 110-acre site immediately adjacent to Las Vegas Premium Outlets South Mall.

Within the Los Angeles region, there will be stations at Hesperia, Apple Valley, and Rancho Cucamonga, which will be the western terminus station and allows passengers to connect with Metrolink’s regional commuter rail services.

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The end-to-end travel time between Rancho Cucamonga and Las Vegas will be about 2 hours 15 minutes, which is two times faster than driving, and comparable to air travel when the time for arriving early and waiting at airports is factored in.

The system will use zero-emission, all-electric trains, and its environmental impact when operational will be equivalent to removing three million vehicles from the road.

In the future, beyond 2027, there could be a looping extension within the Los Angeles region, with stations in San Bernardino, downtown Los Angeles, and Palmdale.

The future Palmdale station will connect with the planned future California High-Speed Rail service, which is a separate service and entity from Brightline West. The California High-Speed Rail project has experienced significant delays and cost overruns.

In 2018, Brightline launched its initial intercity service between Miami and West Palm Beach, a route of 113 km (70 miles). Later in 2023, the route will be further extended by 247 km (170 miles) northwards to reach Orlando International Airport, providing a new way to reach Walt Disney World Resort and Universal Orlando Resort. But this will not be a high-speed rail service, with travel speeds of up to 201 km/hr (125 mph) and a travel time of about three hours between Miami and Orlando.

To be considered a high-speed rail service, trains must reach a speed of at least 250 km/hr (155 mph) for at least a portion of the route.

 

Brightline West releases renderings of Las Vegas to Los Angeles route​

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) - Brightline West, the highspeed railway to link Las Vegas to Los Angeles first proposed in 2005 has released renderings Monday as the project nears reality.

The renderings show a station from a first-person view, from above and the proposed map for the route.
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“After more than a decade of working to find a pathway, Brightline West will be the first true high-speed rail system in America and will serve as the blueprint for how we can connect major city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive,” said Mike Reininger, CEO of Brightline.

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In March, Brightline West entered into an agreement with unions in Nevada and California.

This is the latest in a string of efforts to get highspeed rail connecting the Vegas Valley and Southern California, after efforts to connect with Anaheim, Victorville and Palmdale all fell through.

State Building and Construction Trades Council of Californian and the Southern Nevada Building Trades Union agreed to a deal to move the project forward, providing more than 10,000 jobs in the process.

The area in Las Vegas where the line is expected to develop a station has recently piqued the interest of several developers.

Construction on the 218-mile-long railway is expected to begin this year. When completed, trains will run at a speed of up to 200 miles per hour.

The system is projected to have nearly 1,000 permanent jobs for operations and maintenance, according to officials.


Brightline says the high-speed train will begin with a station in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. that will offer direct connectivity with California Metrolink. Additional stations will be built in Hesperia and Apple Valley, California, and Las Vegas, the release says.

As part of the $10 billion investment, Brightline says the “fully electric, emission-free system will be one of the greenest forms of transportation in the U.S., removing 3 million cars and 400,000 tons of CO2 each year.”

The $3.75 billion that Brightline is asking for from the federal government would likely come from the $102 billion set aside for rail projects by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021.



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