LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It will be the fastest train in the US connecting Southern California to Southern Nevada at speeds topping 200 miles per hour. Brightline West will be America’s first true high-speed passenger rail system getting people from Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga twice as fast as driving. A correspondent for Trains magazine and Trains.com recently traveled the route and spoke with FOX5 about what he found.
In his article about his journey, Bob Johnston took a photo at the future train station for Brightline West just south the Strip off Las Vegas Boulevard near the I-15 and Blue Diamond. It is close to Harry Reid Airport. The rental car lot is actually closer to the future train station. The lot is mostly dirt right now. There is a lot of work to do. Bond documents mentioned by Johnston state the train likely will not be ready for the 2028 Olympics as previously planned. So where does the entire project stand now?
“This project is really pushing the envelope for high-speed rail all over the world,” Johnston asserted. “The main reason is because the highway has some very steep grades…and some curves that, while they’re not really sharp by highway standards, they are by railroad standards,” Johnston revealed.
Johnston has traveled the world writing about trains since 1991 and spent a day documenting the future Brightline West route from a bridge in Barstow to a geothermal boring site near Sloan. The 218-mile line will mostly run in the median of the I-15 which Johnston says is game changer.
“If this train is going to go up to 220 miles an hour, it needs right-of-way that does not have any highway crossings…they have solved that problem,” Johnston explained. Johnston also noticed on his drive long stretches of flat straightaways where the train can gain speed.
“They can amass quite a bit of power to go very fast up a hill,” Johnston reported. While Johnston documented some of the work being done now, the vast majority has really yet to begin.
“First of all, that they have to adjust the roadway before they can even lay tracks and the plan is and it still is, to start that in several different locations along the route…they have not been able to actually nail down all of the funding…that’s one of the reasons why this has been delayed,” Johnston stated.
Johnston has covered Brightline Projects in Florida for more than a decade since they were announced there and says everything planned has come to fruition. Johnston believes that is what ultimately will happen with Brightline West as well.
A Brightline West spokesperson told FOX5 they are not able to comment right now on the construction timeline during this financing phase as a 2.5 billion private activity bond sale is underway. On their website, it still says construction is expected to take about four years and service is projected to begin in 2028.
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