A proposed high-speed passenger train connecting Las Vegas to Los Angeles has received another boost with the approval of $2.5bn (£1.975bn) in additional funding.
The Brightline West Railway aims to transport passengers at 300 km/h (186 mph) or faster on electric trains across the Nevada desert in just two hours. Its creation will cost around 12 billion dollars.
The latest financing, in tax-exempt bonds, was recently approved. by the Biden administration.
This follows a record $3 billion grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in December and a government authorization in 2020 for the company to sell $1 billion in similar bonds.
“We appreciate the trust placed in us by the DOT and we are ready to get to work,” said Brightline Founder and President Wes Edens.
A proposed high-speed passenger train connecting Las Vegas to Los Angeles has received another boost with the approval of $2.5bn (£1.975bn) in additional funding. The Brightline West Railway aims to take passengers across the Nevada desert in just two hours. Pictured is a Brightline train in Fort Lauderdale.
Florida-based Brightline Holdings LLC is the only privately owned passenger railroad company in the U.S. joining Miami and Orlando with diesel-powered trains reaching speeds of up to 200 km/h (125 mph).
And it could also soon become the first in the country to complete a high-speed electric propulsion option if its new Brightline West project is successful.
The 351-kilometer (218-mile) railway will cut a four-hour highway trip between Las Vegas and suburban San Bernardino County, near Los Angeles.
It will make stops in Las Vegas, Victory Valley, Hesperia and Ranch Cucamonga California, where it will connect with the City of Angels Metrolink commuter train.
Planners and politicians say the project has all required environmental and right-of-way approvals, along with labor agreements, and should help alleviate weekend and holiday travel. traffic jams often stretching for 15 miles (25 kilometers) on I-15 near the Nevada-California line.
No date has been announced for the start of work, but officials have said it could be operational by the start of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028.
The planned new route is the brainchild of Wes Edens, the billionaire co-owner of the Bucks and Aston Villa FC.
Wes Edens, founder and president of Brightline
Nevada U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat who backed the project in Congress, said she hopes the long-sought rail link will boost Nevada’s tourism economy and create thousands of jobs while reducing traffic and pollution.
No date has been announced for the start of construction, but officials have said it could be operational by the start of the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028.
The planned new route is the brainchild of Wes Edens, the billionaire co-owner of the Bucks and Aston Villa FC.
He helped found Brightline in 2012 to make his vision a reality and now thanks officials for their vote of confidence.
December’s $3 billion grant is funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, which, when passed in 2021, was billed as “a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness.”
The taxpayer-funded guidance seeks to funnel money into America’s roads, bridges and railroads, while expanding access to things like clean water and high-speed Internet.
Money will also be pumped into research into how to handle the climate crisis, as well as advancing environmental justice and communities who feel they have been left behind.
Planners and politicians say the project should help ease weekend and late-holiday traffic jams that often stretch for 15 miles (25 kilometers) on I-15 near the Nevada line. -California.
At full operation, Edens and Brightline said they expect to sell 12 million one-way tickets each year.
Lawmakers and politicians from both California and Nevada, particularly Nevada, have claimed they meet the criteria, citing how a two-hour train ride would be good news for the millions of Americans who travel from Southern California to Las Vegas annually. .
Most of it, statistics show, comes from the City of Los Angeles, with approximately 50 million one-way trips made annually between the city and Las Vegas, primarily by car or bus.
At full operation, Edens and Brightline said they expect to sell 12 million one-way tickets each year.
Last year, Edens, who previously worked as a partner at the now-defunct Lehman Brothers and also runs Manhattan-based Fortress Investments, said the demand is there and it’s time for the United States to catch up to other countries. from the first world.
“Las Vegas-Los Angeles is probably the best system in the world that hasn’t been built yet,” he told Forbes in an interview, pointing out the current lack of a bullet train in the United States.
“Vegas-to-LA is probably the best system in the world that hasn’t been built yet,” Edens said.
“When you look at the systems in Japan and in China, nine major cities in Japan are connected with a true high-speed railway.”
The billionaire businessman went on to cite the struggles currently faced by California state officials, who for years have tried, unsuccessfully, to finish work on a stand-alone bullet train that would connect Los Angeles to San Francisco.
That project has been marred by setbacks for more than 15 years and has already cost taxpayers a whopping $108 billion.
‘China has 42,000 kilometers of high-speed train routes. “We have zero,” Edens said.
By comparison, the businessman promised that it would only cost him about $12 billion to forge the 218-mile path, all in a fraction of the time, even after the Covid-19 pandemic derailed his plans for a passenger rail future during three years.