Think tank criticizes casino-train link

Monday, Oct. 19, 1998 | 11:51 a.m.

The proposed high-speed "Talgo" tilt train between Las Vegas and Los Angeles is being criticized as a money-waster by a conservative Reno think tank.

In a paper titled "Headed Down the Wrong Trak," D. Dowd Muska of the Nevada Policy Research Institute said Amtrak's record of losing money makes the LA-Las Vegas run a big risk for the casinos that are investing in it.

Amtrak officials said plans to upgrade the track to accommodate the Talgo train are on schedule with an announcement on specific projects to be made by the end of the month.

Amtrak spokesman Dominick Albano said the company is getting paperwork approved for the upgrades. Engineering is expected to be completed this fall and the first run is planned in February.

The train is being refurbished in Seattle.

Muska's report is mostly critical of the federal government's financing of Amtrak since 1971, but it also concludes that Californians' love of traveling by car will doom the Talgo train. If that happens, Muska said, casinos will pull out of their agreement to subsidize the route.

"To some extent, Southern Nevada casinos should be praised for their financial commitment to the new rail route," Muska's paper said. "But if the Talgo trains do not carry enough passengers and casinos eventually pull out of the venture, taxpayers in Nevada and throughout the nation will be left with the bill."

Albano, who hadn't seen the NPRI paper, said he isn't concerned about the criticism, since private enterprise is a very key part of the financing of the Talgo project.

Amtrak is negotiating with the Rio hotel-casino and Primadonna Resorts Inc. to subsidize the route. Both companies would get train stops at or near their properties.

Rogich Communications Group is coordinating efforts between Oakland, Calif.-based Amtrak West, federal government agencies and the gaming industry representatives. Sig Rogich of Rogich Communications is on Primadonna's board of directors.

In addition, Union Pacific tracks would be used by the trains -- another private venture.

"Any criticisms of a plan that has not been completed is the least of our concerns right now," Albano said.

In February, Amtrak announced a $9 million commitment to upgrade tracks and build platforms to accommodate the high-tech tilt trains. The gaming industry, meanwhile, is being counted on to subsidize the operational expenses of the train.

That amounts to a guarantee of between 70 and 80 percent of about 330 seats a day at $100 per round-trip ticket, or an investment of about $8 million.

Muska's paper quotes a critic as saying as soon as the novelty of train service wore off, it would fail. It would cost a family of four $360 to ride the train compared to the expense of two tanks of gasoline in a car -- and the car trip could be completed faster than the 5 1/2-hour train ride if traffic is at a minimum.

But traffic often isn't at a minimum. One of the train's selling points is that Interstate 15 is too busy. On three-day weekends, tourists often cut their stay short to get on the highway in anticipation of an eight-hour trip.

"Private-public partnerships mostly turn out to be public," Muska said in a telephone interview. "The casinos' investment is obviously better than complete subsidization. But there's no mandate that the casinos continue to pay. And we're saying the long-range risk for this is high."