Amtrak seeking casino subsidies

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1999 | 11:09 a.m.

Amtrak says high-speed passenger train service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas will begin in September.

The start-up of passenger rail service would mark a return to Las Vegas for Amtrak, which discontinued its three-times-a-week Desert Wind service between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City in May 1997.

But a key component to the plan -- a commitment from resort properties to financially subsidize the train -- isn't in place.

That didn't dampen the enthusiasm of more than 300 people who watched a train of dignitaries steam to a trackside podium Tuesday to discuss the merits of traveling the rails on the new Amtrak. After the speeches, they boarded the 300-passenger train to get a look inside the $12 million set built for Amtrak by Renfe Talgo of America, based in Seattle.

"Trains haven't carried a lot of people to Nevada, except across the northern part of the state," said Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., a major Amtrak supporter. "That's not going to be the way it is in the future. As you'll see, this is not your father's Oldsmobile."

After similar tributes from the three other members of Nevada's congressional delegation and two governors, the invited guests -- many of whom were attending the Governor's Conference on Travel and Tourism at Paris-Las Vegas -- walked through the train.

Most were impressed.

Each of the 14 cars is 44 feet long, about half the size of a standard Amtrak car. Depending on the seating configuration, each car can hold 17 to 36 passengers.

The Talgo coaches have the comfort of a standard airplane seat -- without the seat belt. In the coach section, there's four-across seating. Seats have some tilt to them and are built with a foot rest.

Tray tables fold out from seats in front of them, just as they do on planes. There's an electrical outlet for every two seats for computer and entertainment system users.

In the custom class section, seating is only three across. Seats are the same size, but wider apart.

Talgo also has designed a car to meet standards established by the Americans with Disabilities Act. It, too, has three-across seating, but the aisle is wider to accommodate wheelchairs. The "ADA car" has a restraint system for wheelchair-bound passengers and there's a wheelchair lift at the car entry.

Each car also has a pair of television monitors. On them, Amtrak officials can play videos on passenger procedures, en-route movies or maps showing the progress of the train on its route and upcoming station stops. Trains headed for Las Vegas could also show promotions for partnering properties or instructional gaming videos.

Each car has a restroom. By airplane standards, they're huge -- roughly 10 times the size of an airline lavatory.

Talgo trains use "tilt technology" designed to maintain high speeds in curves. The train is rated to travel at 125 mph, but Amtrak expects to run the Las Vegas train at about 79 mph.

Amtrak successfully operates a Talgo train in the Pacific Northwest.

While the exterior of the Las Vegas train is silver, blue and white, the interior in the coach section is a purple hue while the custom-class cabin is red.

Each train also will have a full-service dining car. In a bistro car, designers installed a fiber-optic ceiling depicting a universe full of stars.

"The bistro car is like a beer-pub on wheels," said Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, Amtrak's chairman of the board. "Imagine how enjoyable it will be to relax and watch the congested interstate highway go by."

Clearing automobile traffic off Interstate 15 is one of the Amtrak's goals since three out of four Southern California visitors to Las Vegas drive here in cars.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has led an effort to acquire $2 million in federal Congestion Mitigation Air Quality improvement funding administered by the Federal Highway Administration to be applied to the train project. Amtrak and the state expect to get final approval on the application within weeks.

That $2 million and $5 million in funding for new Amtrak routes in the 1999 federal budget are part of $14 million Amtrak has dedicated to infrastructure improvements to make the proposed route a reality.

Amtrak must pay a total $28 million to Union Pacific Railroad to upgrade the 340 miles of track to high-speed passenger train standards. Union Pacific, the Burlington Northern Railway and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority own and operate the tracks Amtrak will use.

The key element in the upgrade is a 20-mile section of parallel track between Cima and Kelso, Calif., where the passenger trains will be able to bypass slower freight trains bogged down in a long uphill portion of the route. The upgrade also involves some re-engineering of grade-crossing signals to compensate for the speedier trains.

Under the agreement with Union Pacific, Amtrak is paying $14 million on the upgrade now and $14 million more in two years. That means Nevada's congressional delegation, which was congratulated for securing so much federal funding to launch the service, has to find even more in the next two legislative sessions.

Another question involves building platforms where passengers will load and unload from the trains. To date, no casino property has stepped forward to finance a platform, which will cost between $600,000 and $700,000 to build.

Amtrak officials confirmed they have been negotiating with the Rio hotel-casino to accommodate a platform. Under Amtrak's plan, a property would agree to buy enough advance train tickets to finance the platform. The tickets could then be included in package deals, given to high rollers or distributed as premiums.

At present, Amtrak only plans to build one platform and the Rio site would serve the entire city.

However, Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said in his tribute speech that he will press for a downtown Las Vegas stop as well. Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns downtown properties, and the Fremont Street Experience have been approached about funding a downtown platform.

A spokeswoman for the Rio said Tuesday that the property and Amtrak are in negotiations on a platform. She would not comment on how such an agreement would affect the property's parent company's investment in Las Vegas-based National Airlines, which has six roundtrip flights per day between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The Rio is owned by Harrah's Entertainment Inc. of Las Vegas.

Gil Mallery, president of Amtrak West, the business unit that operates Amtrak in seven western states, said casino properties have balked at committing to the project until they were sure it was going to be a reality. He expects the public display of the train Tuesday will do a lot to get local companies interested again.

Mallery said he expects to make an announcement next spring about platform commitments.

Amtrak projects about 62,000 passengers would use the Los Angeles-to-Las Vegas train service in its first year and fares, conservatively, would cover the $6 million in annual operating expenses of the train.

Initially, Amtrak plans its eastbound train to leave Los Angeles at 9 a.m. and arrive in Las Vegas by 2:30 p.m., just in time for local hotel check-ins. The westbound train would leave Las Vegas at 4 p.m. and arrive in Los Angeles at 9:30 p.m.

Early-morning arrival times by the Desert Wind in the mid-'90s were blamed for its failure to generate much passenger interest.

Ticket prices haven't been finalized, but Amtrak officials have said they probably would cost between $119 to $179 for a round trip. By comparison, the lowest airline tickets between Las Vegas and Los Angeles cost $80 round trip.

The train would make one stop between Union Station in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. A short stop in Montclair, Calif., about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, will give residents of Riverside and San Bernardino counties a place to climb aboard without traveling to downtown Los Angeles. The entire trip is expected to take 5 1/2 hours.

Originally, Amtrak officials had discussed stopping in Primm, but those plans have been scrapped.

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