Magnetic train promoters optimistic about funding

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2000 | 11:03 a.m.

In Germany there's a yearlong wait to buy tickets on a train that levitates on a magnetic field. And all the train does is travel in a 20-mile loop.

Members of the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission hope a similar demonstration project between Las Vegas and Primm would be as popular.

Commissioners are optimistic that a train capable of traveling 300 mph will draw enough curious riders from among the more than 30 million visitors to Las Vegas to build momentum to extend the route to Anaheim, Calif.

"This is a train for the 21st century," Jack Libby, chairman of the CNSSTC, told the Las Vegas Sun editorial board Monday.

The commission conducted a public workshop Monday afternoon showing maps of the proposed route between Las Vegas and Primm and videotapes and photographs of the magnetic-levitation vehicle developed by a German consortium from an American design.

The train is propelled by an electromagnetic field activated within the guideway. It's estimated the track would cost $25 million a mile to build, or $6.8 billion for the 275 miles between Las Vegas and Anaheim.

Commission officials say by comparison, adding a lane of highway to Interstate 15 would cost between $10 million and $15 million per mile -- but could be congested within a year.

The CNSSTC demonstration proposal is one of seven nationwide. By Feb. 29, the commission must submit an environmental assessment on its plan. A deadline for submitting the proposal to Congress to compete for funding for additional engineering and design is June 30.

In September, the field of seven proposals will be narrowed to three by Congress. Libby thinks the Las Vegas-Primm plan will make the cut and likely compete against proposals for trains linking Washington D.C. to Baltimore and Pittsburgh to its international airport.

The commission is optimistic about its plan because the route is long enough for the train to get up to its maximum speed, most of the route is along I-15 right-of-way the states would permit for the guideway and there are few environmental or residential conflicts along the route.

If the demonstration project between Las Vegas and Primm is approved, the second phase of the track would link Primm with Barstow, Calif. A station has been proposed at Lenwood, a factory outlet store site just south of Barstow, where Southern Californians could park their cars and ride the train.

The next phase would link Barstow with Ontario, Calif., at that city's airport. The final phase would be built between Ontario and Anaheim, home of the second-largest tourist attraction in the state, Disneyland.

Would there be a big demand for riders to take the 42-mile, 12-minute ride to Primm?

"People should understand that this train would be built in phases," Libby said. "The first phase is Las Vegas to Primm. We have to start somewhere."