Calif.-Nevada train report meets deadline

Benjamin Grove and Rick Velotta

Wednesday, March 1, 2000 | 11 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- A two-state agency pushing for a high-speed magnetic train between Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif., filed preliminary reports Tuesday, meeting a key project deadline, Federal Railroad Administration officials said today.

"We're looking at this point at whether there are any big issues that need to be mitigated before we get the (final) proposals," Railroad Administration spokeswoman Pam Barry said.

The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission is in a heated competition with six other groups for a $950 million federal grant that will help finance the first high-speed magnetic train route in America.

Four of the other six groups also filed the preliminary environmental assessment report by Tuesday's deadline. Two others -- proposing high-speed train routes in Florida and California -- were expected today, Barry said. She said those two proposals would not be penalized.

The other routes would link the city of Pittsburgh with the Pittsburgh Airport; the New Orleans airport with the New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal; Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn.; Los Angeles International Airport, downtown L.A., Ontario Airport and Riverside County; Port Canaveral, the Space Center and Titusville Regional Airport on Florida's Space Coast; and Camden Yards in Baltimore, Baltimore-Washington International Airport and Union Station in Washington.

The Railroad Administration's upcoming deadlines include detailed project descriptions due June 31 and final environmental reports to be completed in August.

Three finalists will be selected by Sept. 30. A finalist will be named by March 31, 2001.

The high-speed magnetic levitation (maglev) train is propelled by magnetic force, hovering just above a guideway track and could reach up to 300 mph. If the Las Vegas-Anaheim route is chosen, the federal money would be used to construct the first segment of track from Las Vegas to Primm, with the ultimate goal of a 272-mile, $6.8 billion route connecting Las Vegas and Anaheim.

Officials in the office of Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday that Congress has allocated about $5 million for studies of the California-Nevada route.