$2 million allocated to protect maglev project managers

Benjamin Grove

Friday, July 13, 2001 | 10:35 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., threw $2 million in federal money to project managers who plan to construct a route for a futuristic 300 mph, levitating train between Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif.

Reid, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, sits on the Appropriations Committee, which doles out money. The committee on Thursday passed its annual transportation spending bill, a $60 billion measure that included $59.5 million for Nevada, Reid said. The full Senate could consider the bill as early as next week.

The House passed its version of the bill last month, but it did not include money for the California-Nevada proposed magnetic levitation train program. A joint committee of House and Senate negotiators likely will hammer out differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill and decide exactly how much the California-Nevada project would get.

The "maglev" train project is still chugging despite setbacks. Officials with the California-Nevada Super-Speed Train Commission are still lobbying Congress for a piece of a $950 million pot of money that will be awarded to one of seven train projects around the nation. Behind the scenes, they hope to keep the project alive long enough to secure some money when Congress reauthorizes a six-year transportation spending plan for the nation in 2003.

Congress has the ultimate say on which projects will get the money, but the Department of Transportation has chosen a Pittsburgh and Baltimore-Washington route as finalists for the $950 million.

The $2 million Reid slipped into the spending bill will help project planners complete an environmental impact study of the first 42-mile leg of the $6.8 billion, 272-mile route to Anaheim. The first $1.3 billion leg would run between Las Vegas and Primm.

"In my opinion, the Department of Transportation made a poor choice ... when it overlooked Nevada as a primary site for maglev funding," Reid said in a written statement. "But as I said at the time, I have no intention of giving up on plans for a maglev train in Southern Nevada."

Reid's office said the bill also included: $8.2 million for Clark County bus system improvements; $8 million for a Hoover Dam bridge bypass project; $8.2 million for the Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, including money for rapid transit software; $3 million for a traffic management center in Las Vegas; $2 million for a global position system for McCarran International, North Las Vegas and Henderson Airports.