Former rivals’ union could help odds for maglev train

Wednesday, April 24, 2002 | 11:11 a.m.

A new alliance between one-time rivals will boost chances for a "maglev" train between Southern California and Southern Nevada, advocates for the high-tech train said Tuesday.

The Western States Maglev Alliance will present a unified front in seeking federal funding for a 300-mph hour train proposed to one day link the urban areas.

The Southern California Association of Governments and the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission had competed for federal Department of Transportation funding for the maglev project. But neither received official approval from the department, which last year instead decided maglev projects in Pennsylvania and Maryland would get the lion's share of nearly $1 billion in federal funding.

The California and Nevada groups can now work together to bring more funding to a unified project, said Bruce Aguilera, chairman of the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission.

"Now all of the politicians can put all of their weight together behind one project," Aguilera said.

The California-Nevada commission had backed a plan that would have ultimately tied Las Vegas to Anaheim, in California's Orange County. A $1.4 billion, 40-mile leg in Southern Nevada would link Las Vegas to Primm as a first step to the larger system.

The Southern California group had backed a 75-mile, $6 billion maglev system between Los Angeles and Riverside, Calif. The two projects had two sets of backers, armed with different blueprints for train routes.

Tom Skancke, a transportation consultant working with the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, said the alliance will help resolve issues of where the train should run.

"It is a good first step towards a coordinated effort between Nevada and California on designating a super-speed corridor from Southern California to Las Vegas," Skancke said. "Potentially, it could solve some of the outstanding issues."

The competition between the association and the commission effectively ended when the federal government picked two East Coast cities as the demonstration projects for the maglev system, said commission spokeswoman Richann Johnson.

Instead of competing regionally, the West now is squaring off against the East. Officials from the West also have two powerful allies now in Congress, including Sen. Harry Reid, the majority whip, and Alaska Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Transportation Infrastructure Committee.

Aguilera said the alliance means that the Southern California Association of Governments will back the commission's efforts to secure money for environmental studies and construction funds under the federal government's maglev test project.

In return, the commission will support the association's efforts to win loans or loan guarantees for the development of a Southern Nevada maglev system.

Jeff Lustgarten, spokesman for the Southern California association, said talks between the two groups started soon after the January 2001 Department of Transportation decision that slated Baltimore and Pittsburgh as the cities that would receive most maglev funding.

"There have been extensive ongoing talks in terms of working together, off and on for at least a year," he said.

The two regions face very similar problems in terms of traffic congestion and air quality, Lustgarten said.

"We've long been known as the traffic congestion capital of the world," he said. The association "has long advocated maglev not only as a traffic congestion relieving measure, but for air quality, as a way to meet our transportation needs in an environmentally sound way."

With transportation funding issues coming before Congress this spring, the alliance will soon have the opportunity to demonstrate the newly unified front.

Aguilera said the commission hopes to get $5 million in federal funding for environmental and construction work from the 2003 federal transportation appropriation.

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