Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

High-speed Vegas-L.A. train pitched to public

Supporters of a $1 billion high-speed rail line that would eventually link Las Vegas to Southern California took their pitch for the project, considered "the first step" in linking two of the nation's top tourist draws, to about 10 residents who attended a public scoping meeting on Monday.

Representatives from the California-Nevada Train Commission and their private-sector partner, the American Magline Group, were on hand at Las Vegas City Hall, answering questions on everything from the cost of the Maglev Project, a high-speed train system which would eventually transport passengers from Anaheim, Calif., to whether the 300-mph railroad would be safe from international terrorism.

The meeting was the first of five meetings to pitch "The First 40 Miles," which supporters have dubbed the Las Vegas-to-Primm stretch of the 269-mile route to Anaheim, home of Disneyland. The magnetic-levitation train would reduce travel time between the two cities to 86 minutes.

The project now hinges on whether the recently approved $1.3 billion transportation bill approved by the House in April will allow for the initial stage of the project to move forward, said Neil Cummings, project manager for the Los Angeles-based American Magline Group.

Cummings likens the project to the Eisenhower-era Interstate highway system freeway, which essentially linked highways on the East and West coasts.

"The federal government has got to help build this," he said. "What company is going to invest $1.3 billion on a project that will take years to make money? It's a pipe dream (to turn the project entirely to the private sector)."

A study commissioned by the American Magline Group and the Federal Railroad Administration estimated the rail line would eventually bring in $75 million a year, eventually offsetting the project's high start-up costs.

A similar project is also being studied in congested parts of the East Coast, including areas near Pittsburgh and Baltimore, said Christopher Bonati, the environmental program manager for the Federal Railroad Administration.

But Cummings said high costs -- $80 million a mile -- of building in populous urban areas make the East Coast project too expensive. The Las Vegas-Anaheim route by comparison would cost about $30 million a mile.

John Kamin, a Tarzana, Calif.-based economist who in the 1970s invested in land on South Las Vegas Boulevard, attended the meeting. He said he was in favor of the project, as long as it didn't interfere with his business interests.

Handled correctly, Kamin said the rail line could be a boon to real-estate owners along the route.

"Anything that improves the infrastructure is a good thing," he said. "As an economist, I could see it (the growth) in the 1970s. You don't need to be a rocket scientist."

But that explosive growth, while a money-maker for many, is exactly what concerns Las Vegas resident Chris Christoff, an admitted supporter of the project who said the rail line is coming "10 years too late" to be useful to local residents.

Christoff said a proposed central station for the Maglev, located downtown, is based on outdated estimates of traffic flow. A better proposal would be to route the train from Henderson to the south part of the Strip, he said.

"You've got all these things jammed in there," Christoff said, pointing at a map of downtown Las Vegas. "Ten years from now it'll be a disaster. The right time was 10 years ago."

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