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twitterTRANSPORTATION:
Governors agree to back fast train
Trip between Vegas, Anaheim, Calif., could take only 86 minutes
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE
Plans for maglev train like the one being tested in Japan in 2003 to give travelers between Las Vegas and Southern California another alternative to Interstate 15 may get a boost from a the economic stimulus plan.
Mon, Dec 22, 2008 (2 a.m.)
For over 20 years, boosters have dreamed of and lobbied for a train that could travel from Southern California to Las Vegas at 300 mph.
The proposed magnetic levitation train line linking Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif. — attacked by critics as a multi-billion dollar pipe dream — has gained new life.
Near the bottom of a news release detailing Gov. Jim Gibbons’ meeting last month with President-elect Barack Obama was the announcement that Gibbons and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had agreed to move ahead with the high-speed train project.
“Arnold and I agreed to jointly work together on the project,” said Gibbons, who is planning to travel to Sacramento to talk with Schwarzenegger about it.
The train, Gibbons argues, should be a candidate for federal economic stimulus money.
The rail line, which would generally follow the route of Interstate 15 and cost between $12 billion and $13 billion, would create construction jobs on both sides of the state line and, once complete, speed the arrival of tourists to Las Vegas. (A trip between Las Vegas and Anaheim could take as little as 86 minutes.)
In June, Sen. Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, helped pass a bill that freed up $45 million for an environmental study of the route.
Obama and his advisers have been working with Congress on an economic stimulus package that would improve infrastructure and put people to work. The Washington Post on Friday put the size of the stimulus at $850 billion.
Yet to the critics, the bill is in danger of becoming one big pile of pork.
“We’re not exactly big fans of congressional earmarks, we’re also not a fan of just sending a big box of cash to states and cities for their own version of parochial pork barrel project,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a national nonpartisan budget watchdog group.
A push for the maglev project — a proposal which, he notes, “certainly has its detractors” — would add to the impression that special interests, states, cities and transportation advocates are behaving like greedy children with dreams of getting a pony for Christmas. (Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said last week that a new city hall, mob museum and performing arts center should be included in the stimulus package.)
But Ellis said any economic stimulus should yield an immediate benefit. The maglev project could take a decade or more to build. The federally required environmental impact study of the project would take from 18 months to two years.
“Something should get done,” Ellis said. “It should not be something that slowly bleeds, and the impact isn’t felt until after the recession is over.”
The Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada will hold a news conference today with Reid to announce 60 projects that are “ready to go” within 180 days.
Jacob Snow, the RTC’s general manager, said these projects total about $1 billion, and include highway projects, interchanges, street paving and mass transit projects.
Snow wouldn’t comment specifically on the maglev project, but said: “We certainly think some sort of facility like maglev, a high-speed rail system between Southern California and Southern Nevada, is needed. No doubt about that.”
The first leg is planned for Las Vegas to Primm.
Reid spokesman Jon Summers said it’s too early to know what projects would be included in a federal economic stimulus bill. But a high-speed train between Las Vegas and Southern California “not only makes good economic sense for the state, it makes sense from an environmental and energy perspective as well,” he said.
Reid “supports any project that moves people quickly and safely between Nevada and California,” Summers said, citing frequent traffic jams on I-15.
Amtrak ended service between Las Vegas and Los Angeles in 1995.
Reid requested the Government Accountability Office prepare a feasibility study on a rail project between Las Vegas and Southern California, which Summers said should be out in the next three months.
The maglev, or magnetic-levitation, train would require a new set of “rails” — the train, suspended above the track by magnets, rides on a cushion of air. There are few commercial maglev trains operating worldwide, including in Japan and Shanghai, China.
A competing proposal for a faster train between Southern Nevada and Southern California would use conventional rails. That privately funded line would, however, run between Victorville, Calif., and Las Vegas.
Reid has criticized that project because he doesn’t think people will drive from Los Angeles to Victorville and then board a train to Las Vegas.
Bruce Aguilera, chairman of the Nevada-California Super Speed Train Commission, which oversees the maglev project, welcomed news of the governor’s support for the maglev project being included in an economic stimulus package.
Aguilera, who is also vice president and general counsel at MGM Mirage’s Bellagio, acknowledged that the maglev group has kept a low profile in recent years.
“We didn’t have things to say,” Aguilera said.
The project’s backers will break their silence next month, announcing how they plan to raise $11.25 million in matching funds needed to access the $45 million in federal funding.
With that money, Aguilera said, they plan to open an office in Las Vegas, start paying a staff member who has been working on a volunteer basis and re-launch their Web site.
Discussion: 16 comments so far…
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So the first thing they'll do is sign a PLA, which means the overpaid, underworked Union layabouts will have all the work. Like the airport. Then they'll appoint a Project Manager, probably politically connected Bechtel to run the job. Then the costs will start rising. And rising. And just like the Regional Justice Center, the pols will have their hands out, and will be eagerly wasting the piles of government money headed their way. Let's see, the Big Dig in Boston was budgeted at 2.7 Billion. And ended up at 14.7 Billion. So doing the math, the MagLev should come in around 50-60 Billion. Can you imagine the the cost of a one-way ticket?-don't ask. This is just another Monorail/Yucca government boondoggle waiting to happen.
SuuuEEEEEE!!! Here pig-pig, here pig-pig!
If Reid and Gibbons have teamed up on this - it is predestined to be a boondoggle.
They drive to Anaheim, park their car (for a price?). Then they wait god knows how long buying a ticket, waiting, and boarding (after going through security), spend 150-200 for a round trip ticket to Vegas that will still take a couple of hours to get here. Then, where they are deposited will require them to either take a taxi or rent a car or, at a minimum, take the one-way $5 monorail (with their luggage!) to their casino. Anybody see any flaws in this business model?????????
It is a great idea. The key is in the execution. It could certainly run over budget, if not monitored carefully. This is something that would be good for the city, more cars driving in to town is certainly not the answer. The economic boost is needed as well.
Oh, yes...I can certainly see CA spending billions for a mag-lev to Vegas to bypass their own casinos. And I can see them doing THIS instead of improving their own crummy transportation system.
Instead of pie-in-the-sky pipe dreams, when is Boss Reid going to actually do something to HELP NevaDUH?
Our schools are crumbling, our universites are some of the worst, our social programs are nonexistent, and the best Bubble Boy Reid can come up with is THIS?!? http://texex-xpress.blogspot.com/2008/12...
Reid is sooo detached from NevaDUH's problems he should put (D-Jupiter) behind his name.
Conventional rail trains would be cheaper and easier to implement. The best way for a system like this to be implemented would be to have a high speed steel wheel train capable of both automobile drive-on/drive-off and normal seating connecting downtown LV to downtown LA.
It needs to work like the Channel Tunnel trains, and it has to offer something in the way of convenience and price over the airlines.
Maglev is a fantastical pipedream that will fail. If not technologically, then financially.
There would save billions if they just offered free airline tickets between LAX and LAS forever.
Anaheim? I don't think that's the best site. Some where in LA county would be better since it's the LA to Vegas train not the Orange Co. to Vegas train.
This is beyond absurd. Assuming that someday there might be money available for such a project, would LA to San Francisco or Boston to New York, Washington, or Atlanta make more sense?
I think they are picking Anaheim because the land gets extremely expensive west of it and Anaheim is where the current line goes to.
It would become a quick trip to Disneyland for Vegas people and tourist.
Maglev is not proven at large distances and incompatible with HSR in California. The two systems would compete for scarce right of way in the Inland Empire section west of San Bernardino.
California voters have already pledged $10 billion toward their steel wheels network, so Nevada should seek a spur off that at the town of Mojave. Trains would be electric and run at up to 220mph on the spur, putting Las Vegas within easy range of 85% of California's population.
This would be a complementary project to California's own and, funded by Clark county, the state of Nevada, the federal government and private investors. The state of California is broke, it cannot afford to chip in for an extension of its system to Nevada. It could, however, buy hydro/solar thermal electricity from its neighbor, delivered via an HVDC line above or next to the HSR spur.
See this map for details:
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&a...
For arguments preferring this solution over both maglev and Desert Xpress, please see my comments here:
http://cahsr.blogspot.com/2008/12/arnold...
I'd ride it.
I think it's a good idea. Most of the criticism here is not very thought provoking. It's based on the "politicians and organizations are bad and therefore anything they do is bad" model. Only secondary to the "I wouldn't use so why would anyone else?" model.
OK...I am a conservative and support his. Building roads is all part of the governments job...This rail system is an extension of the roads...
I would like to see them partner with the private company to provide a more viable alternative system.
The environmental impact study was funded at the end of last year it should be done soon unless the money was never spent..
This would be a huge boost to the local economy considering it should create hundreds of thousands of new jobs....
This is 100% boondoggle.
First, it is yet another incompatible technology, which means more transfers. Second, it connects to Anaheim, which has no airport facilities, thanks to the Irvine folks. Third, it won't go 300mph. It won't go 200mph. It might make 120mph, which means a 4-8 hour trip with dwell time. Why will anyone bother?
Jet traffic works.
Conventional and electrified rail works.
I would love to ride a train to Vegas. But we don't even have Amtrak service.
Amtrak ended service in 1995; not enough customers? What makes you think people are going to ride this new train?
Concerning the mag-lev in Shanghai: it runs from downtown Shanghai to the international airport in Pudong; I'm told it's about 16 miles and a one way ticket costs 200 Chinese dollars, about $30 US. Being from LA, and having riden the Disneyland monorail since 1957, I'd gladly pay just to ride it one time but... the mag-lev is always down for repair. My wife is from China so we visit every year. I read it operated for the Olympics, but by October, when we went to Shanghai, it was out of service again. If they can't keep 16 miles working, how will they keep it working all the way to Vegas?
Mag-lev, magnetic levitation, which is electricity creating a magnetic field, which also creates radiation. And yes, the people who live along the path of the 16 miles are suing the Communist government. So, how close do you want this electromagnetic field next to your home?