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By J. Patrick Coolican (contact) 
Friday, Sept. 18, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Beyond the Sun
Sun Archives
- High-speed rail competition heats up with new funding (9-16-2009)
- Beyond Victorville: Coloradans covet high-speed rail, too (9-14-2009)
- DesertXpress train aiming for March construction start (9-1-2009)
- Forum to address DesertXpress train proposal (6-28-2009)
- High-speed train plan gets notice in D.C. (6-24-2009)
- Public or private, rail line will need major subsidies from government (6-14-2009)
- Maglev or DesertXPress, this could be your new ride (6-14-2009)
- Trade-offs between technologies include speed, cost (6-14-2009)
- Maglev train to press on without Reid (6-10-2009)
- Reid sides with Desert Xpress fast train option (6-9-2009)
- State sends no representative to talk on high-speed trains (6-5-2009)
- Obama outlines vision for high-speed rail network (4-16-2009)
- 8 states seek stimulus money for high-speed rail (4-15-2009)
- No waste in rail dream (3-5-2009)
- Economic crisis an opportunity to be greener (3-1-2009)
- Vegas, Midwest seek the $8 billion for fast trains (2-23-2009)
- Calif. bond would launch bullet train project (9-26-2008)
Sun Coverage
When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced his support for DesertXpress over a magnetic levitation train this summer, it seemed to end Nevada’s long-running train feud.
Reid was frustrated with the sluggish pace of planning for the maglev, envisioned as a $12 billion, publicly financed 300 mph dynamo that would carry passengers between Las Vegas and Orange County.
So Reid settled on DesertXpress, the 150 mph privately operated train financed in part with government loans that would travel to Victorville, the high-desert outpost 80 miles from Los Angeles.
But government programs can be Rasputin-like, such that even when one of the most powerful figures in Washington declares them dead, they stagger and stammer, but remain alive.
The train war has taken on new importance with President Barack Obama’s initial $8 billion investment in high-speed rail — the largest rail investment since the transcontinental railroad — to be spent on designated corridors, including Las Vegas to Southern California.
Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons gave the flagging maglev some life this week with a news release claiming that the Federal Railroad Administration had approved a work plan, to be followed soon by $45 million in contracts, which would “enable final design, engineering and environmental approvals necessary to build the starter segment of ‘the fastest train in the world’ right here in Nevada.”
This had Nevada political and transportation circles buzzing, given Reid’s stated preference for DesertXpress.
Confusion and political infighting followed.
The Federal Railroad Administration “has made neither an award nor an announcement with regard to funding for maglev development in Nevada,” a spokesman said.
No doubt the agency wanted to avoid irritating Reid.
In fact, the money appears to be on its way now, after it was buried in a 2008 federal transportation funding measure, back when Reid supported maglev.
Gibbons’ office released e-mails from this summer that appear to show the Nevada Transportation Department corresponding with federal officials and attempting to clear up technical issues so the money could be released.
Gibbons, who is running for reelection in 2010 in a crowded Republican field, used the dust-up to take a shot at Reid, who is held in contempt by Nevada Republicans.
“Sen. Reid needs to walk his talk and do what is best for Nevada,” he said in a statement. “I am mystified by the fact that he is standing in the way of a project that will help working families and those families dealing with unemployment. I am trying to create jobs and stimulate the economy in Nevada. Sen. Reid should do the same.”
Gibbons’ shot at Reid isn’t merely political. It’s also personal. Republican image-maven Sig Rogich, a key DesertXpress backer, helped Gibbons win the 2006 election, but the two are now estranged. Rogich now leads a group of high-powered Republicans supporting Reid.
Reid spokesman Jon Summers shot right back at Gibbons, citing maglev supporters’ failure to get the project moving: “We have been talking about maglev for 30 years and Sen. Reid had been a supporter for a long time. But we have seen more progress by DesertXpress in the last couple of years than we have seen from maglev in three decades.”
Summers continued: “DesertXpress is set to break ground in the near future and stands to put Nevadans to work much sooner than maglev. This is another example of Gov. Gibbons picking political fights, and misleading Nevadans in an effort to distract from his own failed leadership.”
The political intrigue is even richer: Reid’s son, Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, is the likely Democratic nominee for governor, and the opponent Gibbons would face should he prevail in the primary.
Neil Cummings, president of American Magline Group, said that with the necessary environmental, engineering and design work for the maglev to Primm, the company can begin the process of securing financing from public and private sources to build it.
Sun reporters Lisa Mascaro, David McGrath Schwartz and Richard N. Velotta contributed to this story.
i can not believe these words are going to come out of my mouth...
but i agree with monkey boy gibbons on this one...
holy crap...
i need to go back to bed!!!
The mag lev project will be an open hole of monetary waste. We will keep putting funds in and a great sucking sound will continue to come out. In the end they won't lay track any further than Primm....this project is dead before it appears in blue print.
Only the money mongers will profit from it. The people will not!
You will not see either train get built in the next 10 years. The west cost patrons have a love affair going with their cars that will not let them ride on a train.
This is another "bridge to nowhere" project. The money will not be there, the train will not be built and even if it was built, the people in California are not going to ride on it.
This will be one of the biggest money pits in history.
What a boondoggle!
The choices are:
A $12 billion money pit that is technically the right kind of transportation to have, but terribly over-priced!
Or:
A 150 mph train that will take us straight to Victorville, the entertainment capitol of the West!
Hmmm, decisions, decisions!
Governor Jim says "build the darn thing", and he's got my support. "Pinkie" Reid is stuck back in the old Democratic Party ways of throwing pork in his barrel and his cronies' barrel.
This issue will put the Governor in a re-electable light in 2010.
No wonder this has taken 30 years !
Here we go again. The Democrats are once again elevating Gibbons and making him look like a winner. Gibbons is supporting the project that makes sense and Reid supports what Mayor Goodman called the train to nowhere. This train debate could help Gibbons win the Republican primary as his well executed shots at Harry will give him a standing ovation at the next Republican town hall meeting.
Hey all. Today (September 18) on Face to Face, we are talking about the discrepancy between the governor's office and the federal government about that $45 million. That's at 5:30pm, 6:30pm and 8pm on Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable Channel 19.
Reid's Mormon (NoBid) contractors are licking their chops on this "gravy train" to no-where-ville!
I can think of one Republican that would support the DesertXpress train to nowhere, Palin. She likes nowhere projects. Maybe her and Reid and can get together.
LOL! LOL! LOL!
YOU people down there are letting Goober and Reid DISTRACT YOU from the fact that in two years you will have NO WATER!
YOU are 20 years away from the "pipeline" getting started and YOUR high concern is a HYPOTHETICAL choo-choo?
And any of YOU are even considering re-electing Reid!
LOL! LOL! LOL!
This is SO WEIRD! How is it I agree with "The Luv Guv" on this? Oh yes, he hates Harry Reid and has a personal grudge against Sig Rogich. He's right on maglev, but right for all the wrong reasons.
Oh jeez, and yet again Nevada Politics becomes a laughable telenovela...
read my comments for yesterday.
Look at the success of our monorail. originally it was supposed to go to the airport. But higher thinking stopped it at the MGM. It is now in the hole and almost worthless.
But I'm sure that if we listen to Reid long enough he will convince us of the value of stopping in Victorville. That's why we vote for him isn't it?
Don't you love it. harry Reid forgot his hidden earmark would continue to fund a program he sold out for support in the next election.
The ONLY reason poor harry is supporting Desert is his trying to mussel opposition from it's Republican owners to his and his sons elections. Always follow the money.
You can follow the money right into Sig Rogich's pocket.
I love all the morons that keep trying to scare Vegas into thinking they won't have water in two years. Hey jackass, we'll come steal your water!! Vegas is far more important than Reno or any other Nevada city.
Here is why none of the local scrambling will matter. Nevada wont get a train until 2050 at the earliest.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hey-congr...
I don't care WHAT kind of train they build. Just make sure it goes some place people actually want to go.
Anaheim falls into that category. Victorville does not.
Build a train to Victorville, and you're asking for the monorail boondoggle all over again, at 100 times the cost.
While the DesertXpress spin doctors try to bash the popular maglev project they contradict themselves with apparent foolishness.
They claim the maglev technology is risky and unproven (ever been to Japan or China?) but then they state it's been around for 30 years..."We have been talking about maglev for 30 years."
So pick one. You can't have both arguments. 30 years of perfected technology is one thing that makes maglev the real and only choice for transportation.
DesertXpress will make huge money for those involved, like Sig Rogich, regardless of the facts supporting the argument that the train will serve little to no purpose in easing I-15 traffic congestion.
Along with this, the DesertXpress runs on out dated, non-green technology with a top speed that only hits 150mph. Keeping things moving at a slow pace is not the future.
How much money does Sig stand to make off of this?
How much money has he made so far?
When will we start seeing the hypnotic biased television ads fooling the public into supporting the DesertXpress?
With Rogich involved we should all expect to see the DesertXpress people begin using tea baggers and death panels to fight off maglev.
Why does'nt Gibbons run against Harry Reid? We , then could at least get rid of one of them.
Hmm, let's see,I drive to Victorville and pay $6/day for parking at the R.R.(assumming It's the same as McCarran) Then I pay for the train ride to Vegas(unknown), then I pay Grayline $12 for round trip shuttle to get to my hotel( which may be the 3rd or 4th drop off). Then after an exciting 3 day weekend,Grayline tells me where and when they will Pick me up and then make other pick-ups on their way to the RR station.(All this for only the price of gas to keep driving). Then back to Victorville where I'll be shuttled to the proximity of my car and then an exciting ride back to L.A.driving the freeways home with all the other happy weekenders comming home from Palm Springs,Laughlin,Havasu, San Diego etc.
Boy ,The DESERET express sounds like the way to go.
Is the news media conflicted"check out this local story which says different"
http://www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/ralston...
http://www.lvrj.com/news/maglev-train-pl...
Thanks
Doc, the North has the water and it has all the mines.
All that Las Bugsy has is a bunch of empty rooms nobody wants. That and big mouths.
In ten years the place will look like an Anasazi ruin...
Bring it on, dude - BRING IT ON.
Time to run for reelection and both Gibbons and Reid are playing politics. One would have to ask why now? Why didn't our Governor come up with this a year ago. He has been the invisible guy for the past couple of years, and now he wants to dupe us into thinking he is working for us. I'm not buying it. And don't think Reid wouldn't do just about anything to help his son move into the governors mansion.
What a bunch of crap. In January 2009, Harry backdoored billions into the stimulus for the Maglev. Sig Rogich, vice president of the DesertXpress(wealthy reid backer)made a deal with Harry to back him in the 2010 election if he would fund his train.So Harry jumped ship. All in an unbiased newspaper when harry announced the change. Does he or this paper think we're all stupid and don't know the truth? Surprisingly enough, the pricetag is about the same. Whats in Victorville anyway?
Hey Doc, Your president Obummer doesn't think Vegas is so great. And when Pelosi takes the water from Hoover dam, Vegas will be up a creek, so to speak.
Who cares what Harry Reid says or thinks. He's out next year anyway. Rogich better learn to pick his battles a little better than his is now. Supporting Harry Reid will also cost him.
I say rebuild the old railways until they develop and earn money that they can invest into a new meglev system. Remember every year there is at least one train derailment. Fix them, build new rails, them invest of new system. We didn't get rid of horse and carriages until they build the highways system to move all those goods and services.
Let's get the latest technology and get it over with.
REID HAS GOT TO GO PEOPLE!!!!
It's no use to upgrade and rebuild old infrastructure to "make the way" for maglev. If you rebuild the (poor) rail infrastructure - for enormous costs - noone on earth will fund maglev - since you have at least something usable.
Let's leapfrog a whole generation of rail technology and build maglev. It'll be the first intercity maglev in the world - and thus an enormous tourist attraction as well, bringing many new people to LA and LV.
Where's Kennedy's "let's go to the Moon" spirit?
Neither one of these idiots will ever get a train from California to Las Vegas or with the present campaign luring California businesses to relocate here, this surely will never get legislative support from California.
The primary reason the train will never occur is the environmentalist from California will never allow their lands to be encroached upon without an Environmental Impact Report. The EIR process in California is 20 years plus.
When our politicians are kowtowing to the media and telling the people what they support they're doing with a forked tongue. They wish in one hand and dodo in the other hand.
It's better to rebuild the inferstructor due to cost of waiting for ecology tests and fights from Sierra Club. If you just simply rebuild what is there, then you can bypass that whole process. Remember it took 10 years for tests & blocks from the Sierra Club to widen US 95. It was in the middle of the city and would make traffic flow smoother with less pollution but the Sierra Club tied it up in the courts for years.
I still want to know whats in Victorville.and I want to know, which ever train is suppose to be built, which I think is a dumb idea anyway,who gets the work on the California side? This is supposedly Nevada stimulus money to put Nevadans to work. So are they going to employ Nevadans for the California portion or is Nevada money going to pay for Californians to go to work? Our govt is already giving out of state contractors Nevada construction, which is something we should be screaming about at the top of our lungs.
I want the trains to go to Anaheim, so I can take my kids to Disneyland without having to pay for those dinky hotel rooms.
There in only one application of the Maglev train technology in the world. It is a short 19-mile demonstration segment at Shanghai's Pudong Airport in China. Rather than extend this demonstration project, China chose to terminate utilization of Maglev and implement its own state of the art high speed rail network similar to what is being used in Europe and other parts of Asia. Maglev is built on an elevated structure even when running "at-grade". No matter the height of the structure, it requires extraordinarily tight tolerances and structural stiffness, which translate into very short structural spans, very stiff structural decking and columns, and therefore, incredibly high costs. The world's only Maglev technology supplier (based in Germany) has disbanded its development program completely. Germany has dropped all Maglev projects due to uncompetitive high costs in favor of more efficient high speed rail. Operations and maintenance costs of Maglev are virtually unknown due to lack of manufacturing, servicing, etc. There are no existing US safety standards for Maglev technology. Therefore, the certification process for use in the US would take many years. Recent independent cost estimates for Maglev construction in this country, referenced in the Government Accountability Office (GAO) study, were performed by the Southern California Association of Governments, Maryland MTA (for the proposed Baltimore to Washington DC maglev), and the designated public transportation planning agency for the San Diego Association of Governments, found that the cost of maglev construction would likely range of $99 million to $199 million per mile. Given the above information, the cost for the proposed 260 mile line from Las Vegas to Anaheim would be between $26 billion and $52 billion. Such a cost would make the CA/NV Maglev project the most expensive transportation infrastructure project in the nation's history -- more than twice the size of Boston's "Big Dig".
The DesertXpress line is planned and designed to be extended as rapidly as possible approximately 50 miles to interface with the inter-modal facility planned in Palmdale on the voter-approved California High Speed Rail Project. Since the system will use non-proprietary, high quality, standard gauge steel rail technology, the lowest possible cost can be realized for expansions. The system also is designed to facilitate extensions to Ontario and other destinations in the Los Angeles/Orange County Basin, as and when funding becomes available. In Nevada, the system can be readily extended to other destinations as well, such as Phoenix and Salt Lake City, and can easily serve the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport, which would locate its terminal complex immediately adjacent to the DesertXpress tracks.
the desert xpress is designed to make rogich rich and back pinky for the senate seat.
Well as a resident of Rancho Cucamonga, CA I am very displeased with the outcome of this mess. Harry Reid is right to scoff at this Desert Xpress. Republicans should not be allowed near transportation planning. Look what they have done so far with the destruction of all America's light rail systems to be replaced with buses, cars, and highways. This is outrageous and the Desert Xpress is just another attempt to destroy America's rail system. Oh yeah, lets build a train from Las Vegas International Airport to Victorville? If they expect LA, the IE, and the OC to drive their cars to Victorville, park their cars overnight in a train station parking garage, then take a slightly faster commuter train to Las Vegas then their nuts. Thus the system is doomed from the start. Building the maglev would have produced lightning speed direct trips from LA/ONT Airport to LAS Vegas International Airport. What a shame.
Imagine boarding the Metro Gold Line in Pasadena and arriving at the Ontario Airport Train Station. There you board the maglev bullet train which travels at 300 mph. You arrive at Las Vegas Airport Train Station in under an hour. You board either the new Las Vegas Light Rail System or the recently expanded Las Vegas Monorail system. You arrive at your hotel. What is so difficult about this?
Or imagine the Desert Xpress. The completion of the Desert Xpress has left no one wanting to park their cars overnight in a desert train station parking garage. The newly finished train from Victorville to Las Vegas has been completed. The parking garage sits empty. Now what? Why didn't we build the thing to LA/ONT International Airport? The Victorville station slowly looses interest to even the closest homes, leaving residents bewildered. Why would they build such a slow train to nowhere? Why does the train not connect the Inland Empire to Las Vegas? Who got paid off in this one? Why are they deliberately trying to destroy the American rail system with planned to fail rail systems?