Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumbleBackers of maglev train say Chinese bank prepared to fund project
Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010 | 2:05 a.m.
Sun Archives
- State, feds point fingers as Nevada misses rail funding (1-29-2010)
- Nevada not included on list for high-speed rail projects (1-28-2010)
- Maglev train backers woo contractors with promise of jobs (1-22-2010)
- DesertXpress prepared to build; maglev, monorail extension on hold (1-15-2010)
- Maglev money sparks a Gibbons-Reid quarrel (9-18-2009)
- 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)
- 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)
- One-woman bureaucracy keeps maglev hopes alive (3-3-2009)
- 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)
The proponents of a maglev train line between Las Vegas and Southern California say a Chinese government-controlled bank has agreed to loan up to $7 billion to help build the high-speed transportation system.
But the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission still has several hurdles to clear before it could move ahead with plans to develop the project between Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif.
The commission late Monday announced that the Export-Import Bank of China, which has 14 domestic offices and three overseas offices, said it would provide a direct loan that would require the backing of the U.S. government as well as cooperation with Chinese enterprises.
“It is a very positive development for Nevada’s employment picture and very telling that the financiers who are stepping up to bat are the Chinese, the people most familiar with Transrapid Maglev technology,” Neil Cummings, president of the American Magline Group, said in a press release announcing the loan.
American Magline has contracted with the commission to build the system and is partnering with Transrapid, a German company that built a maglev system operating in Shanghai and has since developed upgrades to the technology that are proposed for the Nevada system.
“In China, it has been operating flawlessly for six years, carrying 20 million passengers over 4.1 million miles,” Cummings said.
In an interview today, maglev spokesman Mark Fierro said the Chinese bank’s backing of the project is an employment game-changer for the hard-hit Southern Nevada economy.
Maglev backers view the project as a massive stimulus package for Southern Nevada, with an estimated 90,000 jobs that could be created.
Fierro said development of the project could be one of the most significant economic events in Las Vegas history, because the city would become a virtual suburb of Los Angeles if trains could make the trip from Anaheim to Las Vegas in just more than an hour.
“People in Los Angeles could come to the Las Vegas Strip for dinner,” Fierro said. “This couldn’t be a more perfect technology for the kind of visitor we’re going to attract.”
Fierro said the commission has been in negotiations with the bank — known in the industry as “China Eximbank” — for about a year. He said the bank was unclear about what type of assurances it would need from the federal government to back the loan.
Support from the Chinese bank would help the maglev team’s efforts after the group hit a stumbling block last week. Nevada was left off the list of high-speed rail projects receiving a total $8 billion in federal stimulus funding.
Commission officials viewed the rejection as a double loss for Nevada, because not only was the project not funded, but Florida received $1.25 billion for a rail project that would help Las Vegas’ biggest rival for attracting meetings and conventions — Orlando.
The largest portion of the stimulus funds, more than $2 billion, went to California for a traditional steel-wheels-on-rail project with which the proposed DesertXpress — a Las Vegas-to-Victorville, Calif., line — would link.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the California project eventually would benefit Las Vegans because the Victorville end of the DesertXpress line would be connected to the California system at Palmdale.
Another problem for the maglev is credibility.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said after the stimulus funds were announced that the reason the maglev project was rejected was because it failed to apply — a claim maglev leaders deny.
In a video released by Reid’s office, LaHood said, “Nevada did not submit any paperwork, any proposal for high-speed rail.”
LaHood also said the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission was not eligible to submit a proposal because it was not sanctioned in California.
The commission responded that not only did it file an application, but it has received correspondence from the Federal Railroad Administration, the clearinghouse agency for the high-speed rail proposals, five times in the last 10 years.
The commission also said its plans were jointly submitted with the Nevada Department of Transportation.
Federal Railroad Administration representatives did not return calls on Tuesday.
Discussion: comments so far…
Comments are moderated by Las Vegas Sun editors. Our goal is not to limit the discussion, but rather to elevate it. Comments should be relevant and contain no abusive language. Comments that are off-topic, vulgar, profane or include personal attacks will be removed. Full comments policy. Additionally, we now display comments from trusted commenters by default. Those wishing to become a trusted commenter need to verify their identity or sign in with Facebook Connect to tie their Facebook account to their Las Vegas Sun account. For more on this change, read our story about how it works and why we did it.
Only trusted comments are displayed on this page. Untrusted comments have expired from this story.
No trusted comments have been posted.
Post a comment
Most Popular
- Viewed
- Discussed
- E-mailed
- South Point owner Michael Gaughan’s take on ‘Vegas Stripped’: ‘I’ll give it an 8’
- Coolican: Henderson officials out of loop on police brutality case, raising red flags
- See mug shots of 16 arrested in stolen-property police sting
- Lumberjacks — ‘Where the Big Boys Eat’ — hiring for North Las Vegas location
- Berkley draws stark contrasts with Heller over immigration
- Conceptual design unveiled for Henderson Space and Science Center
- Rebels open as a 9.5-point favorite against No. 13 San Diego State
- Send your loved one a virtual Vegas Valentine’s Day card right now
- Short memories may serve president
- Howard Miller, prominent lawyer and ‘true Las Vegas native,’ dies at 68
Blogs
The Kats Report
Live color from the scene at Thomas & Mack Center: We have a wire job! Rebels win, and Louie Armstrong sings!
South Point owner Michael Gaughan's take on 'Vegas Stripped': 'I'll give it an 8' (3 Comments)
Author relishes writing the life story of ‘larger-than-life’ Oscar Goodman (3 Comments)
Elsewhere
Landowner: All roads could lead to Uxbridge casino
Revel reveals smoke-free casino opening
Cirque du Soleil show in Sands China casino to close this month
Meet the woman behind Sheldon Adelson
The Sun
Locally owned and independent for more than 50 years.
Take their money and BUILD IT !!!!
Reid will screw us out of thousands of jobs by not allowing this to be built and instead building the slow-ass train to nowhere!
Take it.Get the wire transfer and start the hiring. I hope this ends the steel wheel concept.
As is typical with these boondoggles, they will borrow the $7 billion, start construction and then say, "we made a little mistake". They will then tell us they need $21 billion more to finish the thing. The next line will be "we can't just leave it unfinished as it is the most important thing in the world."
Assuming it get finished we will then get the familiar line that "it is very expensive to operate and if we try to pay the cost of operations through the farebox no one will ride it".
Guess who gets stuck paying for it? That's right, the taxpayers.
Bad idea. It will fail and we will see the U.S. taxpayer bailing out a Chinese bank.
PS, I may be wrong but I think $7 billion would only get us half way to L.A.
To suggest masses of Southern California people will take the monorail over their cars is simply wishful thinking.
90,000 employess......who, what, where, when, why and how did they come up with that outrageous number? That number is highly suspicious.
This scheme smells of kickbacks and political payoffs. Who is calculating the employee and rider numbers....the same firm who claimed the millions of visitors to the Springs Preserve???
What hypocrites! Teabagger Jim Gibbons and his teabagger friends beatch about how America has been sold off to China and now they grovel for their money. What a bunch of losers.
Isn't it funny how teabagging conservatives love to stick it to the taxpayers for their pet projects?
So me and my 4 buds want to go to LV for food, gambling, and women. We have a choice-take a high speed train. Or drive from Anaheim. Well, let's see.
At a minimum cost of 50 bucks each way (which I think is a pipe dream), we just spent 500 bucks RT. Wait a minute, no car when we get there. So we have to take a cab with a smelly goat driving. Then we have to take buses or the foolish monorail to get around. God..
Or we drive in. Find one bud who doesn't drink much, let him drive, sip beer on the way. Leave at 3am on a Sat morning, no traffic, get in at 7am. Total cost 30 bucks max. Tool around the Strip to the Palms or wherever. Return Mon morning. Total transportation cost-100 bucks or so.
What are these mag-lev dreamers thinking? It will never work. Billions for a system that will fail big time...
dbover - Maybe if you took the train and all of you sipped your beers all the way here and back to Cali instead of driving around Vegas drunk we will all be better off. It is because of you and your buds that high speed trains will work and more people will arrive in Vegas safely. Cheers and good luck finding a bud who does not drink mcuh as you don't seem to have one yet. I guess driving and drinking is the way to go.
Maglev is the wave of the future.
I, for one, can't wait to see it built. As I understand it, after the Anaheim to LV route is done, they would look at expanding it to Phoenix and SLC. What a great way to diversify (finally) Nevada's economy by becoming the hub for transportation.
Reid needs to get back on board with the right project.
Maglev design and construction costs are so high that $7 Billion is just a drop in the bucket of what is needed.
IP, the driver isn't drinking.
Let's see, the Big Dig in Massachusetts was budgeted at 2.7 Billion-it ended up at 14.7 Billion. And it leaks like crazy to this day. Union loafers sucked it dry, but not dry enough.
Now we'll have more public buffonery? God, can you imagine how Cali would bleed this project? It will never happen, and IP needs to go back to his nest.
bdover is sooo right...
Seriously...does anyone think the powerful California Indian casino lobby would ever let this happen?
These folks are prolific contributors on both sides of the aisle in Sacramento and WILL protect the dozens of gaming operations already in southern California.
What does CA have to gain? Other than jobs- and , if a Chinese bank backs it,I wonder if they will import Chinese workers?? CA would have a high-speed train to send people to spend thier $ in NV.