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An artist’s rendering of a train on the XpressWest high-speed rail line, formerly DesertXpress.
Monday, Oct. 10, 2011 | 1:55 p.m.
VEGAS INC Archives
CARSON CITY – Officials with the proposed high-speed train linking Las Vegas and Southern California expect to get an answer in six to nine months on plans to borrow about $6 billion from the federal government.
If all goes according to plan, construction would start in the final quarter of 2012, said Andrew Mack, chief operating officer of DesertXpress. Mack briefed the state transportation board Monday on the private-public project that he says has been in development for 10 years.
Gov. Brian Sandoval said the high-speed rail plans have been rejected in two other states and questioned whether it would survive in Nevada.
Mack said the other states were planning to use federal stimulus money, and if the project failed, the states would have assumed responsibility. In this case, the federal government would be loaning the money, so if the project went bankrupt, the government would take over the train. The state wouldn't have responsibility.
He told the board that $34 billion in federal funds were available to finance rail projects across the country.
The proposed train from Victorville, Calif., to Las Vegas would run at 150 mph and cover 185 miles in 80 minutes. During peak periods, there would be trains leaving each location every 20 minutes.
In Las Vegas there are two potential depots – one south of Flamingo Road and the other on 60 acres across from Mandalay Bay. Mack said the route would run along Interstate 15.
Board members questioned why Victorville was selected instead of running the all-electric train into Los Angeles. Mack said there would be added expense and environmental issues by extending it to the city.
He added that 11 million motorists visiting Las Vegas use Interstate 15 in the area that runs through Victorville.
He said 45,000 questionnaires were distributed at the California agriculture border station and there was a 5 percent response rate, with an estimated 85-90 percent saying they would try the train.
He projects 7 million passengers would use the train during the first year and construction would generate about 80,000 jobs. Of that, 17,500 would be direct work in Las Vegas.
DesertXpress would be a fully electric train with overhead lines powering it. Mack said the utilities have enough capacity to supply the electricity. It wouldn't carry freight.
The project could be completed in the final quarter of 2016, Mack said.
There are so many things wrong with this proposal, one can hardly know where to begin. Coming on the heals of Solyndra as it does is not going to inspire confidence, either.
Seems strange for Southern Californians to drive to Victorville to take the train. Victorville to Vegas is an easy drive; it's the traffic in the cities that's the problem.
Maybe they'll prove me wrong, but this just seems like a huge waste.
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No one will use this train. I'm from CA and the worst part of the trip is to victorville. That was half the trip. Its a 2 hr trip from victorville to las vegas. All the friday traffic is before you get to victorville. The Cajone pass is ridiculous on friday. No one is going to use this. Its a loser.
From my understanding the reason Victorville was picked was because California was developing its own state train system that had a stop in Victorville which would connect it to various other cities. This way everyone could take the state train system to Victorville then hop on the DesertXpress... but from what I hear California won't be building their train system anymore due to budget issues.
Chunky says:
How about fixing schools, jobs and crime first before even thinking about another disaster 1000x the size of the Vegas monorail !
For gosh sake, add another lane or two to I-15 first! Chunky doesn't want to hear any enviro BS either; the carbon impact of construction of a high speed train and destruction to the desert would take a million years to recoup!
That's what Chunky thinks!
This is the Monorail, Part 2. Nobody will ever ride this boring train, to boring Victorville! Either build a real attraction, a real high speed train, a maglev train to Disneyland, or fuhgeddaboudit!
Keep the jobs in Nevada and create a north south link. California doesn't need anymore trains. After linking northern Nevada to southern Nevada then link to other states, later.
Starting this thing at Victorville WILL NEVER WORK!
Let say two couples are heading to LV for the weekend. They leave the LA area in their SUV that gets around 15 miles to the gallon. The SUV is just coming off full as they approach Victorville and the discussion goes something like this.
The train will leave in about an hour, of course you need to be at the station 1 hour early to go through TSA. Say the tickets are $50 each one way and it will cost $15 a day to park the SUV. The math major in the group starts pushing some numbers and says, Hey, we can each save $150 per couple if we just keep on driving, and we'll get to our hotel a hour earlier than if we take the train, PLUS we'll have transportation and save more if we don't have to take cabs every place we go.
What do you think they will do?
I really don't want to hear about the jobs that will be created. I know this sounds dumb, but jobs created by a project that will ultimately fail or lose money just doesn't sit right. I want the same firm that predicted the actual ridership levels for the monorail doing the study...not the one that over inflated the numbers x10.
I love the idea of high speed rail...but only if it's economically feasible. We are too deep in the red to begin funding these projects if they can't make money.
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I drive to and from San Diego, I won't be taking the train. Even if it cost me an extra $100, i'd rather drive.
I avoid taking planes because of the hassle and that's how I feel about the train... I imagine TSA will be there to feel up your 2 year old daughter and of course put you through giant x ray machines... All for your safety of course.
And if it doesn't have TSA, well now it's a terrorist target isn't it?
Do whatever, at this point I don't work so I'm not funding any of this.
Train to nowhere. Fools.
byron_g,
You're close. Victorville was chosen so they could someday put in a link to the planned transportation hub at Palmdale that would connect to Los Angeles and points south.
Fat chance of that ever happening.
Another Solyndra in the making.
How about putting in an Autobahn type lane all the way to the pass with no speed limit? Seems cheaper and more effective. If it does not work they can build the train on it in 50-60 years
34 billion "available?" actually, its not available. we have a debt higher than that. did it ever occur to these geniuses that spending money that we don't really have like a drunken sailor with his first credit card is what got us into trouble in the first place?
What a difference two years make!
Look at this story in the Sun from June of 2009:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun...
Read it carefully and a few things should stand out, the biggest being that this project was not supposed to require government funding. Now they are asking for a $6B federal loan (more than 10x the Solyndra fiasco.) We will be on the hook for this when it fails.
Another item is how Reid switched his support from the MagLev that would have gone to Anaheim to this, citing the private funding as one of the reasons for doing so.
At the bottom of the story is this information:
"Among Desert Xpress' chief backers is [Sid] Rogich, among Republicans in Nevada who have announced their support for Reid's re-election in 2010. Rogich announced his support for Reid in February."
Has anyone checked out who owns land along the proposed route?
I would ride a train to Anaheim/Santa Ana or Los Angeles. Victorville? What's the point? As Commonsense101 said, you would make the worst part of the drive getting to and from the train, and I would have to rent a car to make the rest of the trip.
Can you say "Big Dig" in Boston that started out with an estimate of 2.7 Bil, and ended up at nearly 15 Bil? You know this joke will be built with all Union loafers who simply want to extend the job, since they'll be laid off at the end of it.
Victorville has been a joke since they closed the Roy Rogers museum years ago. Did you read how a builder tore down 2 brand new houses there rather than finish their paving, etc? It's becoming a meth lab paradise, like Barstow. And you want to leave your car there? Fat chance....
It has to go somewhere where you can easily connect to other major sites in LA like the airport, disney, sports venues, downtown. It has to go to the strip at the other end.
DesertXpress is DOA. Nobody is going to take the train to Victorville.
There is a system, however, that would succeed here. The Maglev. Yes, it costs a great deal of money, but it would drastically alter the southwest. Going from Vegas to Anaheim in 80 minutes could turn Vegas into a bedroom community for LA. It could also have the opposite effect: it could bring businesses to Vegas who like the tax structure but need quick access to southern California.
We need to be big and bold, not timid if we want to make a difference... and yesterday's technology to nowhere isn't it. Want to see Vegas recover? Widen I-15 to 3 lanes each way and build the Maglev.
Bedroom community for L.A. ? Hope they bring their own water..
This won't happen, it would create jobs and REPUKES won't stand for that!
Harry wants it because he's got to pay back many of his contributors.... Politics as usual.
Take the Train to LAX, even if it runs somewhat slower through LA. Otherwise its useless for Nevada Residents and not much better for CA residents. The Casinos will subsidize the fares for CA gamblers while Nevada residents will have to travel on their own dime. The advantage would be a reliable travel time from Vegas to LA. And if CA ever gets their North-South Rail Line built, we will have an alternative to the current Highway and Airport congestion.
On another connection subject - It takes a Nine Hour drive from Vegas to San Francisco, a journey a little over 300 Air Miles. It there not a Single Spot in the entire 500 Mile long CA/NV Sierra range where a Tunnel cannot be built to connect the two cities with an Intestate Highway?
Please hire the Europeans since they have machinery to build 10 mile tunnels without problems.
WHY are the taxpayers going to be on the hook for this IF it fails? Shouldn't those politicians that pushed it through be on the hook since THEY benefit the MOST from it?
Honestly, the Maglev to Anaheim or Riverside makes better sense and has a greater potential of being successful.
More traffic lanes and higher speed limits from LA will accomplish the same thing for a lot less money and put a lot of construction workers back to work.
If this gets built the airlines will lower their fares so much the only people on the train will be the crew running it.
summerof69,
If this gets built the airlines could *raise* their fares and the train would still fail.
LV would be better off backing bonds to build a domed stadium that would produce more jobs and have a better chance of succeeding than the 'train to nowhere'!
DOOLISH 1 hits the nail right on the head. "It has to go somewhere where you can easily connect to other major sites in LA like the airport, disney, sports venues, downtown. It has to go to the strip at the other end." Or you can call it the "train to nowhere". Sound familiar?
Why aren't people in the streets protesting how much the executives of the failed Solyndra scam lined their pockets with?
Same reason people want a train.
Stupidity allows other people to lead you around by the nose.
During this debt crisis a moratorium should be put on all non essential spending. We are bleeding cash like a slaughtered pig and no one wants to stop it. The Solyndra loan was a complete joke. This has all the makings of another fiasco. Get the budget balanced, the debt reduced and then revisit projects that will succeed. This is not one of them. This country needs self sustaining jobs. Not jobs that last for a few years and then disappear once the project is completed. This is a form of job welfare.
Dennis et al: I believe the reason that the train will not end in LA or anywhere else that people might actually use is because of the extreme cost to obtain right-of-way from Victorville to LA. Considering the price of real estate they could not afford the land to put the train on
So Andrew Mack is basing part of "Mack said" conclusions on the return of less than 2,250 questionnaires as a good reason to proceed spending $6 Billion dollars of taxpayers money?
No freight would be hauled on the DesertExpress?
Talk about a project that stinks. . .
Stupidest idea since a monorail that doesn't go to the airport
<<How about putting in an Autobahn type lane all the way to the pass with no speed limit? Seems cheaper and more effective. If it does not work they can build the train on it in 50-60 years>>
Cheaper??? Just think of the state and local money that will be spent sending out paramedics and other rescue personnel when there are pile-ups and fatal accidents.
Nevada is never going to get funding for this. It is a non-essential project and not really necessary. The area I live in was earmarked for millions to build an Amtrak station for a route going directly into Chicago; last I heard the money is on hold and the State may not get it at all, which is too bad because the project will create jobs not only in building the station and fixing the existing track but also the employees working in the station complex. This project is a lot more feasible then a "train to nowhere" and yet the project is up in the air.
IF the DesertXpress was going to run from LAX or close by (where people can easily drive to and safely park their cars), directly into Vegas - THEN you have a reason to build it. But Victorville to Vegas???? Ridership will NEVER make up the cost. Yeah -shades of the Monorail!!!