It's amazing, really.
You can get high speed rail built for people from SoCal to lose their asses at a backgammon table in Vegas faster but if you want to, idk, travel for non-recreational reasons within the Midwest and you don't want to sprint through O'Hare for a flight between where you're from and where you're going, you'll probably be driving despite years of asking for Amtrak to find a way to go above 79 MPH.
Prediction: Project will take 10 years too long and results in a normal (non-high-speed) rail system connecting the two places that is too expensive for people to reasonably use.
> could zoom travelers between Las Vegas and Los Angeles in just under two hours by the end of the decade
Just to be clear, this is to the "greater Los Angeles area", ending at Rancho Cucamonga station, a 48 minute drive (1h15m by public transit) to downtown LA, and a 1h15m drive (2h30m by public transit) to LAX.
> When it’s completed, the train will travel at 186 miles per hour
If China can push 286 mph in Shanghai, which means the tech exists, then why isn't this comparable? This is not snark; I am just curious what makes the Chinese train capable of such speeds, but the US train can't.
Citynerd did a really good evaluation of the LA-LV Brightline total travel time with connections in the LA basin 4 months ago. His evaluation is that in some parts of LA it's roughly competitive with air travel (he actually looks at automobile/transit connections from Cheesecake factories?! to Caesar's Palace) and it beats car travel time in most parts of LA, but not by a lot.
The problem is getting to the Brightline station since it's so far out from the middle of LA.
I can't wait for the return of private train cars. Imagine the casinos hitching up private cars to the Brightline, thereby improving their experience while subsidising everyone else.
This will be done before the SF <-> LA HSR even starts building rail lines properly.
Awesome! Now I can drive an hour+ to Rancho Cucamonga, park, wait for the train, pay the equivalent of four plane tickets for my family, then take a 2 hour+ train ride, instead of driving for 4 hours from my house for the cost of half a tank of gas ($35). So cool!
what negativity in this thread! this is the only tangible, hopeful HSR project in the country right now
2hrs 10min +50-75 minutes to east of LA is a distance but 4-5+ hours highly variable by driving is an interesting choice since you have a car at your destination.
There is also going to be two intermediate stops in California at “Hesperia and one in Apple Valley.” (1)
So, 3.5 hours or so for guessing $100 one way versus 4-5+ hours at $40 gas 30mpg 220miles by car vs 1hr 8 minutes gate to gate $21-$60 by air without including security for any options.
They mentioned a metro link stop for LA but nothing about a plan for quite a ways off the strip in Las Vegas. Maybe a shuttle stop on the airport - car rental return loop. It’s going to be opposite the Las Vegas South Premium Outlets at Warmsprings rd and Las Vegas Blvd.
I compare to Brightline’s other rail project from Miami to Orlando. Tickets $80-$300 for similar mileage. Their high speed rail ended up with 70mph to a record 130mph.
https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/brightline-from-miami-to...
(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2024/04/20/high-speed-...
https://laedc.org/2021/04/26/aerospace-space-force/
> The federal government is increasingly embracing private business collaboration in its space missions, space-based projects and to power the new US Space Force as it ramps up in Los Angeles. This is creating a lot of activity and opportunity for LA-based aerospace companies.
https://www.foxnews.com/tech/exclusive-inside-area-51-the-se...
> Jacobsen, a contributing editor and investigative reporter at the Los Angeles Times Magazine, interviewed the former Area 51 employees in 2008 and 2009, shortly after the CIA declassified much of the work they had done.. Jacobsen reveals some of the wild research that went on in the 1970s at Area 51 -- where the military built the U-2 spy plane
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_51
> Area 51 is located in the southern portion of Nevada, 83 miles (134 km) north-northwest of Las Vegas.
It will cost more than the famously cost overrunned James Web Space Telescope, that was built over a period of 24 years, the largest and most advanced space telescope ever built, launched into the sun/earth L2 point a million miles from earth, to build a rail line between LA and Las Vegas?
Rancho Cucamonga is not Los Angeles. Victorville is not Los Angeles. How the hell are you supposed to get to Rancho Cucamonga without a car? For Las Vegas people going to LA, what the hell are you supposed to do when the train dumps you in the middle of Rancho Cucamonga?
If you want real ridership, public transit in both LA and LV needs to be functional.
Connect it to Union Station and LAX if you want some ridership. On the Las Vegas end make it stop smack in the middle of the strip.
Otherwise this thing is useless.
Also 125mph is not high speed rail. LA-LV in 2 hours + time spent getting to the train station + buffer time to avoid missing the train + long slow car rental line on the other end while 15 people ahead of you each have a chit chat with the one employee dealing with the rentals would be more time than just driving end to end. These people just don't get it.
Try LA-LV in 1 hour and maybe we're talking. But really, fix public transit in both cities first.
Might be a better idea to address the water scarcity issue than blow $12B in cash on sending more people there from a major metro area. When Lake Mead is gone, what will Vegas do? I’m guessing it’s all about waiting until it’s critical and imminent and then a very costly, taxpayer funded solution will have to be slammed in place.
Maybe it’s time to get serious about desalinization plants and get a pipeline to desert communities? They’ll sure as hell build an oil pipeline, so water should be an easy choice, right?
There is a 50 mile stretch of the Acela that reaches over 150MPH that qualifies as "high speed" rail, so technically this is the second high-speed rail in the US.
The fact that this costs 12billion sums up a lot of what’s wrong in the US.
Let’s be honest the project will take longer than expected and end up costing more than 12billion.
~~ Amtrak coast to coast starts at $4,299 per person, and takes 15 days.~~
What would be the cost of a high-speed rail version of this?
EDIT: I stand corrected. I looked at the Coast to Coast "Vacation". https://www.amtrakvacations.com/trips/america-coast-to-coast
There's literally nothing productive about getting Southern Californians to Las Vegas faster
It wouldn’t take that much more effort to extend the terminus a little further east down the 210 right of way to the 605 and then south into Orange County. And then, finally, we can fulfill the dream of a train to Anaheim, Azusa and CUC-amonga.
what does it mean "new track almost all in the median of Interstate 15"? Do they plan to run a train in the middle of highway? Is there is enough width there for a train?
If the cost high or OK? If it were executed by a highly motivated and efficient team, how long and how much would it cost?
This is amazing and I'm so so happy. Finally we will be competing with the best in a crucial infrastructure project.
Another bridge to nowhere. These rail projects suffer in isolation. Scaling doesn't seem palatable either.
I'm really excited for this. This company seems to be able to get these projects going.
Hard to see this as anything other than big-time grift.
This is estimated to be a $12B project. $6.5B raised so far: $3B grant and $3.5B in tax-exempt, "private activity" bonds. Does anyone actually think the rest will come from investors? Of course not, the government will see a half-finished project that it supported and provide the funding to finish the job, including the inevitable overruns.
A private company receiving 6.5B (and likely, eventually $12+) of government money... no pressure or expectations to make any profit. Great deal if you can get it!
More pork barrel spending, causing higher levels or debts and inflation.
All so that people can gamble.
Good stuff! I hope Americans start again to invest on cutting edge projects. In the last 30 or so years, all the really big projects happened in the Middle East and East Asia. You visit China, Singapore or Dubai and if feels like you step into the future.
Will be get it before nuclear fusion is the question?
Can't wait to ride it when its done in 20 years...
Lo key disappointment that it is not maglev monorail cannon
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I wish it was public instead of private. Brightline in Miami was obviously a line rich people take around the area for select events. I'm glad the Musk's line from O'Hare to the Loop failed when it was obvious that CTA just needed an express lane on the Blue line
Having used public transport sitting near homeless people, can we segregate them offering a "free ride wagon"?
I understand that California High Speed Rail isn't a popular project on HN, but to claim that it hasn't broken ground is just wrong. There are numerous completed structures and a clear plan to get high-speed trains running from Merced to Bakersfield by 2030.