LAS VEGAS, Nev. — The Brightline West project is about to get its official kickoff.
While various surveying and other preparation work has been in progress for several months, a formal groundbreaking ceremony is set for Monday in Las Vegas at the planned site for the high-speed project’s Las Vegas station. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Brightline founder Wes Edens, along with other federal officials, state officials from Nevada and California, and local figures, are slated to attend.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal was first to report the event; Brightline had extended media invitations previously, but on a “for information only” basis.
The 218-mile route will mostly follow the right-of-way of Interstate 15 between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., where it will offer a connection to Metrolink commuter rail service to reach downtown Los Angeles and other Southern California locations.
“This is the physical action that we’ve been waiting for, for decades,” Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft told the Review-Journal. “… It will boost our economy, provide efficient transportation alternatives and continue the success of all that we have worked for.”
The project has advanced where most other high-speed proposals have floundered by obtaining necessary environmental clearance and lining up significant funding. The most recent environmental milestone was approval for the 49-mile segment between Rancho Cucamonga and Victorville, the original planned terminus [see “FRA gives environmental go-ahead …,” Trains News Wire, July 20, 2023]. Victor Valley is still planned as the high-speed route’s only intermediate station.
On the financial side, the project received a $3 billion federal grant under the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail program last December [see “Legislators say Brightline West will receive $3 billion …,” News Wire, Dec. 5, 2023]. It was cleared for another $2.5 billion in private activity bonds by the U.S. Department of Transportation earlier this year [see “DOT awards Brightline West $2.5 billion …,” News Wire, Jan. 23, 2024]. The total cost of the project is expected to be about $12 billion; private capital and debt will account for the rest.
Brightline West is projecting a travel time of 2 hours, 10 minutes between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga on the electrified route, with trains operating at up to 200 mph. The company has said it expects construction to take four years and has a goal of opening the system in time for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
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