Forbes, 8/22/20:
High-Speed Rail Heats Up In California As Brightline Eyes Las Vegas Route Extensions
Brightline, the sole private passenger rail service in the U.S., has a green light from transit agencies to begin planning two extensions for its $5 billion high-speed train to Las Vegas that would tie it into existing Los Angeles-area commuter rail lines and, someday, California’s high-speed rail project.
Story is here.
Obviously this is bittersweet news. A high speed line solely between Las Vegas and Victorville, as has been proposed by various agencies before, would leave a huge gap across the state of California, assuming most potential passengers would be drawn from the Los Angeles basin. High Speed Rail within California, particularly that which would connect Victorville with the L.A. area is still decades away, if at all. So it's encouraging to see that Brightline now would hook up with Metrolink trains at Rancho Cucamonga and/or Palmdale. However, the relative slowness of a commuter train and the many stops it still will have to make, would negate the savings of 200 mph high speed rail across the desert.
