LOS ANGELES — Getting to Las Vegas from Los Angeles has always been problematic. Flying is fast but expensive. Driving is cheap but slow. In just a few years, however, there will be another option: a train that will whisk visitors across California and into Nevada in half as much time as it takes by car.
Rail operator Brightline West announced late last month that it has struck a deal with the High-Speed Rail Labor Coalition to begin work on the nation’s first high-speed rail project. The all-electric train will connect a station in Apple Valley, east of the city of LA, to Las Vegas along Interstate 15. The 218-mile trip will take about 85 minutes on a train that will have a cruising speed of 200 miles per hour.
“Americans want high-speed rail and Brightline West and the High-Speed Rail Labor Coalition will deliver,” according to a statement from the coalition, which includes 13 rail worker unions representing 160,000 freight, regional, commuter and passenger railroad workers in the U.S.
Construction on the $10 billion project will create 35,000 jobs and is expected to begin later this year. Brightline West expects operations will begin in 2027.
“As the most shovel-ready high-speed rail project in the United States, we are one step closer to leveling the playing field against transit and infrastructure projects around the world, and we are proud to be using America’s most skilled workers to get there,” Brightline Holdings Chief Executive Mike Reininger said in a statement.
In 2020, Brightline signed a right-of-way agreement that allows it to build the 135-mile California portion of the corridor in the middle of Interstate 15. The agreement allows CalTrans to oversee construction and maintenance of the rail line that will begin in Apple Valley at a train station to be constructed off Interstate 15’s Dale Evans Parkway exit.
Because Apple Valley isn’t exactly LA, Brightline will build an extension of the line to a Metrolink station in Rancho Cucamonga. Both stops will allow Brightline’s Las Vegas train to connect to the greater LA area’s more robust transportation network.
“That gets the project into the LA region,” Brightline West spokesperson Ben Porritt told Spectrum News. “So if you’re traveling from Las Vegas to Rancho, you could hop off our train and basically walk right into a Metrolink train to get anywhere you wanted within the SoCal region.”
Metrolink’s Rancho Cucamonga station is on the San Bernardino line that runs between Los Angeles Union Station and Redlands. Brightline West will have a dedicated platform, according to Metrolink spokesperson Karen Baker.
“This is really exciting because their service could bring a whole new market to Metrolink,” Baker said.
The Southern California commuter rail system is working with Brightline to figure out how travelers will get between the two platforms and what fare will be charged “to make sure it’s a seamless experience for anyone using both systems,” she said.
Brightline has received $1 billion in private activity bonds from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help fund the project. Brightline West has also applied for a portion of $7.2 billion in U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration grants for high-speed intercity passenger rail.
This month, the Federal Railroad Administration is expected to post its environmental assessment of the project and the permits that go with it, securing Brightline West’s right of way and allowing the project to proceed.
The only privately owned and operated intercity passenger railroad in the United States, Brightline currently operates along a 70-mile stretch of South Florida, connecting Miami with West Palm Beach. Later this year, it will extend its services another 170 miles to Orlando.
Brightline’s train connecting the LA area and Las Vegas will be its first on the West Coast. LA is the top market of origin for Las Vegas visitors, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority. Prior to the pandemic, in 2019, 1.6 million Angelenos visited “Sin City.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Brightline West had secured bonds from the states of California and Nevada. The error has been corrected. (March 8, 2023)