Private High-speed Rail from California to Las Vegas Nears Construction
A private company that wants to build a high-speed rail line from Southern California to Las Vegas took a step toward construction on Thurdsay with the announcement of a labor agreement for the proposed project.
Local ABC affiliate KABC-7 reported:
Brightline, the company that will build the system, has announced a landmark labor agreement with the High-Speed Rail Labor Coalition, which is “compromised of 13 rail unions representing more than 160,000 freight, regional, commuter, and passenger railroad workers in the United States.”
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The $10 billion investment is expected to create nearly 35,000 jobs during construction and over 1,000 permanent jobs once operational, according to a press release from Brightline.
The fully-electric train will be able to travel 200 miles an hour.
The idea for a bullet train to Las Vegas has survived the ongoing failures of the public high-speed rail project between San Francisco and Los Angeles. That project, approved in principle by voters in a 2008 referendum, has ballooned in cost and has encountered numerous environmental objections. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) canceled much of the project when he took office in 2019, keeping only a portion in the Central Valley that has yet to be built and which will only connect two remote towns where there is little passenger rail demand.
However, there has been greater public interest in a train to Las Vegas, which would be something of an amusement — joining the Las Vegas monorail as a form of entertainment rather than a means of transportation.
