The U.S. is on the way to getting its first true high-speed rail line, with the groundbreaking in Las Vegas last week for the 218-mile Brightline West line that will connect Las Vegas to almost-Los Angeles by 2028, in time for the next Olympics in L.A.
Privately-owned Brightline’s $12 billion project has $3 billion in Federal infrastructure grants and a $2.5 billion loan guarantee. The route runs from a new Las Vegas terminal near Las Vegas’s airport and will operate in the median strip of Interstate 15, with an expected travel time of two hours, about half the current driving time.
The southern terminal of the 200-mph line will be at Rancho Cucamonga in the Los Angeles suburbs, on a site shared with local commuter rail and bus routes to take passengers the rest of the way into downtown L.A. Two intermediate stations will be built at Hesperia and Victor Valley, where a future connection to California’s High Speed Rail, also under construction, will be possible.
Image: Artist conception from Brightline
