Posted on 10/27/2011 4:11:10 PM PDT by mdittmar
Surface Transportation Board to permit high-speed rail project that will create more than 32,000 Nevada jobs
October 26, 2011
Washington, D.C. — Nevada Senator Harry Reid today applauded the decision by the Department of Transportation’s bipartisan Surface Transportation Board (STB) to grant an exemption for DesertXpress to build and operate a 190-mile high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and Southern California that could create more than 32,000 Nevada jobs.
“I’m pleased that the DesertXpress project is getting the green light to proceed, which will not only put tens of thousands of Nevadans to work but ultimately bring more tourists to boost Nevada's economy,” Reid said. “I look forward to Nevadans being back on the job and more visitors from California choosing Las Vegas because of this high-speed rail option.”
The STB decision says DesertXpress must meet environmental conditions and build the route in a way that causes minimal harm to the environment. Attached is the full text of the STB’s decision.
BACKGROUND
• In July, the Department of Transportation issued its Record of Decision (ROD) for the DesertXpress Project, which was the final step of the Environmental Impact Statement process and allowed work to move forward on the project.
• A UNLV Report states that the DesertXpress Project would produce an estimated 17,469 primary jobs and 16,432 secondary jobs in Clark County over three years by 2013.
• The DesertXpress Project will connect Las Vegas to Victorville in Southern California, and later the California high-speed rail system.
• Twenty-six percent of all visitors to Las Vegas come from Southern California.
• The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce supports DesertXpress because it will bring more tourists to southern Nevada and boost Nevada’s economy.
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The company is pursuing a $4.9 billion federal loan to build the line.
I could jump tall buildings in a single bound if I were Superman, too!! I might be a gazillionaire if I am Bill Gates!!
What a load of BS!!!
This is a total waste of money.
And this is where the plan fails. I've driven from LV to Victorville. It's easy, mindless driving and I have my car at both ends. A train does nothing. The only exception may be peak holiday weekends like New Years or Presidents. Not enough to sustain the train, not matter the subsidy.
It will end up like much of the TGV in France, pretty but useless.
...high-speed rail project that will create more than 32,000 Nevada jobs...
This just in,Officials with the proposed high-speed train linking Las Vegas and Southern California want to borrow about $6 billion from the federal government.
32,000 jobs from a single line that will run from something like Reno to San Diego or something like that?
The only way this boondoggle is going to creat 32,000 jobs is if they hammer iron into track by hand and count the endless beauracracy and costs that will be required to get "environmental approval"...
What a joke.
You'd need 68 High Speed Rail Trains per day to handle that load ~ and then most of the passengers would find it necessary to get to an airport to go elsewhere in the country anyway.
Rail is a concept whose time has come, and for the most part, gone. Today we use automobiles and aircraft in this country for passenger traffic.
We laugh but it’s not funny. We need to set up a penitentiary for all concerned
Prostitution’s legal, so 32,000 new hookers is probably about right.
I suppose if you’re including all the support jobs. :)
I personally "Fact Checked" his re-election claim to having "saved" 22,000 jobs at "City Center" in Las Vegas. As usual Harry was being misleading.
The truth is that "City Center" only employs 12,000 people currently. The claimed "22,000 jobs saved" were temporary, existing only during construction.
This is typical of his boasting, no doubt every other one of his claims is similarly skewed, NOT an actual fact!
This boondoggle rail project will be the same, but worse. It will never turn a profit, the nations taxpayers will not only pay to build it, they will be forced to subsidize it for perpetuity!
Not a great way to make Las Vegas more popular.
The drive from Las Vegas to CA is definitely easy and mindless. While I’d be happy to have the lost CA drivers off the roads here, seriously, who is going to take the train when it’s not that long a drive? Well, there is one demographic I can think of which we can do without. It’s just for money to put in union worker’s pockets.
I was under the impression that no one was going to Vegas. So will this be rail service to a ghost town?
Rail is a concept whose time has come, and for the most part, gone. Today we use automobiles and aircraft in this country for passenger traffic
Yes.... but the real question is “how many of those planes/people come from LAX?”
With the LA freeway congestion most folks consider themselves almost there when they finally get through the traffic to Victorville, especially on a Friday afternoon...:^)
It's a concept whose economic time has not yet come.
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