Posted on 03/03/2023 7:30:09 AM PST by ChicagoConservative27
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.”
…
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
It will make travel through Bat Country much safer though.
With The Mafia behind it—it will be built and built fast—all who oppose it will have a “wee bit of an Accident” For all we know the Cartels or China might be bankrolling it.
I think it could be the one commercially viable high speen rail line in the U.S.
Las Vegas had nearly 12 million visitors last year from southern California alone. That is five times or more than the air travel passengers annually between San Francisco and Los Angeles (the expected service purpose of the high speed rail boondoggle). If high speed rail to down town Los Angeles from Vegas was available, I think Southern California would see an increase in tourists from folks who flew into and visited Vegas and then went on to southern California, with return trip to Vegas to catch thier return flight to wherever they originated from.
If they keep it private, it could work.
Maybe they can use the train to ship water. :)
In South Florida, a sister company, Brightline, has been running a private high speed passenger rail operation successfully since 2018. They carried more than 1.2 million passengers last year. By the middle of 2023, new stations will provide service from Orlando to several points in Miami-Dade, with stops along the way. Additional stations and expansion lines to Tampa and Jacksonville are under consideration.
With high speeds and new cars and stations that are clean, comfortable, and upscale, Brightline offers an attractive niche alternative to road and air travel. When the Orlando station opens in a few months, I expect to use Brightline for a long-delayed visit to friends in West Palm Beach. The Orlando station is ten minutes away from home by car, with the West Palm station a few minutes' walk to my friends' offices.
Ridership studies and experience have shown that once population density reaches a certain point, high speed rail begins to make sense by expanding the range of travel for tourists and commuters to large metropolitan areas. Economic gains come from greater tourism, a larger labor pool, and wider housing opportunities. Yet skepticism is always in order because practical and regulatory obstacles tend to make high speed commuter rail a tough proposition even when a favorable economic case is apparent.
Not trying to jack you up…but have you been to Vegas lately? Last time I was there (18 mo ago) the prices seemed upscale…the clientele certainly wasn’t.
Well said.
I have oten wondered why Amtrak or some other rail service has avoided Vegas. Seems a no brainer to me.
You no doubt have no idea of the ground water contamination north of Vegas that will eventually make it to the city.
Something like 1.7 trillion gallons of water is forever contaminated.
It’ll take years to get there..unless they drastically increase their draw of groundwater. Then it will increase in the rate of movement.
I would NEVER purchase any property in that city.
They’ll probably buy up some land on the line, put in a train station and fill it with casino slots, hookers and blow. Hard to lose money on that unless it is the government running it.
flight time between those two cities is a tad over 90 minutes; 200 mph train will be considerably slower due to intermediate station stops and the fact that the train won’t really go 200 mph into las vegas;
next-day economy-class flight tickets range between $80-$200; one or two weeks advance purchase is even cheaper ...
one must also weigh the time and hassle of station arrival and departure, which MIGHT be a bit less hassle with a train ...
let’s say average train ticket is $100.00 round trip per person ... how many tickets will have to be sold to break even?
first, there’s the (supposed) $10 billion PLUS interest on the bonds to pay back, which would be $20 billion for a 30 year bond at 5.27% interest
then there’s operation and maintenance costs, looking about the internet, there’s numerous complicating factors, but $200,000,000/year for that line isn’t unreasonable
so: $1.5 billion per year to pay back bonds and .2 billion per year to operate, for grand total of $1.7 billion per year
if round-trip tickets really were $100.00 then 17,000,000 tickets per year would have to be sold to break even ... that’s roughly 47,000 round-trip tickets per day, which would be a total of 94,000 one-way trips
assume 12 hours operation, then that would be 7,800 passenger trips per hour ... assume two tracks, then 3,900 trips in each direction per track per hour ... so at least 40 trains with enough cars to carry one thousand passengers each ...
(of course, none of those calculations consider peak travel periods like weekends and holidays, which only makes the calculations much worse, perhaps nearly impossible)
at any rate, does that sound economically feasible to anyone?
Fact, there has never been a successful Railroad in the history of railroads in the United States. They’ve all been subsidized by tax dollars.
People always forget that part...
My solution is to nuke Vegas from orbit, it is the only way to be sure it is gone.
If there is a modern day equivalent of Sodom and Gomorra, how do you beat LA and LV?
Wait until that first derailment.
They will start the construction then ask for a bailout.
Grease a few palms and the taxpayers will be paying billions.
You no doubt have no idea of the ground water contamination north of Vegas that will eventually make it to the city.
Something like 1.7 trillion gallons of water is forever contaminated.
********************************
I lived there for 40+ years.
Data?
why the train to nowere has not arrived in bakersfield as of yet.
by way of tehachapi????
You havent heard of the radiation contamination from the nuclear test site north of Vegas?
Presently, it is moving slowly towards Pahrump and Beatty. Depending, it will take a hundred years or more, except, they agree if areas draw down their ground water systems (aquifers) it may allow that contaminated water speed to up its movement.
Aside form that..you have been drinking water contaminated by the above ground tests from radiation that has been filtering into the Colorado river system. Not to mention the contamination from the hazardous disaster caused by the Obastard administration up at Silverton CO.
You haven’t heard of the radiation contamination from the nuclear test site north of Vegas?
Presently, it is moving slowly towards Pahrump and Beatty. Depending, it will take a hundred years or more, except, they agree if areas draw down their ground water systems (aquifers) it may allow that contaminated water speed to up its movement.
**************************************
Beatty - 6000+ years.
Wore film badges. They finally got turned off as the only badges that showed contamination were the ones left on top of color TV sets (the old CRT types).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.