{"id":270323,"date":"2023-04-24T21:01:10","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T02:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=270323"},"modified":"2023-04-25T12:22:37","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T17:22:37","slug":"high-speed-la-to-vegas-railway-gets-bipartisan-backing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/high-speed-la-to-vegas-railway-gets-bipartisan-backing\/","title":{"rendered":"High-Speed LA to Vegas Railway Gets Bipartisan Backing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A bipartisan congressional group from California and Nevada asked the Biden administration on Monday to fast-track federal funding for a high-speed railway link from LA to Las Vegas that was first proposed in 2009.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270324\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-270324\" data-style=\"width: 858px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-270324 size-post-thumbnail-858xAUTO\" src=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/undated-brightline-858x429.jpg\" alt=\"Brightline West\" width=\"858\" height=\"429\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/undated-brightline-858x429.jpg 858w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/undated-brightline-430x215.jpg 430w, https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/undated-brightline.jpg 1150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 858px) 100vw, 858px\" \/><figcaption  id=\"caption-attachment-270324\"class=\"text-description\">This undated rendering illustrates the high-speed rail line proposed by Brightline from LA to Las Vegas. A bipartisan congressional group in California and Nevada asked the Biden administration to fast-track the federal portion of its funding. (Image: Brightline West)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a letter to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, five of Nevada\u2019s elected federal lawmakers and four House Members from California asked for $3.75 billion for the Brightline West project from the Biden-backed federal infrastructure law. The project will cost $10 billion, 70% of which will come from private funding, according to Brightline, using a combination of debt and equity.<\/p>\n<div class=\"callout\">\n<p>The letter estimated that the project will create 35,000 union construction jobs as well as 1,000 permanent jobs and will divert 3 million cars from the congested Interstate 15 \u201conto a faster, more efficient, zero-emission transportation option\u201d that would stop the belching of 400,000 tons of CO2\u00a0 into the air every year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Brightline &#8212; which already runs a high-speed rail between Miami and West Palm Beach in Florida &#8212; plans to connect Las Vegas with Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., 220 miles southwest, via 200 mph passenger trains that run mainly within the I-15&#8217;s median. Brightline projects an average travel time of two hours and 15 minutes &#8212; half the time the trip currently takes in a car during the average weekend. Each train could transport up to 500 passengers.<\/p>\n<p>California Democratic House members Nanette Barraga\u0301n, Jimmy Gomez, and John Garamendi signed the letter &#8212; as did Republican Jay Obernolte. So did Nevada\u2019s senior US Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, and four House members, including Republican Mark Amodei.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><b>Slow Train Coming<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>Amtrak passenger service from LA to Las Vegas ended in 1991 with the Desert Wind. That train regularly got stuck behind the increasing number of freight trains serving the growing desert region. Often, that trip took passengers 10 hours, and it feels like this high-speed rail project, first proposed in 2005, is moving with equal sluggishness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It wasn&#8217;t until 2009 that the Federal Railroad Administration completed a draft environmental plan for the railway, which was then known as DesertXpress. Brightline acquired the project in 2018.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter more than a decade of working to find a pathway, Brightline West will be the first true high-speed rail system in America and will serve as the blueprint for how we can connect major city pairs that are too short to fly and too far to drive,\u201d read a statement from Brightline CEO Mike Reininger.<\/p>\n<p>A draft environmental assessment for Brightline West was made public in October 2022, and the Federal Railroad Administration is expected to finalize permits in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bipartisan congressional group from California and Nevada asked the Biden administration on Monday to fast-track federal funding for a high-speed railway link from LA to Las Vegas that was first proposed in 2009. In a letter to US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, five of Nevada\u2019s elected federal lawmakers and four House Members from California [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":270324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81886,13,16693],"tags":[85989,85138,85139,23,82816,85992,85991,85990],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>High-Speed LA to Vegas Railway Gets Bipartisan Backing - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A bipartisan congressional group from California and Nevada asked the Biden administration on Monday to fast-track federal funding for a high-speed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"High-Speed LA to Vegas Railway Gets Bipartisan Backing - 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He currently covers gaming news on the US West Coast, including Las Vegas. Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city\u2019s history. (For \u201cFear and Loafing,\u201d he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.) Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post. Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook. 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