A private company called brightview (I think) built a small section of highish speed rail in Florida and is now building a line from the outskirts of LA to Vegas. I'm excited for it to open up
From there, they’re laying new rail to LV.
The clever part is that they’re laying the rail down the middle of I-15, which is a divided interstate. This lets them built rail to their specifications, a dedicated rail, and also bypass no doubt a huge amount of approvals and things such as environmental studies.
Most of that simply doesn’t apply to the middle of the I-15.
So it’s a bit of a perfect storm that’s enabling this project.
The big question is whether they can get schedule priority getting out of the Inland Empire and over the pass to Barstow. Most passenger traffic is second class on the freight lines (which is where much of the delays and low quality of modern train travel stems from).
But, yea, eager to see this. Supposed to be ready for the ‘28 LA Olympics.
My only concern is pricing. It's gonna have to be about 50$ each way to be worth it in my opinion. You can get a flight to a fro for about 150$ and that's out an airport like burbank which is very low security and easy to navigate.
Imagine believing that anyone will be willing to attend the 28 games in America.
Never had the chance to use it, but one of the more exciting US rail developments I’ve seen recently.
I have absolutely zero faith in california high speed rail doing anything within my lifetime while China can build hundreds of miles in a few years.