Brightline on track to begin Las Vegas high-speed rail project
Photo – Brightline
(Source: Progressive Railroading 04/14/2021)
Brightline West is on schedule to start construction of a high-speed rail route between Las Vegas and Southern California in the second quarter, the company’s chief executive officer told a Las Vegas newspaper.
Brightline West CEO Mike Reininger did not share with the Reno Gazette Journal a definitive date of groundbreaking on the 170-mile route between Las Vegas and Victorville, California, however.
“The world changed as a result of the pandemic, but we continued to work wherever we possibly could toward advancing the ball,” Reininger said. “The project remains a very high priority for us.”
In a January letter to the Nevada High-Speed Rail Authority, Brightline officials outlined the challenges the pandemic created in the company’s ability to obtain funding for the project.
Meanwhile, DesertXpress Enterprises LLC — doing business as Brightline West — yesterday submitted to the Surface Transportation Board (STB) a petition for exemption from certain regulatory requirements in order to construct and operate an extended high-speed rail line between Victor Valley and Rancho Cucamonga, California, a distance of about 50 miles. That proposed line would extend the company’s previously approved Las Vegas-to-Victorville high-speed rail service.