USA: The Federal Railroad Administration has signed a $3bn grant awarded to Nevada Department of Transportation for the Brightline West project to build a high speed line to Las Vegas. This confirms a promise made by President Joe Biden last December to provide the funds under the Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger Rail Programme.
The grant is expected to fund final design and initial construction work for the project, which has a price tag of $10∙4bn plus finance costs. Award of the grant is expected to boost the confidence of potential investors.
The Brightline West alignment will start at Rancho Cucamonga in the San Gabriel valley, where trains will connect with the Los Angeles Metrolink regional commuter network. From there, the 351 km line will mainly run in the median strip of the Interstate 15 highway from California across the state border into Nevada. An intermediate station is planned at Victor Valley to serve the communities of Victorville and Hesperia. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on April 22 in Las Vegas.
A fleet of 10 seven-car American Pioneer 220 high speed trainsets designed to operate at up to 355 km/h is to be supplied by Siemens Mobility from a factory at Horseheads in upstate New York; the company had been named as preferred bidder for the contract on May 1.
Brightline CEO Michael Reininger said that the grant was an ‘historic commitment that will jumpstart the high speed rail industry in America, creating thousands of jobs all across the country … Brightline West will be American-made and American-built and will serve as the blueprint for connecting city pairs that are too close to fly but too far to drive.’
FRA Administrator Amit Bose was pleased that ‘the hard work of the Biden-Harris Administration and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law’s historic funding’ would mean that ‘we will finally experience high speed rail on US soil’.
For Director of the Nevada Department of Transportation Tracy Larkin Thomason the $3bn was ‘a transformative step forward in shaping the future of Nevada’s transportation’. Noting that the project would offer ‘a fast, sustainable alternative to car travel between Las Vegas and Southern California’, she said it would ‘stimulate growth and create jobs, providing lasting benefits for both our state and the region’.
