What to know about Brightline West’s Las Vegas high-speed rail project
This video explores the history and future impact of the Brightline West high-speed rail project that will connect Las Vegas to Southern California.
California and transportation officials met Monday near Bakersfield to announce that the high-speed rail project has officially entered a new phase that brings the start of passenger service one step closer to reality.
State and transportation officials at the event also spoke of a partnership between the California High-Speed Rail Authority, Brightline West, and the High Desert Corridor to connect the Golden State and Nevada.
During the ceremony, Gov. Gavin Newsom joined California High-Speed Rail Authority CEO Ian Choudri, local leaders, and workers to break ground on “the railhead,” the first step to laying track in Central California.
After hammering down symbolic railroad spikes to kick off construction of a railhead in Kern County, Newsom said, “Finally, we’re at the point where we’re going to start laying down this track in the next couple years.”
Where will the Callifornia high-speed rail lines connect?
The California High-Speed Rail Authority project would connect Northern California through the Central Valley to Southern California. The second phase would connect Los Angeles to Rancho Cucamonga and San Diego.
The 218-mile Brightline West high-speed rail project would connect Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, with stops in Apple Valley and Hesperia in the Victor Valley.
The High Desert Corridor high-speed rail project would connect the Victor Valley with Palmdale in the Antelope Valley.
Not mentioned was the Metrolink Train line, not high-speed rail, which would connect Brightline West in Rancho Cucamonga, and the High Desert Corridor project in Palmdale, allowing passengers to travel across Southern California.
How much of the high-speed rail project has been completed in California?
Monday’s ceremony celebrated the substantial completion of Construction Package 4, the southernmost stretch of the initial operating line of high-speed rail.
The new railyard between Wasco and Shafter, northwest of Bakersfield in Kern County, is the starting line of tracks and other operating systems for the state’s planned high-speed rail project.
The railhead is near the southernmost end of a nearly 22-mile stretch of the planned high-speed route from the Tulare-Kern county line to Poplar Avenue near Shafter.
“This is not just a transportation project. This is a transformation project. I’ve never seen or thought of this, fundamentally, as a project that’s just about rail,” Newsom told the audience. “It’s about economic development. It’s about creating a sense of place. It’s about up-zoning around the rail. It’s about infrastructures, yes physical infrastructure, but also building that human capital and that human infrastructure as a big part of it.”
Newsom thanked President Joe Biden for helping to procure more than $6 billion in federal funds for the California High-Speed Rail.
Construction Package 4 includes 11 civil structures, including overpasses, underpasses, and viaducts built to take high-speed trains over roadways, waterways, and existing rail lines. All major civil works have been completed, and the segment is largely ready to lay track, state officials said.
Of the more than 14,500 jobs created since the start of the high-speed rail project, work in package 4 generated more than 3,200 jobs.
Brightline West will connect Los Angeles to Las Vegas
Once again, 2025 kicked off with hopes that Brightline West would begin constructing its high-speed rail system between Las Vegas and Southern California.
Brightline West continues to focus on completing the rail system by the start of the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Once completed, passengers can travel between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga in about 2 hours, with the train reaching speeds of up to 200 mph.
In April 2024, dignitaries across the U.S. and the High Desert traveled to Las Vegas to attend Bright West’s groundbreaking ceremony.
Since then, Brightline West has continued to conduct geotechnical field work and surveying in both states to prepare for construction.
In September 2024, the Federal Railroad Administration inked an agreement that sends $3 billion to the Nevada Department of Transportation for Brightline West’s planned $12 billion high-speed rail project.
Brightline CEO Michael Reininger in a press release called the signing a “historic commitment that will jumpstart the high-speed rail industry in America, creating thousands of jobs all across the country.”
High Desert Corridor High-Speed Rail Project
In July 2024, High Desert representatives supported a new high-speed rail project connecting Palmdale and the Victor Valley.
Victorville Mayor Elizabeth Becerra, who also serves as a High Desert Corridor Joint Powers Agency Board Member, was at the Metrolink Palmdale Transportation Center. Becerra, along with her fellow board members, signed “landmark agreements” with union labor representatives.
The agreements are to construct, operate, and maintain the future multimillion-dollar High Desert Corridor High Speed Rail Project, Becerra said.
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The agreements consist of a community workforce agreement and a memorandum of understanding that codify the project’s use of highly skilled union labor, the agency stated.
The 54-mile High Desert Corridor from Palmdale to the Victor Valley will connect the nation’s two major bullet train projects now underway—California High-Speed Rail in the Central Valley and Brightline West between Las Vegas and Southern California.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz
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Publish date : 2025-01-07 05:21:00
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