Las Vegas bullet train segment from Rancho Cucamonga clears federal review

Plans to build a bullet train from the Inland Empire to Las Vegas lurched forward with a federal review of the project’s Rancho Cucamonga leg.

U.S. regulators have completed an environmental study for Brightline West’s high-speed link from Rancho Cucamonga to the Mojave Desert, where it would connect with a 200-mph line to Las Vegas, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

Brightline West, a unit of Miami-based Brightline, has already won approval to build a 170-mile electrified line along the 15 Freeway from Apple Valley to the Las Vegas Strip.

The Department of Transportation’s Federal Rail Administration just reviewed the 49-mile segment from Rancho Cucamonga to the high-desert community in Victor Valley. The run over the Cajon Pass could hit 180 mph and take 35 minutes. Public hearings begin this month.

A high-speed rail journey from Rancho Cucamonga to lower Las Vegas could take 2.5 hours.

Add a Metrolink run from Downtown Los Angeles to the high-speed terminal near Hesperia and the Vegas trip could take 3.5 hours – about what it takes to drive to an airport, go through security and fly.

Last month, Brightline cut a deal with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority and the city of Rancho Cucamonga to buy 5 acres for an undisclosed price next to the city’s Metrolink station for a high-speed terminal.

Brightline now must obtain federal and state permits along with funding for the Rancho Cucamonga extension project.

Pending approvals, Brightline West is expected to break ground in 2026 and launch its bullet trains as soon as 2030, according to Urbanize. Forbes said early this year that shovels could begin next year, with a passenger rail service launch in 2026.

Brightline, the only private passenger rail company in the nation, is owned by New York-based Fortress Investment Group. Construction of the 220-mile electrified railway between the IE and Las Vegas would cost an estimated $8 billion.

Travel from Downtown L.A. to Rancho Cucamonga, a distance of 45 miles, would be made on a Metrolink train.

Brightline originally envisioned the 265-mile system to break ground in 2020 or 2021, but it was delayed by a lack of funding.

If the Brightline West project receives final federal approval, the company could apply for low-interest funding options for high-speed rail included in the recently approved U.S. infrastructure program.

Brightline is controlled by private-equity billionaire Wesley Edens, the Milwaukee Bucks owner who has funneled more than $100 million of his own money into plans for high-speed rail lines linking Las Vegas to Southern California and Orlando to Miami, funded mostly by tax-exempt bonds.

If all goes well, he predicts his trains could haul nearly 20 million passengers in 2026, generate annual revenue of $1.6 billion and operating profit of almost $1 billion a year, according to Forbes.

— Dana Bartholomew

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