High-speed rail in the American west has received a major new investment with the Biden administration pledging $3bn for a project connecting Las Vegas to southern California and $3.07bn to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Officials have described the ambitious projects as a “gamechanger” for tourism and travel in the region.
The Las Vegas to Los Angeles project aims to finish before the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The California high-speed rail authority program, which has long been stuck in limbo, expects to start initial service as early as 2030, and aims to ultimately move travelers from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin at speeds above 200mph (322km/h) in under 3 hours.
“This historic high-speed rail project will be a gamechanger for Nevada’s tourism economy and transportation,” Jacky Rosen, a Democratic Nevada senator, said in a statement on Tuesday. Rosen has pushed for the Las Vegas project, which had sought $3.75bn.
Unlike California’s rail effort, the Las Vegas project is not government run but rather a private-public partnership led by Brightline, a Florida-based company that runs a successful commuter line within that state.
The 218-mile (350km) “Brightline West” project is expected to have speeds of at least 186mph, resulting in a proposed trip time of 2 hours and 10 min. The company reportedly wants to price the cheapest one-way ticket at around $100, so that it is competitive with the cost of air travel.
A formal announcement of the project funded by the $1tn 2021 infrastructure law is planned for Friday. A total of $8.2bn in rail awards are to be announced on Friday by the White House.
The announcement comes after Gavin Newsom, the California governor, asked Joe Biden in October for a $3bn federal grant to support his state’s high-speed rail project connecting San Francisco and LA, which is estimated to cost $88bn to $128bn. The federal investment would allow the state to complete an initial 119-mile segment.
California lawmakers, including Nancy Pelosi, said the California high-speed rail authority would receive funding to support construction connecting Merced, Fresno and Bakersfield. Republicans in Congress want to bar the president from giving new awards to pay for California’s high-speed rail as the project has cost far more and taken far more time than officials initially promised.
Brightline West estimates it will remove 3m cars from I-15 annually.