Attendees talk as a monitor displays a Brightline West presentation after a ceremony at the Brightline West Las Vegas station in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 22, 2024. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Construction is expected to begin within the next two months on Brightline West, the bullet train planned to take passengers from southern California to Las Vegas, the project’s manager said Feb. 10.
The train, dubbed the first true high-speed rail system in the United States, is intended to connect Las Vegas to the greater Los Angeles area, ending in Rancho Cucamonga in San Bernardino County.
There will be two interim stops in Southern California. One will be in Apple Valley, located in the Mojave Desert, and the other in Hesperia, 35 miles north of downtown San Bernardino, according to Brightline West. The latter stop will only be used during rush hour. The other stops will see 37 trains per day, said Eric Scheetz, Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) senior project manager, at an NDOT Board of Directors meeting.
The Rancho Cucamonga station, which also serves Metrolink to connect riders to various Southern California destinations, will include a 3,700-space parking garage and act as the route’s western terminus, Scheetz said.
The all-electric train, built by Siemens, is expected to traverse the Las Vegas–Rancho Cucamonga route at up to 200 miles per hour and carry 8.6 million passengers per year. Travel time is expected to be two times faster than the normal drive time, or 2 hrs and 10 minutes. The drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas generally takes 4 to 6 hours, though traffic can increase that time frame.
NDOT was awarded in December 2023 a $3 billion grant from the Federal Railroad Administration.
The total cost is expected to come in at $12 billion, according to NDOT. Brightline West is still working on raising the other $9 billion in private financing, Scheetz said.
Currently, Brightline West is attempting to sell $2.5 billion in private activity bonds. If their current sale goes as planned, that would mean that the overall project is a little more than halfway financed.
A portion of that financing is expected to close in the next two to four weeks, according to Scheetz.
“At that point, then really heavy civil construction starts,” Scheetz said on Feb. 10. He said this stage will take two to three years, and then workers will start laying the rails.
Rendering of a high-speed rail line planned between Los Angeles and Los Vegas. Courtesy of Brightline West
Brightline previously sold $1 billion in private activity bonds at the end of 2024. The rest of the necessary funds, about $6 billion, are expected to come from a privately financed bank loan.
“We’re hearing good responses from Brightline in that the banks are becoming very close to signing on the dotted line, if you will,” Scheetz said.
Siemens announced in September 2024 that it planned to build a $60 million facility in upstate New York to manufacture and assemble Brightline West’s first train order.
Construction on the facility is due to begin in 2026 on the American Pioneer 220 trains, which will be used for the Brightline West project, the German company said in a statement in September.
“This new facility in Horseheads, New York, marks the beginning of a brand-new industry in the USA—bringing both high-speed rail production and some of the world’s most modern trains to the continent for the first time,” said Michael Peter, CEO of Siemens Mobility in a statement.
The entire line is expected to be built out in four years, which means it might not be completed in time to carry passengers from Las Vegas to Los Angeles for the 2028 Olympics.
The project expects to create more than 35,000 jobs during the construction phase and 1,000 permanent operations and maintenance jobs.
Kimberly Hayek
Author
Kimberly Hayek is a reporter for The Epoch Times. She covers California news and has worked as an editor and on scene at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2018 migrant caravan crisis.
