Brightline West Las Vegas - LA high-speed line construction “to start in 2023”

[Maybach]

From IRJ:

It looks like this might finally be going ahead!

Brightline West Las Vegas - LA high-speed line construction “to start in 2023”

Brightline West aims to begin construction on the long-planned 418.5km Las Vegas, Nevada, to Southern California high-speed line next year.

www.railjournal.com

BRIGHTLINE West says that it is hoping to begin construction on the long-planned 418.5km Las Vegas, Nevada, to Southern California high-speed line next year.

The estimated $US 8bn project would connect Las Vegas to Los Angeles via a route running alongside the Insterstate 15 highway (I-15), mostly within the “meridian strip” central reservation, and would include three stations in the high desert and San Bernardino County areas. If work proceeds as planned, the line could open in 2026 or 2027.

Construction of the line between Las Vegas and Victoriaville has already been approved, and the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) has released an environmental assessment report for the 79km stretch through the Cajon Pass between the Victor Valley and Rancho Cucamonga. The assessment concluded that the planned line would have no significantly adverse impacts on either the environment or low income or minority populations.

 

[JaJaWa]

Considering the Florida Brightline was a way of killing that state's high-speed rail plans, it's interesting Brightline are involved in an actual high-speed rail scheme

 

[Roast Veg]

Considering the Florida Brightline was a way of killing that state's high-speed rail plans, it's interesting Brightline are involved in an actual high-speed rail scheme

In the medium to long term I suspect Brightline East will have the opposite effect.

 

[ABB125]

$8 billion, for about 250 miles of brand new line. In the middle of a motorway for the most part. Linking two very expensive cities.
Puts HS2 into perspective...

(Yes, I know there will be a few differences between cost methodologies, land prices, NIMBYs etc, but the USA isn't renowned for being a cheap country.)

 

[Roast Veg]

It won't end up costing as little as that.

 

[stuu]

$8 billion, for about 250 miles of brand new line. In the middle of a motorway for the most part. Linking two very expensive cities.
Puts HS2 into perspective...

(Yes, I know there will be a few differences between cost methodologies, land prices, NIMBYs etc, but the USA isn't renowned for being a cheap country.)

It's mostly single track, and for the most part runs through flat featureless desert, so there's not much in the way of major civil engineering and hardly any need for environmental mitigation. And it ends ~50 miles from LA.

 

[PTR 444]

It's mostly single track, and for the most part runs through flat featureless desert, so there's not much in the way of major civil engineering and hardly any need for environmental mitigation. And it ends ~50 miles from LA.

A single track high speed line? Presumably the frequency will be low enough that it would be cheaper to build a single bi-directional railway, but that doesn’t sound very good from a safety point of view. Also wouldn’t it be good to future proof a second track on the alignment to account for long-term growth?

 

[bib]

Wonder how it compares to the cost of Spanish HS lines, although maybe they were hillier

 

[67thave]

It's mostly single track, and for the most part runs through flat featureless desert, so there's not much in the way of major civil engineering and hardly any need for environmental mitigation. And it ends ~50 miles from LA.

There are further plans to run the line westwards across the high desert from Victorville to Palmdale, where it would link up with California's high speed rail line to Los Angeles.
Of course, this all depends on the first phase actually being completed. High-speed rail to Las Vegas has been in the planning stages for decades and I have serious doubts that this project will ever come to fruition, no matter what I hear otherwise.

 

[stuu]

A single track high speed line? Presumably the frequency will be low enough that it would be cheaper to build a single bi-directional railway, but that doesn’t sound very good from a safety point of view. Also wouldn’t it be good to future proof a second track on the alignment to account for long-term growth?

No idea... but as there's hardly anything in the way a second track wouldn't be much of an issue. Some of the Florida Brightline is single track too, as are parts of the Spanish network

 

[nlogax]

This is good news. Vegas has needed to return to the passenger network for years and there's no bigger potential market to and from Sin City than the LA crowd, especially bookending weekends.

I'm really keen to see how the link will co-exist with I-15. Outside of the 'flat and featureless' bits there are some very steep sections. The freeway approaches nearly 5,000ft of elevation at the Clark mountain range so I imagine a passenger railroad over that section will be.. interesting.

 

[stuu]

This is good news. Vegas has needed to return to the passenger network for years and there's no bigger potential market to and from Sin City than the LA crowd, especially bookending weekends.

I'm really keen to see how the link will co-exist with I-15. Outside of the 'flat and featureless' bits there are some very steep sections. The freeway approaches nearly 5,000ft of elevation at the Clark mountain range so I imagine a passenger railroad over that section will be.. interesting.

The segment down to the NV border is quite a long slope but it's not that steep - the Frankfurt-Cologne high speed line has 4% gradients, google tells me Interstate Highways have a maximum of 6% so there's unlikely to be a huge difference between the highway and what a railway can climb.

 

[nlogax]

The segment down to the NV border is quite a long slope but it's not that steep - the Frankfurt-Cologne high speed line has 4% gradients, google tells me Interstate Highways have a maximum of 6% so there's unlikely to be a huge difference between the highway and what a railway can climb.

Electrification really will be the only saving grace here. The n/b interstate north of Baker gets to somewhere between a 6% and 7% gradient.

 

[HSTEd]

Also wouldn’t it be good to future proof a second track on the alignment to account for long-term growth?

If that drives your cost high enough that it kills the scheme, not really.

In the Mojave it's probably not going to be hard to find an alignment for a second track if they need it - after all theres no particular reason the tracks have to be adjacent.

 

[stuu]

Electrification really will be the only saving grace here. The n/b interstate north of Baker gets to somewhere between a 6% and 7% gradient.

There are drawings of the full alignment here. I haven't looked at all of them but the section west of Primm seems to be a maximum of 4.4%, which is very steep

 

[Taunton]

Saying Victorville as the western terminal point is "Los Angeles" is stretching things beyond even what Ryanair would do ... I think many in LA would regard it as the halfway point to Las Vegas, at least in travel time.

Although the freeway centre is quite wide in places, it's not that wide - there's no barrier, and out-of-control vehicles have been known to make it from one carriageway to the other. Elsewhere it's like it is in Britain. And how they are ever going to get down The Cajon from the High Desert into the LA Basin economically passes all understanding; the freeway has never been widened there because it's too challenging engineering/expensive.

 

[HSTEd]

And how they are ever going to get down The Cajon from the High Desert into the LA Basin economically passes all understanding; the freeway has never been widened there because it's too challenging engineering/expensive.

I think their current plan is to go to Palmdale and wait for CAHSR to come to them, rather than tackling the Cajon Pass themselves.

 

[stuu]

Saying Victorville as the western terminal point is "Los Angeles" is stretching things beyond even what Ryanair would do ... I think many in LA would regard it as the halfway point to Las Vegas, at least in travel time.

Although the freeway centre is quite wide in places, it's not that wide - there's no barrier, and out-of-control vehicles have been known to make it from one carriageway to the other. Elsewhere it's like it is in Britain. And how they are ever going to get down The Cajon from the High Desert into the LA Basin economically passes all understanding; the freeway has never been widened there because it's too challenging engineering/expensive.

Single track and in the median. With some "interesting" gradients. The planning documents are here, although there aren't any detailed drawings