Posted on 02/03/2010 5:36:21 AM PST by Willie Green
The proponents of a maglev train line between Las Vegas and Southern California say a Chinese government-controlled bank has agreed to loan up to $7 billion to help build the high-speed transportation system.
But the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission still has several hurdles to clear before it could move ahead with plans to develop the project between Las Vegas and Anaheim, Calif.
The commission late Monday announced that the Export-Import Bank of China, which has 14 domestic offices and three overseas offices, said it would provide a direct loan that would require the backing of the U.S. government as well as cooperation with Chinese enterprises.
“It is a very positive development for Nevada’s employment picture and very telling that the financiers who are stepping up to bat are the Chinese, the people most familiar with Transrapid Maglev technology,” Neil Cummings, president of the American Magline Group, said in a press release announcing the loan.
American Magline has contracted with the commission to build the system and is partnering with Transrapid, a German company that built a maglev system operating in Shanghai and has since developed upgrades to the technology that are proposed for the Nevada system.
“In China, it has been operating flawlessly for six years, carrying 20 million passengers over 4.1 million miles,” Cummings said.
In an interview today, maglev spokesman Mark Fierro said the Chinese bank’s backing of the project is an employment game-changer for the hard-hit Southern Nevada economy.
Maglev backers view the project as a massive stimulus package for Southern Nevada, with an estimated 90,000 jobs that could be created.
Fierro said development of the project could be one of the most significant economic events in Las Vegas history, because the city would become a virtual suburb of Los Angeles if trains could make the trip from Anaheim to Las Vegas in just more than an hour.
“People in Los Angeles could come to the Las Vegas Strip for dinner,” Fierro said. “This couldn’t be a more perfect technology for the kind of visitor we’re going to attract.”
Fierro said the commission has been in negotiations with the bank — known in the industry as “China Eximbank” — for about a year. He said the bank was unclear about what type of assurances it would need from the federal government to back the loan.
Support from the Chinese bank would help the maglev team’s efforts after the group hit a stumbling block last week. Nevada was left off the list of high-speed rail projects receiving a total $8 billion in federal stimulus funding.
Commission officials viewed the rejection as a double loss for Nevada, because not only was the project not funded, but Florida received $1.25 billion for a rail project that would help Las Vegas’ biggest rival for attracting meetings and conventions — Orlando.
The largest portion of the stimulus funds, more than $2 billion, went to California for a traditional steel-wheels-on-rail project with which the proposed DesertXpress — a Las Vegas-to-Victorville, Calif., line — would link.
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the California project eventually would benefit Las Vegans because the Victorville end of the DesertXpress line would be connected to the California system at Palmdale.
Another problem for the maglev is credibility.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said after the stimulus funds were announced that the reason the maglev project was rejected was because it failed to apply — a claim maglev leaders deny.
In a video released by Reid’s office, LaHood said, “Nevada did not submit any paperwork, any proposal for high-speed rail.”
LaHood also said the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission was not eligible to submit a proposal because it was not sanctioned in California.
The commission responded that not only did it file an application, but it has received correspondence from the Federal Railroad Administration, the clearinghouse agency for the high-speed rail proposals, five times in the last 10 years.
The commission also said its plans were jointly submitted with the Nevada Department of Transportation.
Federal Railroad Administration representatives did not return calls on Tuesday.
gee...anybody ever stop and wonder why there are no domestic takers of this GREAT deal?!!!
I think its funny that they’re willing to give 7 billion for one line when Obozo thinks he’ll fund a whole network for 8 billion.
I guess if we’re going to whore ourselves out to China we should get some pretty things.
If the Chinese are stupid enough to back this, GREAT! When it fails what are they going to do, move the train and the tracks?
Yep, and they probably will enforce the use of Chinese steel and Chinese engines, and Chinese...
Except for the US unions...
Come think of it, isn’t it the reverse of history?
It will never be allowed to go thru California, They have a Kangaroo Rat and a Desert Tortoise to protect.
anybody ever stop and wonder why there are no domestic takers of this GREAT deal?!!!
Because the American financial institutions who are "too big to fail" are still bankrupt despite being bailed out by the taxpayers???
But O said we can’t be blowing bucks in Vegas. Who will take it?
It has been said that Obozo's 8 billion is merely seed money and that individual municipalities could not financially sustain completion and operating costs.
“When it fails what are they going to do, move the train and the tracks?”
Oh, I’m sure there will be federal-level loan guarantees involved before “Yuan-1” is transfered.
yeah, well, I suppose that when the Peoples Army finally debarks from the Cosco port at Long Beach, they are gonna need a way to move quickly into the interior
A lot of money is being stripped out of transportation funds to help build the magic railroad. Here in Michigan we get $40 million from the feds for the railroad and another $230 million will come out of our state’s transportation funds.
Here we are letting roads return to dirt and we’re going to take road building money to finance a railroad that will never be built.
Just this morning my mother told me about a new department of sustainable neighborhoods is being created by Obama using even more federal transportation funds.
All his talk about putting people to work building and fixing roads and bridges is a joke. He clearly doesn’t want Americans using roads at all.
No thanks to the Chinese.
“...when Obozo thinks he’ll fund a whole network for 8 billion.”
all Obozo is funding is a union payola program...and he knows it...and We the People are gonna let him get away with it....they’ll not be a complete functional line ever, anywhere, out of that scam
The maglev train - a solution for which there is no problem.
He clearly doesn’t want Americans using roads at all.Why would Michigan need roads when Bush/Cheney didn't want you to build cars???
I seem to remember the Chinese helping us with rail projects in the past.
That's an average of just over 0.2 miles per passenger, or about 1000 feet per trip.
Why don't they just walk?
Jack
[gee...anybody ever stop and wonder why there are no domestic takers of this GREAT deal?!!!]
Maybe somebody made an offer woo can’t wefuse.
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