Free Republic

The Brightline West system will reach speeds of 200 miles per hour across a 218-mile route between Las Vegas and three California stops including Rancho Cucamonga, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles...The project received $3 billion in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the rest will be privately funded...

A proposed high-speed passenger train between Las Vegas and Southern California got another boost on Tuesday with Biden administration approval to issue $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds for the $12 billion project. The announcement benefiting the Brightline West project followed a $3 billion U.S. Department of Transportation grant in December and government authorization in 2020 for the company to sell $1 billion in similar bonds. ... The 218-mile (351-kilometer) Brightline West project aims to whisk passengers at 186 mph (300 kph) or more in electric trains on new tracks along the Interstate 15 corridor ... No date has been announced...

VICTORVILLE • A controversial proposal to give federal land north of Victorville to Cemex in hopes of ending a 12-year dispute over mining in Santa Clarita is back before the City Council Tuesday night.Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, first introduced the Soledad Canyon Mine Act in 2008 and then again in 2009. The bills aimed to give 10,600 acres of Bureau of Land Management property north of Victorville to cement producer Cemex USA. In exchange, the company would agree to a band on its rights to mine gravel in Soledad Canyon, where residents have been protesting the impact on...

As two companies compete to be the first to provide high-speed rail service between Las Vegas and Southern California in the not too distant future, a third is saying it will have a train click-clacking along next year. Las Vegas Railway Express will provide conventional passenger rail service to and from Los Angeles on existing tracks, its executives say. They’ve been studying the prospect since early 2009 and are now in the strategic planning stage for an inaugural run by mid-2011, more than three years ahead of when the planned DesertXpress high-speed rail system would make its first trip between...

Earlier this year, Republican powerbroker Sig Rogich endorsed Sen. Harry Reid's re-election effort. And today Reid has unexpectedly announced that he no longer wants a government-funded maglev train between LA and Las Vegas, which he had publicly supported for years ─ and he now favors a new train between Victorville and Las Vegas, in which Rogich and his business partners have already invested millions. All right, let's step back, look at this from the beginning and see if it could really be what it seems. Rogich is a big-time Republican donor and has helped numerous Republican candidates in Nevada get...