Friday, November 8, 2019

California Bullet Train -- They Don't Give Up -- But This One Might Actually Work -- November 8, 2019

Link here to a November 6, 2019 article. Data points:
  • bond issue approved by California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank
  • $3.2 billion bond for bullet train; tax-exempt, fixed-rate revenue bond
  • project developer: DesertXpress Enterprices LLC, an affiliate of Virgin Trains USA
  • project: bullet train from Victorville, CA, to Las Vegas, NV (and return, I assume)
  • project cost: $4.8 billion
  • speeds up to 180 mph
  • one-way trip: 90 minutes
    • about half the time for a car
  • bond to fund that part of the project located in the state of California
  • construction to begin in 2H20 and wrap up in 2023
  • to generate more than 15,800 temporary construction jobs 
  • note:
    • "Los Angeles" to Victorville about half the total distance to begin with 
    • "Los Angeles" to Victorville: 90 miles
    • Victorville to Las Vegas: 190 miles
    • by car:
      • the worse part of the trip is LA to Victorville -- LA freeway traffic
      • the easy part, by car, is the scenic route from Victorville to Las Vegas
Meanwhile, the "original" bullet train
  • continues to "chug along"
  • Governor Newsom shelved the $77 billion bullet train from LA to San Francisco
  • but authorized the $20 billion portion in the Central Valley between Bakersfield and Mercd
  • to not lose a $929 million (let's call it one billion dollars) Federal Railroad Administration grant, the deadline is December 31, 2022
  • more on this story at this link
  • by the way, where did the bulk of the federal money for the CA bullet train come from? From a "derailed" bullet train project in Wisconsin; see this article dated October 30, 2019
Note: price of a ticket
  • US rail: generally about 90 cents/mile, Amtrak, US
  • US air: generally about 13 cents/mile

2 comments:

  1. Spending days on a train can be cool, also eats into vaca time.
    Spending hours in an airport can be a drag, but you get there same day- save vaca time.
    Did Greyhound cross country once- Will NEVER do that again.

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    Replies
    1. I have also Greyhound-ed from San Antonio, TX, to Los Angeles, CA. Enough material for a book. I'm not sure I would want to do it again, depends, I suppose -- how suicidal I am. LOL.

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