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