Coming Soon: High Speed Rail to Vegas?

(AP)  The clogged tourist travel route between Southern California and Las Vegas has been designated as a federal high-speed rail corridor.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the route is now part of the California rail corridor, a technical designation that endorses the viability of high-speed train travel in the region.

Officials say the designation also signals a possible future collaboration between California's proposed high-speed rail system and a separate project shuttling passengers between the two regions.

LaHood, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid and California Department of Transportation Director Will Kempton made the announcement in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Reid used the event to repeat his support for the DesertXpress train project. The electric train would run between Las Vegas and Victorville, Calif., at up to 150 mph.

[colnagocowboy]

victorville are you serious how will traveling 100 miles out of the way help relieve Los Agneles to Las Vegas traffic thats kinda like flying to hawaii via Mexico city

[Sloughfoot]

If CA Politicians had any smarts they would authorize gambling in the State, keep the money at home and tax the proceeds. No they're going to spend billions developing a high speed network to ship dollars to Vegas. They ought to fall off the edge of the earth. I wonder how much mob money went into this decision?

[my5200-2009]

I think it's an excellent idea. This project will provide jobs in a state with 10% unemployment. Hopefully the traffic it will bring to Victorville will help boost the businesses there too.

[caldwellptr]

The only way they can make this train faster is by allowing people to gamble in LA before they get on the train.

[Snerdguy]

Don't hold your breath. Between the bureaucrats making change after change to the plan and the unions trying to use their influence, it could be many years before it is finished. We will probably have flying cars by then that are fueled with trash. If you want the project done in a timely manner, hand it over to a private owner like Disney.

[wmsshields]

And this Obamaesque answer to recession will benefit the average American how exactly?

[Android64]

Yes, we need to spend billions of taxpayer dollars connecting Neverland, Las Vegas, Dollywood and Graceland. That's what the public needs so that we can more conveniently worship at the altars of our gods as a lasting legacy to our grandchildren. Whatever happened to the America of Norman Rockwell?

[CitizenMikeM]

Just another plan to make the wealthy...well, wealthier. If you wantto use money to spur the economy--build a high speed rail service to a run-down, impoverished area of a particular state or states, and watch the developers swarm in and transformthe area into a metropolitan cash cow.

[xlib]

And what would that do for the residents in the "impoverished run-down area" I mean, what would that do for them? Explain a bit more.

[sjc_1]

We could use high speed rail from San Diego to Los Angeles to San Jose, but not Las Vegas. We do not need a faster way for people to go lose the money that they can't afford to lose in the first place.

[koko98-2009]

Why wasn't this route included in the original proposal? Maybe the Indian casinos in Southern California were not happy about a line. I like the poison pill they put in by placing the station in Victorville. For those who don't know Victorville is still about 90 minutes from L.A. and that 90 minutes is the most brutal part of the drive. Why not Anaheim?