Buttigieg Makes Pitch for High-Speed Rail

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg called for the United States to invest in high-speed rail during an interview with MSNBC, but stopped short of predicting when or even if that will happen.

Pete Buttigieg

Buttigieg spoke in response to a question of when the U.S. would get high speed rail.

In response, Buttigieg said President Joseph Biden is a “big believer in passenger rail” and pointed out that various other nations have invested in fast passenger train services.

“I want the U.S. to be leading the world when it comes to access to high-speed rail, and I think we have an opportunity to do that, especially with the bipartisan appetite for real investments that we have before us this year,” Buttigieg said.

He was referring to an infrastructure development program the Biden administration plans to push later this year.

Details about that proposal have yet to be announced.

“Look, we’ve been asked to settle for less in this country, and I just don’t know why people in other countries ought to have better train service and more investment in high speed train service than Americans do,” Buttigieg said.

Bond Sales Expected for Las Vegas Project

An investment group said that Brightline expects to offer $3.2 billion of tax-exempt private equity bonds to help finance construction of a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and Southern California.

“The real goal is to have a single seat from (Los Angeles) Union Station to Las Vegas. That’s the service we want,” said Fortress Investment Group co-founder Wes Edens in an interview with Forbes magazine.

Brightline has proposed building 169 miles of track that would be good for 200-mph operation by electric trains built by Siemens.

The route would terminate near Victorville, California, and use Metrolink’s right of way to reach Los Angeles.

In California, much of the route would run parallel to Interstate 15.

Five banks have reportedly agreed to underwrite the bonds although no date has been announced for the sale of the bonds.

The magazine article noted that the interest rate and expected yield won’t be known until marketing of the bonds has begun.

During the Forbes interview, Edens said the cost of the high-speed corridor from Las Vegas to downtown Los Angeles could cost $8 billion, with debt financing providing $6 billion of that amount.

ExpressWest Reaches MOU With Metrolink, Calif. Agency to Study Expansion of Las Vegas Service

A memorandum of understanding has been reached between developers of the Brightline/XpressWest project and the boards of Metrolink and the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority on a study of a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles region.

XpressWest has proposed using an existing Metrolink route for 50 miles from a western terminus at Victorville, California.

Use of Metrolink tracks would create service from Las Vegas to the Los Angeles suburbs of Rancho Cucamonga and Palmdale.

“This is a forward-looking partnership that will allow us to explore the possibility to enhance the rider experience and attract new riders,” said Metrolink Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Wiggins.

The SBCTA’s board last July approved an MOU with Brightline/XpressWest to expand the high-speed rail service to Apple Valley, using the right of way through the Cajon Pass along Interstate 15 and eventually connecting with the Metrolink station in Rancho Cucamonga.

SBCTA and XpressWest are expected to collaborate on design and right-of-way issues, SBCTA officials said in a news release.

“The MOU allows us to work with XpressWest in looking outside the box in considering the possibility of a privately built and managed rail system through the Cajon Pass between Apple Valley and Rancho Cucamonga,” said SBCTA Executive Director Ray Wolfe.

Texas Central Opponents Try New Argument

A group seeking to thwart development of the Texas Central line high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas is trying to take advantage of planned Amtrak service reductions as a new way to attack the project.

The opponents of the Texas Central project are citing Amtrak plans to reduce the frequency of operation of long-distance trains as a rational to hinder if not kill the project.

They are calling for Texas Central to submit new ridership projections to the U.S. Surface Transportation Board because connecting service by Amtrak may be sharply reduced if not eliminated.

They cited the letter sent May 25 from Amtrak CEO William Flynn to Congress saying that long-distance routes are at risk unless Congress approves a $1.4 billion supplemental appropriation for fiscal year 2021 on top of the carrier’s funding request.

The foes say connections with Amtrak were part of the rational for Texas Central to receive federal funding because that would make it part of the U.S. interstate passenger rail network.

In response, Texas Central said that whatever actions that Amtrak might take in regards to its long-distance service to Texas is irrelevant.

It noted that it plans to begin service in 2026, six years after the COVID-19 crisis.

Texas Central also said that it will need a three-year period to reach the long term through-passenger volumes projected by Amtrak’s proprietary ridership model.

It also said that Amtrak has said it hopes to restore service quickly, possibly as soon as the summer and has not said coronavirus-driven declines would last five years beyond Fiscal 2021.

Virgin’s Las Vegas Station Plans Revealed

Virgin Trains USA has submitted plans for its Las Vegas station.

Documents submitted to the Clark County Commissioners office indicate the Las Vegas terminal will be built on 110 acres on South Las Vegas Boulevard across from the South Premium Outlets.

The 273,300 square-foot station would be a 15 minute drive from the Las Vegas strip. Plans also call for a parking garage adjacent to the station.

Virgin has proposed establishing a high-speed rail service between Las Vegas and Southern California that would eventually serve Los Angeles.

The documents submitted for Virgin indicated that construction of the route is expected to begin later this year with service getting underway in 2023.

The Las Vegas terminal will contain a departure lobby, space for retail businesses and a baggage claim area.

Public Hearings Held on Atlanta-Charlotte Corridor

Public hearings were recently held on a proposed high-speed rail route that would link Atlanta and Charlotte.

The transportation departments of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina conducted the hearings on a Tier 1 draft environmental impact statement.

The draft compared three alternatives two of which the Federal Railroad Administration would consider to be high speed.

The FRA defines a high-speed rail route as one over which trains travel at between 90 mph and 150 mph or higher.

If built, the 280-mile Atlanta-Charlotte route would be part of a larger Southeast High Speed Rail network that has been proposed between Washington and Atlanta through Richmond, Virginia, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The draft environmental statement reviewed the area connecting Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and the proposed Charlotte Gateway Station.

The study noted that existing public transportation is provided by Amtrak’s Crescent; commercial airline service to airports in Atlanta, Charlotte and Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina; and intercity bus service.

New York State to Take Another Stab at High-Speed Rail

New York State will try another tactic toward implement a high-speed rail service on the Empire Corridor used by Amtrak.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will appoint a panel of engineers to review past high-speed rail plans and recommend a new plan for how to build high-speed rail New York-Albany-Buffalo route.

A statement released by the governor’s office said most of the state’s population lives near the Empire Corridor and the average speed of passenger trains on the route is 51 mph.

Various administrations have sought without success over the past two decades to implement high-speed rail service plans but have been stymied by, among other things, high cost.

Previous proposals have also indicated that it would take decades to create a high-speed line to Buffalo.

Cuomo’s statement said the news panel will “reexamine and rethink strategies to bring high speed rail to New York.”

The Empire Corridor hosts Amtrak trains between New York and Niagara Falls, New York, but also sees the Chicago-New York/Boston Lake Shore Limited and the New York-Toronto Maple Leaf.

Texas Central Chooses Equipment Design Contractor

Texas Central has chosen Mass. Electric Company to design a construction contract to build the equipment that will be used in its high-speed train between Houston and Dallas.

In a news release, Texas Central said ECI will define the scope, execution plan, schedule and price for the future construction contract, which is expected to be signed later this year.

TC said construction of the high-speed line is expected to begin in 2020.

The news release said that Kiewit Corporation, a subsidiary of ECI will focus on installing the core system and critical safety elements including necessary power, signaling and communications equipment.

The core system that will be installed by Mass. Electric is a key component of the Central Japan Railway’s N700S Shinkansen technology that will be used by Texas Central.

Under a core systems installation agreement, ECI would install the systems that supply and distribute electrical power for running the train and related equipment, signaling and control of the trains, and communications, to ensure the trains, the track and operators all communicate with one another and with network operations.

Washington Ballot Measure Seen as Not Affecting Proposed Pacific Northwest High-Speed Rail Project

Supporters of a proposal to institute high-speed rail in the Pacific Northwest believe that the passage of a ballot measure in Washington State curtailing vehicle registration fees will not necessarily halt the project.

Washington voters approved Initiative 976, which caps the annual state and local car tab fees at $30.

In the wake of that vote, public transit officials expressed concern that funding for projects in the works or in the planning stage could be stymied for lack of funding.

Janet Matkin, communications manager for the Washington State Transportation Department, said Initiative 976 should not affect the high-speed rail project because it is still in the early planning stages.

She said there are a number of funding options that could be examined for the high-speed rail project, which envisions trains traveling 250 mph in the Portland-Seattle-Vancouver corridor.

Virgin Gets OK to Sell Bonds for Las Vegas Route

Virgin Trains USA received approval last week to issue $3.25 billion in development bonds to be used to pay for its Desert Xpress high-speed rail service between Las Vegas and Southern California.

The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank approved what observers said is the largest bond request in history of the state’s public sector development bank.

The development bank noted the project will create nearly 16,000 construction jobs and 400 permanent jobs once the trains are in operation.

The line will initially terminate in Victorville, California, although Virgin has said it wants to eventually extend service into Los Angeles.

The bond sales are expected to begin in the first quarter of 2020 with operations projected to start in 2023.