SoCal-to-Vegas rail route wins federal designation

In this Sept. 13, 2006, file photo an Amtrak passenger train passes through a crossing near Sherman, Ill., along an upgraded stretch of track designed to move trains faster between the Illinois' capital and Chicago.

[bad boy]

Vegas is in decline and will be more so in the future.
Online gambling is taking over and is increasing exponentially.
Its more convenient, less costly, and people can gamble in the privacy of their homes. this is the end of the golden days of vegas. Also, with the economy reeling, old farts who used to go to vegas regularly from southern cal are now opting to go to local casinos and throw away their money there.
vegas. in a few years, will become a semi-ghost town, with major casinos going under and hotels disapearing off the map.
A high speed rail train transporting people to vegas wont change that fact.

[XK10H]

so now the illegals can just fly into McCarran airport that has no security at all and they can just hop a train to L.A...I like it puts the coyotes out of business ..way to go Obama stimulus at work again..

[Jose de San Martin]

It is about time, USA in general and California in particular are the areas of more acute train deprive in the world. TGV in France, ICE in Germany,AVE (Renfe) in Spain are all High speed bullet trains are eclipsing airplanes as the preferred method of intercity travel in Europe. Traditionally, air travel was the way to traverse the long distances (typically 300 miles apart) between cities in the large countries. But in February of 2009 the new 220 mph train systems linked up the two cities, and ridership has boomed. With a faster travel time, less delays and a lighter ecological footprint, more people are getting on board the train system.

I am sure we can do the same here in this country, in California. Who opposes this magnificent idea, the airlines?

[Earl]

Trains suck

[get a life]

LaHood called the congestion on Interstate 15 linking Southern California and the Las Vegas-area, "very bad for business, very bad for safety and certainly very bad for the environment."

What the (h)ell is this idiot talking about? he's just making statements with out any backing! prove what you say you jerk! This is the kind of crap we have running this country! Obummer makes the same kinds of statements and no one questions him. Just because he says thing we are to to take them for facts?? hell no! prove what you say before you go and spend my money! Widen the freeway, maybe that would cost less. Tourism is down in Vegas. Some properties are BK. Major projects are on 'hold'. Convention attendance is at an all time low.........and we need a train to get us there??? IDIOTS!!!!

[Chris Robbins]

Hey, if private money wants to build the Desert Xpress to Victorville, then public money could connect it some place better with a small investment. From a broader perspectivem, I think that when it comes to passenger rail, Obama is being too ambitious with his imagination and too conservative with his appropriations. High speed rail should start in the northeast and the LA-San Diego corridors, where there will be ridership. Conventional rail should be improved elsewhere as these corridors are slowly expanded (LA to LV and SF; Washington to Charlotte, Boston to Montreal) as ridership increases. That way we'll actually be creating high speed rail in this country in a reasonable, cost effective manner, instead of spreading too few dollars over too many regions. $13 billion will get a lot of people working, but it won't build the kind of high speed rail Americans deserve.

[Chris Robbins]

get a life wrote:

LaHood called the congestion on Interstate 15 linking Southern California and the Las Vegas-area, "very bad for business, very bad for safety and certainly very bad for the environment."
What the (h)ell is this idiot talking about? he's just making statements with out any backing! prove what you say you jerk! This is the kind of crap we have running this country! Obummer makes the same kinds of statements and no one questions him. Just because he says thing we are to to take them for facts?? hell no! prove what you say before you go and spend my money! Widen the freeway, maybe that would cost less. Tourism is down in Vegas. Some properties are BK. Major projects are on 'hold'. Convention attendance is at an all time low.........and we need a train to get us there??? IDIOTS!!!!

Freeway lanes are many times more expensive to build and maintain than rail lines. I would rather have my tax dollars more efficiently spent on trains.

[West Valley Dave Smith]

Chris Robbins wrote:

<quoted text>
Freeway lanes are many times more expensive to build and maintain than rail lines. I would rather have my tax dollars more efficiently spent on trains.

I would rather have my tax dollars benefit a bigger part of American citizens. Not just those with deep pockets in Las Vegas who are supporters of that up and coming communist Harry "The Wimp" Reid. Las Vegas is imploding because they just didn't have the smarts to see this economic downturn coming. And we're supposed to pay for boondoggles like this to help bail them out? No thanks.

[ComptonCA]

I prefer to have a high-speed train built in Southern California sooner than program rather then spending money for a train to LV! I travel more times to San Diego, Orange County coastal communities than to Las Vegas and I would gladly take the train to my destinations(SD, OC) faster than taking my car in the congested freeways!

[calibrat]

ComptonCA wrote:

I prefer to have a high-speed train built in Southern California sooner than program rather then spending money for a train to LV! I travel more times to San Diego, Orange County coastal communities than to Las Vegas and I would gladly take the train to my destinations(SD, OC) faster than taking my car in the congested freeways!

California already has train service it's called amtrack and runs up north and south..

[West Valley Dave Smith]

ComptonCA wrote:

I prefer to have a high-speed train built in Southern California sooner than program rather then spending money for a train to LV! I travel more times to San Diego, Orange County coastal communities than to Las Vegas and I would gladly take the train to my destinations(SD, OC) faster than taking my car in the congested freeways!

Better to work your idea than to send our dollars out of state. Help people travel in California if money must be spent on projects like this so sales, sales taxes and other money is spent here for the benefit of our state. Not that idiot Reid's.

[donkeyman]

ComptonCA wrote:

I prefer to have a high-speed train built in Southern California sooner than program rather then spending money for a train to LV! I travel more times to San Diego, Orange County coastal communities than to Las Vegas and I would gladly take the train to my destinations(SD, OC) faster than taking my car in the congested freeways!

just run the rail from t.j. to l.a. that where all the traffic is.

[Henry adams]

this has been a no brainer since the sixties build the damm thing people will travel beleive me and i hate vegas

[calibrat]

Thay tore houses out in the late 60's in san bernardino for a freeway....didn't get built til YEARS later.
Cali has more things to worry about right now than building a train service to vegas.

[Doug]

We also need a high-speed train route between NorCal and SoCal

[Doug]

calibrat wrote:

<quoted text>
California already has train service it's called amtrack and runs up north and south..

Amtrak is NOT a high-speed rail service.

[calibrat]

It is STILL a train with gas prices I wish we did have amtrack service out of Vegas we have to go to So.Cal to get the train.
Which is so much better than driving or on a greyhound bus.

[raitchison]

A high speed rail line that goes to Victorville is pretty much useless when it comes to getting people to & from Vegas. Of course that line's real purpose is to serve commuters who live in Palmcaster and work in L.A.

[don ber]

Will the xpress be using existing track? If so, go ahead but no more disruption of the desert landscape.

[Gee Great Idea]

"The senator's preferred project is now one advocated by powerful Republican lobbyist and political ally, Sig Rogich. The electric DesertXpress train would travel at speeds of up to 150 mph and would stop 85 miles short of Los Angeles in Victorville, Calif."

Yes, let's stop it in freakin VICTORVILLE instead of running it on into LAX, or Anaheim (Disneyland for tourists). Brilliantly thought out, as usual.