LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — It's now a waiting game as leaders in Nevada and California look to move forward on the Brightline West high-speed rail project.
On Friday, Sen. Jacky Rosen said a letter was sent to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg with updates on the project as well as requesting federal transportation officials to support the Nevada Department of Transportation's grant application. That grant would provide $3.75 billion for the project and come from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law in Nov. 2021. Brightline West previously said they're planning on using $800 million for roadway improvements along Interstate 15. The company has previously received $25 million from a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation. Overall, the rail project is estimated to cost $12 billion.
Leaders said they're confident the funding request will be approved since it sticks to requirements outlined in that law.
"I'm expecting Secretary Buttigieg will award this funding. Why? Because we are shovel-ready. Brightline West has already completed regulatory approvals and environmental approvals needed for the first time in history," Rosen said. "Over the next few weeks, over 100 permits will be complete. We understand this meets all of the requirements that the bipartisan infrastructure law laid out. Now, it just needs the funding to be able to start construction. The sooner we get it up and running, Nevada's economy will continue to boom."
Nevada transportation officials said a project like this has been talked about for years and it's the closest they've come to making it a reality.
"As someone who grew up in Clark County and had this dream of a high-speed rail to and from Southern California, it is truly incredible to be able to say that's no longer a pipe dream," said Clark County Commissioner Michael Naft. "I see, weekly, the congestion on Interstate 15. We cannot simply tolerate weekend after weekend of mass event-style congestion on the I-15. As Clark County commissioners, we operate five airports here in Southern Nevada including the nation's tenth busiest airport. We need another transportation alternative to bring people in from the region and ease some of that wonderful visitor count we have at our airports."
"We've been working on this project in some form or fashion since 2004," said Tracy Larkin-Thomason, the Director of the Nevada Department of Transportation. "We started with a destination of Victor Valley, and then Palmdale, and now Los Angeles."
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California residents Travis McMillan and Kimberly Andrews said they would definitely look forward to a shorter, more relaxing journey to Las Vegas.
"I think it's going to be like a bullet train. It's going to make it a lot quicker to get to California," McMillan said. "I got family on the outskirts of Los Angeles so this [could] cut down the time drastically."
"It will just be easier to come here, relax, and not have that long drive. I'm definitely for it," Andrews said.
Currently, the proposed route will connect Las Vegas to Southern California. According to Brightline CEO Michael Reininger, the project will also create an outline that future U.S. projects will be able to follow.
"The [Act] outlined a plan to make America more competitive with Europe and Asia, where high-speed rail is commonplace. It will help modernize modes of transportation here. We will plant the flag for the development of an entirely new industry and will establish the blueprint on how to build high-speed rail across the United States," Reininger said. "We're not just investing in a rail system. We're investing in a vision that will help shape the nation's infrastructure."
He added they've studied high-speed rail systems around the world and have seen a pattern in terms of when they were constructed.
"The first high-speed rail system in the work was built in Japan. It was built in concert for the Olympics and the line was between Tokyo and Osaka. In China, their high-speed rail was built for the Beijing Olympics," Reining said. "The idea that we get [the project] open before the opening of the [Los Angeles] Olympics is a poetic, ambitious project. It's doable because we've been at this for a long, long time. We've already gotten over the biggest hurdles to making this project a reality, which is assembling the land and getting the environmental hurdles and engineering done. It seems short now but it's because we're standing on the back of a decade worth of work."
If the federal funding grant is approved, officials said construction will begin by the end of the year. The project is expected to create over 30,000 jobs, which will be operated by union labor and all 13 rail unions have agreed to work with Brightline on the high-speed rail. It's expected to open by 2028.
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"We're ready to hit the ground running. We have expertise in place. We have people to move forward on the remaining permitting," Larkin-Thomason said. "It's an aggressive schedule but we're prepared to do it. There's still a lot of work to do and we're looking forward to it."
