The (originally) Desert XPress people did their homework and all the paperwork, negotiated deals with US DOT, Caltrans, and BLM for right of way, and got all their permits (some of which by now are probably expired). But when they went to FRA to get a construction LOAN, a crowd of congresscritters leaned on DOT not to approve it despite a business plan that would have pretty much guaranteed repayment. Then we had a recession and private funding was unobtainium (still is, for anything commercial with more than a 5-10 year payback). The preliminary engineering (which was pretty advanced preliminary) for the Victorville-LV segment is done, and hasn't been thrown away, so Brightline can use it for a very good head start on the technical aspects. Remains to be seen whether they will be any more successful than DX was on the money front - congresscritters and others continue to try to stop them from getting already-committed DOT LOAN money for their FL project.