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Re: Les is more....? There have been two projects all along, --But you know that, right?
Author: BOB2
Date: 08-29-2019 - 09:03
The confusion is over the dueling similar names. The Desert Express is the "inferior" (140 mph HSR), which is not fast enough for those who love only the "runaway money train" budget busting 250 mph. to build a new line from Victorville to Vegas.
This proposal for a new HS line, now Brightline, was planned and financed by competent adults working in the interests of their investors (unlike the CAHSRA that has been a self serving contractor driven gravy train, not apparently "accountable" or "responsible" to anybody).
Work on the Desert Express, Virgin/Brightline, project has been going on since about 2005 (IIRC?), and had been looking at the FRA's statutory HSR loan guarantees, and potential Chinese, Japanese, or European investors for financing, using the loan guarantee's (anyone vendor will be happy to build anything with loan guarantee's...). All of the required work to getting permits had been largely done, by the previous Desert Express group, up to financing had been completed, when this project was "put on hold", until Virgin group bought them out. Now, after looking at this, Virgin thinks they can pencil this out without loan guarantee's. And now, we shall see if that is the case....
The Las Vegas Xpress, has been the more of a "rail fan" fantasy concept and was always vague as to how it would be financed (kind of like the east-west Eureka line fantasy time financial planning by putting out an optimistic sounding occasional press release???) kind of hit and miss proposal that always seemed to have a lot of "holes" in how this would come together. As I said above, this kind of incomplete approach was their "hallmark", until recently that is, when they announced that they were purportedly in talks with Amtrak to get the rights they would need to make UP run their train, on UP's tracks...
This proposal for a new HS line, now Brightline, was planned and financed by competent adults working in the interests of their investors (unlike the CAHSRA that has been a self serving contractor driven gravy train, not apparently "accountable" or "responsible" to anybody).
Work on the Desert Express, Virgin/Brightline, project has been going on since about 2005 (IIRC?), and had been looking at the FRA's statutory HSR loan guarantees, and potential Chinese, Japanese, or European investors for financing, using the loan guarantee's (anyone vendor will be happy to build anything with loan guarantee's...). All of the required work to getting permits had been largely done, by the previous Desert Express group, up to financing had been completed, when this project was "put on hold", until Virgin group bought them out. Now, after looking at this, Virgin thinks they can pencil this out without loan guarantee's. And now, we shall see if that is the case....
The Las Vegas Xpress, has been the more of a "rail fan" fantasy concept and was always vague as to how it would be financed (kind of like the east-west Eureka line fantasy time financial planning by putting out an optimistic sounding occasional press release???) kind of hit and miss proposal that always seemed to have a lot of "holes" in how this would come together. As I said above, this kind of incomplete approach was their "hallmark", until recently that is, when they announced that they were purportedly in talks with Amtrak to get the rights they would need to make UP run their train, on UP's tracks...
