Hold onto your wallets. CBS:
The trip to Los Angeles may become much shorter within the next few years as a Nevada Leader tries to bring Nevada into the 21st century.
DesertXpress is a proposal to build a privately funded high-speed rail passenger train from Victorville, California, to Las Vegas and Senator Harry Reid is behind the project. Reid said that he plans to have America catch up with the rest of the world
“What is going to happen is high-speed rail in the western part of the United States.
Currently, there is no passenger train service to Las Vegas. The train would travel at speeds of up to 150 mph and would make the 186 miles trip from Victorville to Las Vegas in about 1 hour 24 minutes, shaving about two hours off the travel time.
First of all, if by “privately funded” you mean a $4.9 billion loan from taxpayers, then yes, it’s privately funded. If, however, you’re a sentient high-school student taking an Introduction to Economic course, you might — just might — call this boondoggle taxpayer-financed, but that’s just me.
And second of all, having grown up in Los Angeles — and having lied to my parents to drive to Vegas since the time I was 16 years old — I consider myself somewhat of an expert on the Los Angeles to Vegas drive. (CNN, Fox, MSDNC — call me!) I remember Victorville fondly as the place where we’d make our food-stop and pick up some In-N-Out burgers for the final half of the journey. And I can tell you this: There is no way anybody would ever drive through L.A.’s notorious traffic only to stop halfway and hop on a train on the other side of the El Cajon Pass and in doing so give up their personal transportation once they actually get to Vegas.
It’s a stupid idea that never, ever should see the light of day, let alone serious consideration — except by the spending fetishists of the Democratic party.
You want to talk about serious infrastructure spending? Fine. This project — the DesertXpress — is, to be kind, a turd.