Harry Reid Abandons Maglev for DesertXpress

[bananas]

From the cahsr blog:

Harry Reid Abandons Maglev for DesertXpress

Some VERY welcome news from the LA Times:

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and an ardent supporter of high speed rail systems, said today he no longer favors construction of a maglev -- or magnetic levitation -- train between Anaheim and Las Vegas.

Instead, the Nevada Democrat said he now favors a conventional high speed train between Victorville and Las Vegas -- a privately funded venture that is farther along in the planning process and cheaper to build than the maglev proposal, which has been studied for almost three decades.

“I”ve been working on this for 30 years," Reid said. "We’ve gotten nowhere. Maglev projects have been abandoned around the world. It’s time to stop talking and start doing something.”

<snip>

The DesertXpress will only go to Victorville.
Hopefully they'll use a system compatible with the California high-speed rail,
so they can eventually be connected together.


Vegas is also getting a new airport between Primm and Jean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Valley_Airport

[Cleita]

1. Oh, Victorville is such a big tourist attraction.

:sarcasm:

Who is going to go to Victorville to board a train to Las Vegas, when they can board a train or an airplane to Las Vegas from anywhere else?

[itsrobert]

2. You take the traditional train or bus to Victorville

and switch to the new train. Have you ever heard of changing buses, trains, planes to get somewhere?

[David Zephyr]

3. Good grief. If you drive to Victorville, then you might as well continue on to Vegas.

Victorville as the starting point? Wow! That took brains...not!

[XemaSab]

5. In 20 years people will say

"What's the best thing to come out of Victorville? High speed rail." :P

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Gee whiz, maybe in forty years they can extend service to Adelanto.

Victorville? FTW?

[ColbertWatcher]

6. "privately funded venture" Oh, really?

If it's a genuinely "privately funded venture" then why does it require a Senator's support? Why don't the "private' investors just go ahead and make their little train line?

Oh, wait. They'll need public subsidies.

Fail, Mr. Reid, fail.

[katty]

7. Victorville? that's it? a train depot and one step from casinos?!