Brightline buying HSR operation between LA and Vegas

[Ocklawaha]

BRIGHTLINE TRAINS are FULLY FRA Compliant to operate with Class One Railroads.

UP and BNSF already share trackage on some of this corridor and except for the Barstow Yards, both railroads are operating under capacity. In the business to move steel wheels over steel rails, if BRIGHTLINE shows up with a valid proposal and a check in hand, they'll get access.

[Sonic101]

Is it sad to dream about them also buying the Las Vegas Monorail and expanding it to the airport and actually making it useful? I get real tired of having to get a Lyft every time I go there.

Also, where is the 38 acres on the Las Vegas Strip they bought for a station? I haven't been able to find a mention of it's exact location.

[Kerry]

Is it sad to dream about them also buying the Las Vegas Monorail and expanding it to the airport and actually making it useful? I get real tired of having to get a Lyft every time I go there.

Also, where is the 38 acres on the Las Vegas Strip they bought for a station? I haven't been able to find a mention of it's exact location.

If the artist conception on this link is correct, it is the large vacant lot west of and adjacent to I-15 between Hacienda and Russell Road.  Across I-15 from Mandalay Bay.

http://www.xpresswest.com/milestones.html

[Lostwave]

If the artist conception on this link is correct, it is the large vacant lot west of and adjacent to I-15 between Hacienda and Russell Road.  Across I-15 from Mandalay Bay.

http://www.xpresswest.com/milestones.html

Can't be.  Thats where Raiders new Stadium is going... maybe it will be right up against I-15.

[Kerry]

If the artist conception on this link is correct, it is the large vacant lot west of and adjacent to I-15 between Hacienda and Russell Road.  Across I-15 from Mandalay Bay.

http://www.xpresswest.com/milestones.html

Can't be.  Thats where Raiders new Stadium is going... maybe it will be right up against I-15.

Yep - you are correct.  Maybe that's where the original location was but has since become the Raiders stadium.

[bl8jaxnative]

if BRIGHTLINE shows up with a valid proposal and a check in hand, they'll get access.

That is a preposterous claim to make.  Put down the glue, it's killing brain cells.   Neither railroad is under any obligation to do a damn thing for Brightline. 

In fact, Brightline as a public, for profit entity  is in a worse position than public transit agencies.   Modern history is littered with the latter going hat in hand trying to operate alongside them and getting the Heisman. 

Operating on the same tracks has been even more difficult for public agencies to pull off.   When it does occur, it's after a long, costly process with contracts that are quite friendly to the RRs.   

Brightline doesn't have the same PR pull and need for good will that public agencies have.  Brightline can offer a lot of money to try to overcome that.   But the more money they offer up, the more difficult it will be for them to compete with $100 airfars to Vegas.


Whatever the situation is, Brightline has a to get a hell of a lot done right now.  And I mean right now.  We're only a couple years out from the majority of the baby boomer generation being in retirement.   As they retire, their capital investments are going to from the overly risky, desperately trying to eek out an extra 1/2 percent or 3 of returns to safer-than-safe, maybe some bonds and mostly just cash on hand.

That is, the forces driving this crazy capital market are going to flip poles from crazy risky to painfully risk free.  If Brightline can't put together the tens of billions they'll need for their proposed lines soon, they're done.   Even in the historically most bloated, risk-embracing capital markets they're struggling.  No way a market that views a money market fund as risky, and that's where it's about to flip, is going to go in for spending billions on a train that's slower and more expensive than flying.