On Tuesday the Biden Administration announced that it will increase funding for a pair of high -speed electric rail routes in the U.S. West. The plan gave $6.1 billion to these long-stalled projects that promise to usher in the future of transportation but have been criticized for their high cost and extended construction times.
3 billion of the 6.1 billion will go to a planned privately-owned route that is going to connect Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The other 3.1 billion will go to California’s public-funded effort to connect Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Tuesday’s increase in funding is only a fraction of the overall cost of these projects. But it does show that the Biden Administration remains committed to the projects.
High-speed rails are a large part of the transportation systems of Europe and Asia, but not of America, where everyone drives cars. By building these high-speed rails, the government hopes to change this.
Tuesday’s announcement was a big deal for some who are eager to pump some life into these projects. One such person is Brian Kelley, CEO of the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Kelly commented “The federal government is back on building high speed rail in America. This award is just a great leap forward.”
The 500 miles of high-speed rails that will connect Los Angeles and San Francisco was approved by California voters in 2008. Once these rails were built, electric trains traveling at speeds up to 220 mph would allow the trip to be made in under three hours, which would make it America’s fastest train service by a wide margin.
This project was supposed to cost around 30 billion and be finished by 2020. But the project is still not finished in 2023, and the projected cost has ballooned to 100 billion.
Now officials are focusing on a 171-mile stretch of the route that will connect Merced, Fresno, and Bakersfield, three of the cities with the worst air quality, and the stretch of rails is now projected to be finished by 2033. The 3.1 billion dollars that the Biden Administration approved on Tuesday went exclusively to this portion of the project.
The route between Las Vegas and Los Angeles has been on the radar for decades, but only recently obtained all the required right-of-way and environmental approvals, along with labor agreements, for work to start on some 218 miles (351 kilometers) along the Interstate 15 corridor.
There is no start date for the construction of these rails, but Nevada Senator, Jacky Rosen, said the trains could be up and running by the time Los Angeles hosts the Olympics in 2023.
“Connecting Las Vegas and Southern California by high-speed rail will create tens of thousands of good-paying union jobs, boost our Southern Nevada tourism economy, and finally help us cut down on I-15 traffic,” Nevada Senator Cortez Masto said Tuesday in a statement.
No start date has been announced for this project, but Rosen said electric-powered trains could be carrying passengers by the time Los Angeles hosts the Summer Olympics in 2028.
