XpressWest


XpressWest is a private venture proposal to build a privately funded high-speed rail passenger train in the Western United States from Victorville, California to Las Vegas. Previously backed by Las Vegas, Nevada, hotel developer Marnell, the project rights were acquired by Florida-based passenger rail operator Virgin Trains USA, which plans to begin construction on the railroad starting in 2020.

Route

The tracks are planned to be laid within the median strip of Interstate 15, and sections would pass through federal land controlled by the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service. The line is not planned to stop at intermediate cities, and would take 84 minutes to complete a one-way trip between Victorville and Las Vegas. The details of other sections have not been announced, but later phases may include extensions to Phoenix, Arizona, Salt Lake City, Utah, or Denver, Colorado.
In the original plan, the route did not extend into Los Angeles due to the high cost of building rail in urban areas. The extension from Victorville to the city of Palmdale, where it would connect to the proposed California High-Speed Rail system in order to provide service to Los Angeles, was not included in the initial phase. In June 2012, the new plan included the link between Victorville and Palmdale as part of construction for the first phase of the project. Passengers would transfer to Metrolink to access the Los Angeles area. In June 2020, the company initialed planning on a rail line south of Victorville over the Cajon Pass to Rancho Cucamonga to provide more direct Los Angeles service while also not ruling out the Palmdale expansion.
In 2009, XpressWest estimated that it will carry around five million round trip passengers in the first full year of operation, with the company charging fares of around $50 for a one-way trip between Victorville and Las Vegas. In 2012, the round-trip fare was planned to be around $89, with trains were expected to run every 20 minutes on peak and up to every 12 minutes as demand requires., the stated frequency is 45 minutes between departures.

Stations

The 2011 project outline defined two station location options northeast of Victorville, include near Interstate 15 and Stoddard Wells Road, and several options in Las Vegas near the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino or Downtown. One potential Las Vegas station location was approved as the site of Allegiant Stadium, but in 2020 the Las Vegas station was revealed to be located on the empty plot of land bordered by Interstate 15 and Las Vegas Boulevard, between Robindale Road and El Dorado Lane. A maintenance facility is also planned be located in the Victor Valley. An additional extension into the Greater Los Angeles area calls for a station in Rancho Cucamonga, which is planned to act as a transit hub for Metrolink services and provide a new link to the Ontario International Airport.

History

DesertXpress

The original plan under the name DesertXpress was to provide an alternative to automobile travel between the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas along Interstate 15 as well as an alternative to airline travel. This highway is a direct automobile route between the two regions and carries heavy traffic. Greyhound buses cover the route in between five and seven hours, while automobiles take around four hours. Las Vegas lost its last passenger train service in 1997 when Amtrak cancelled its Desert Wind.
The city of Victorville was selected as the location for the westernmost terminal since extending the train line farther into the Los Angeles basin through the Cajon Pass would be prohibitively expensive. Victorville is about from Riverside, where a station was proposed for the California high-speed rail line. The station was to include free parking and through-checking of baggage straight to the Las Vegas Strip resorts. A future extension would have included a new link to the California High-Speed Rail station in Palmdale.
DesertXpress Enterprises, LLC was founded in 2005 to develop, construct, own and operate the high-speed rail project. 70 % of the company were held by Anthony A. Marnell II of Marnell Corrao Associates through his DX, LLC company whereas Gary Tharaldson and François Badeau held 20 and 10 %, respectively. The preparation of a first Federal Railroad Administration-Environmental Impact Statement was started in 2006.
The total cost of the link between Victorville and Las Vegas was expected to be around US$5 billion. In March 2010, project planners said they could obtain the full funding amount through exclusively private investors, but had also applied for a $4.9 billion loan through the federal Railroad Rehabilitation & Improvement Financing program. As of October 2011, the start of the project was contingent on receiving a $6 billion loan from the federal government, the approval or denial of which is expected in mid-2012.
A preferred design was identified with the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement on April 1, 2011, which began a public comment period that ended on May 2, 2011. The federal government approved the design on July 8, 2011, and the planned route was approved by the Surface Transportation Board on October 26, 2011. The trains were to be self-propelled, all electric multiple unit trains with maximum speed of.
The train would travel at speeds of up to averaging and making the trip from Victorville to Las Vegas in about 1 hour 24 minutes. In March 2010, executives with the project said they expected construction to begin in 2010. As of October 2011, construction was planned to begin in the last quarter of 2012, with completion in the last quarter of 2016, subject to funding.

Transformation to XpressWest

In June 2012, the developer announced the new plan to build a network of high-speed rail for the region by expanding to Arizona, Utah and Colorado. The initial phase was to include high-speed tracks, Las Vegas to Victorville and Victorville to Palmdale.
The link between Las Vegas and Victorville was designed to be double-tracked which is dedicated for the high-speed trains. The costs of this section was estimated at $6.9 billion. The developer would put up $1.4 billion in private investment and the rest of funding would borrowed under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program provided by the Federal Railroad Administration.
Future plans include a link between Las Vegas and Phoenix, Arizona, and another from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City, Utah and Denver, Colorado. The project was subsequently rebranded to XpressWest to reflect the expanded mission.
The developer signed a document with Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials in June 2012 to explore the plan to build a high-speed rail link between Victorville and Palmdale. The link would initially connect to the Metrolink system in Palmdale. This would allow passengers to complete a train ride between Los Angeles and Las Vegas with one transfer by using Metrolink in the Los Angeles area and a transfer to the high-speed train at Palmdale station. The station would eventually connect with California High-Speed Rail, and is designed to have the same specifications and technology, allowing it to continue on California High-Speed Rail further into Burbank and Los Angeles. The early estimate of the costs for this link was $1.5 billion and the earliest environmental work was to be completed by the end of 2013. The date of the service for this link has not been determined.

Funding difficulties

In February 2013, the federal loan remained unapproved and construction was expected to start until mid-2014 at the earliest.
Representative Paul Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee and senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking minority member of the Senate Committee on the Budget were the main opponents to the federal loan application of XpressWest. They argued that the project represented high risk to the taxpayer. They wrote to then-Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in March 2013 and recommended the administration to reject the loan application. The letter indicated that the total cost was estimated to be $6.9 billion. The $1.4 billion would come from the private sources and the remaining $5.5 billion would come from the federal loan. The letter cited a taxpayer risk analysis report as a basis of their recommendation.
In July 2013, there were reports that loan was indefinitely suspended, which were later confirmed by the federal government, which said that it had been suspended in part due to the failure of the application in regard to the "Buy America" policy which required applicants to use American-made products. Despite the indefinite suspension of the federal loan application, which was viewed as a denial of the application, the developer indicated that the XpressWest project would proceed without providing the details on financial plan.
In 2014, Nevada Senator Harry Reid mentioned that the federal loan request may resurface, but little had been seen so far of the project's continued viability. In 2015, the Nevada High-Speed Rail Authority was proposed to look into the feasibility of high-speed rail into southern Nevada from California, possibly XpressWest. The bill was first introduced on April 7, 2015 and was passed by the legislature on May 20, 2015 by a vote of 40–1, and was approved by the Governor on May 27, 2015.
In September 2019, it was announced that California would assist the project in funding. The High Desert Corridor, intended to provide the rail link between Victorville and Palmdale as part of a highway project, was indefinitely shelved by Caltrans in October 2019. The same month, The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank approved $3.25 billion in bonds and in April 2020, California government officials signed off on issuing $600 million in tax-exempt private activity bonds to Virgin Trains USA. The state of Nevada allocated the company an additional $200 million in private activity bonds in July 2020. These bonds sell for up to four times their awarded value.

Attempted joint venture with China Railway International

On September 17, 2015, XpressWest and the newly formed China Railway International USA announced a joint venture to design, build, and operate the service between Las Vegas and Palmdale, with construction planned to begin in September 2016.
In June 2016, XpressWest announced that the joint venture had been called off. The biggest reason cited for the termination of the joint venture was a federal regulation requiring the manufacture of the high speed trains inside the United States. XpressWest said that they are "undeterred by this development and remains dedicated to completing its high-speed passenger rail project."

Acquisition by Virgin Trains

On September 18, 2018, Fortress Investment Group, which owns Floridian intercity service Brightline, announced that it would acquire the XpressWest project from Marnell, indicating that it would begin construction of the rail line in 2020 with expected completion in 2023. The project is expected to generate around 18,000 jobs at its peak. Although Los Angeles County finished an environmental assessment for the project in 2016, the exact date the project is supposed to start is unclear; however, by October 2019, design plans were almost 30 percent complete and construction crews were being hired.
In turn, Fortress entered a partnership with the Virgin Group. The newly-formed Virgin Trains USA consortium began operating Brightline in 2019. It was then announced that this consortium will operate XpressWest when it opens.
A high speed line following the Palmdale–Victorville–Las Vegas route was included in the 2018 California State Rail Plan as part of the 2040 timeline of projects. Subsequently, the state of California issued tax-exempt private activity bonds to XpressWest in order to partially fund construction.
In 2020, the company entered into an agreement to lease the State-owned Interstate 15 right-of-way from Caltrans. The 50-year lease is in the amount of $842,000 per year starting in 2020, adjusted according to the consumer price index every three years. Additionally, Brightline entered into a memorandum of understanding with the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority to build a spur from Victorville to Rancho Cucamonga, providing connectivity within the Inland Empire and Greater Los Angeles.