Iâm thinking most of the traffic will be originating from the greater LA area traveling to Vegas for entertainment there and back rather than traffic to downtown LA from Vegas. People would drive to Cucamonga to catch the train. Kind of like Lorton for the Autotrain.
Hasnât Vegas tourism been trending down the last couple of years?
Brightline East has received $486 million in public funding grants from federal, state, and country governments for a variety of projects, i.e. safety fencing, crossing up grades, new railcars, workforce development grants, etc. In addition, it has been authorized to issue $935 million of tax-exempt municipal bonds.
According to a November 13, 2025 Miami Herald/WLRN investigative report, Brightline East lost $153 million on train operations in 2024. The net loss was more than $500 million. Since it began passenger service, Brightline has lost a cumulative $1.8 billion according to the Herald/WLRN analysis of its public financial reports.
Brightlineâs dismal earnings record has not gone unnoticed by the rating agencies. Fitch, Moodyâs, and S&P have down graded the companyâs debt to non-investment grade.
Brightlineâs original plan was to put together a privately funded passenger railroad for south Florida. Now, according to its CEO, it has morphed in to a private-public entity. Which means it is and probably will remain dependent on government subsidies.
The lesson seems clear. If Brightlineâs goal of being a privately funded passenger rail system is unattainable, where would the money come from for other high-speed passenger rail projects in the U.S.?
Nope, just the last 10 months coinciding with a decline in international tourism. Gambling is still setting records, which indicates less Priceline type travel, but the whales are not affected.
Gambling at Vegas? I know a lot of people do the online gambling now. Itâs crazy how many I see doing it. Just curious if Vegas will still be Vegas if and when brightline makes it there.
I remember as a kid when trips to Atlantic City were common every weekend. I donât think you can pay most people to go there now.
So if that is the case then why would they plan for a downtown LA station stop but wait for CA HSR to build the line?
Iâd think at least some of the prospective traffic will be conferences, seminars, training sessions â all the usual things that benefit from full-service hotels with day capacity. The time-tested NYW&B model of connecting nominal HSR to the whole length of a transit line is not quite so suicidal when it is temporary (e.g. until traffic for âexpressâ accommodation turns on Metrolink grows to sufficient volume on enough days) and of course once you have the HSR connecting to both ends (and electrification installation capital and training up to speed) closing the gap even at no more than HrSR speed ought to be reasonable â even in California.
What are the plans if any to link LAX and Harry Reid Airport in Las Vegas? I see the project has caught the California HSR contagion and is up to $21.5 Billion total costs now.
First Iâve heard of the idea. Are they going to put the HSR line above the ex-ATSF down Slauson? Wonât the whatever-color-it-is transit line from the airport via Norwalk be in the way?
Iâd have to get my crayons out to line some of that, since it would have to be one-seat terminal-to-terminal to be worth much⌠whatâs the rationale, exactly? Increasing available gate slots at LAX by letting additional traffic use Reid? Surely it wouldnât be to facilitate high rollers somehowâŚ
Must be lucky but Iâve yet to wait more than a couple minutes at most with precheck. Usually itâs no wait at all.
My working experience is most people will fly the evening before and stay in a hotel. Better full night sleep and no worry about being late for the meeting. Thatâs how I always did it when I was working and I had a morning meeting.
Yet I do know a lot of people who preferred the 4am wake up to get a 6am flight option. I never met any biz travelers who wanted an overnight train except retired tourists. I wonder just how big that market would be.
I think youâre right. Letâs hope BL West gets it done. Fingers crossed.
The âStudied to deathâ partâŚ
If a CHI to NYC overnight train schedule allowed for a 12-14 hour time endpoint to endpoint it could be attractive if it were comfortable and reliable. A proper survey would need to be done first of course to see if sufficient demand existed.
One problem with anything less than HrSR service is that few under age 70 have much experience with trains as adults. So just continuing the same old service of the 60s with even slower times is a non-starter.
The REAL money is in the studies - not in actually building something.
I am just asking. Seems to me with HSR they might want to maximize opportunity.
I donât see any possible point to it, even before we look at encouraging the wrong kind of âpatronageâ and the problems with the state charging rates that recover the capital but still allow the middle class to ride at reasonable rates.
Do any HSR routes proposed for LA actually go near the LAX complex? I have to dig out the Thomas Guide and start figuring where to put the self-launching viaduct supports and perhaps the Roadtown-lite structure of slower-speed last-mile transport that the vast construction east of the airport would require. And I would need to decide very carefully where the few stops between LAX and, broadly, Victorville would go.
Looks like it would have to be a new segment from LA Union Station to LAX, wouldnât be HSR with the development between LAUS and LAX.
As far as I can see the only airport via CA HSR near LA to be served is Burbank Airport (it has Commercial Jet service). However, I see a rail line which I believe UP (ex-SP) has a rather dog leg route that takes you from LA Union Station to the edge of LAX (property line). It is in the median of the 105 to the East of the Airport. Looks like due to the bad track configuration North of Union Station any train departing LAUS would have to head North to the wye then South, they intersect with the line to LAX which looks like another wye. No clue what condition that line is in but I see a lot of grade crossings. Then of course would probably have to tunnel from the airport property line to the terminal building.
I think it is sad though with such a populous state LAX is an airline hub and I thought Las Vegas was a hub of sorts as well. Potential to also connect two airline hubs via rail. Maybe in the future or maybe air taxi from Burbank. Burbank is a nice airport but also tiny. I have flown out of there once or twice on commercialâŚsteep noise abatement climb as I remember.
Why connect two sir hubs with HSR?