Roundtrip Train Ride from Rancho Cucamonga to Vegas – Would You Pay $400?
Posted on: March 8, 2024, 04:06h.
Last updated on: March 11, 2024, 11:42h.
Commuting back and forth from Southern California by high-speed rail won’t only take longer than flying, it was revealed this week. It will also cost more.
The bad news came directly from Brightline founder Wes Edens, who told the L.A. Times that his company “will eventually charge more than $400 for a round trip from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga.”
Brightline West will cover the 218 miles at speeds of up to 200 mph, mostly along the Interstate 15 right-of-way. Light rail connections will carry passengers the 37 additional miles east from LA.
That will make the trip 2 hours and 10 minutes each way. Figuring in an hour for light rail, that’s more than twice as long as an average flight from L.A. to Las Vegas, at a roundtrip price of $75 more than flying.
Brightline estimates that 50 million people travel the route per year, 85% of them in cars.
“They’ll have to drive past our train station (in traffic) and then watch the trains whiz by them at 220 mph,” Edens, a private equity billionaire, told the Times. “It’ll be phenomenal.”
Ground is scheduled to be broken this spring, with an eye toward opening in time for the 2028 Olympics in L.A.
Off the Rails
That’s if Brightline West even gets going. The Biden administration has poured $3 billion taxpayer dollars into the project, along with access to $3.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. However, nearly half of its $12 billion budget is still unaccounted for.
And now, the project faces swift and fierce pushback to the ticket price revelation.
“Who in their right mind would pay that amount when flying or driving, in most cases, costs much less?” Apple Valley resident Dana Bingham wrote in a letter to the L.A. Times editor. “Yes, the train seems to be more relaxing than flying and easier than driving. But a one-way fare of $80 seems to make much more sense. If the company doesn’t think it can make money at that price, it should just stop now and give any federal money for the project back so it can be used for something else.”
Numerous high-speed rail projects have failed in the U.S., where driving is cheaper and population centers are farther apart than in Europe, where they are commonplace and profitable.
In fact, talk of a Vegas to L.A. bullet train traces back to 2005, when Tony Marnell II, founder of the Rio, could not get his proposed XpressWest system to Victorville, Calif. out of the station.
A Brightline rail line in Florida has failed to meet ridership projections since its 2018 launch. According to a public bond filing, it logged an operating loss of $190 million during the first nine months of 2023. And a Brightline train from L.A. to San Francisco has tripled its original budget to $100 billion, and experienced significant construction delays since breaking ground in 2015.
“I wish them well,” Robert Poole, director of transportation policy for the Reason Foundation, told the Times. “I hope the plan works. But I’m skeptical.”
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Last Comments ( 49 )
And all I'm trying to do is get a train from Rancho down to Anaheim. You'd think with those Olympics coming you'd want to get people from here to Disneyland without having to go all the way to Riverside or into LA and the backtracking to go to Anaheim. Not everyone wants to go to Vegas and not at that price. Plus the traffic and air pollution from vehicle emissions will only make things worse. And where will the people who come to the L.A. Olympics be spending all there money? In Vegas. Why are we so anxious to promote that'?
Whoa - I think $400 is *quite* incorrect. First, let's consider that one train can hold 10 planes worth of passengers. One plane can cost over $100 million... so $1 *billion* compared to the $45M it will cost to build a 1,354 passenger trainset. It's not just the cost of the planes - it's the cost of the staff - for the same amount of passengers you will need 20 pilots and 20 copilots compared to one train operator... then there's the cost of the energy per passenger per mile, which is around 90% less. The cost of construction of this line - even if it hit $10B - is a tiny, tiny fraction of the $200B spent just on airport improvements for LAX and SFO over the past years. When people complain about the cost of the other California High Speed Rail System, they fail to realize what we spend on airport improvements, which is far far far greater. You will see tickets priced at $19 for promos... but most often you'll see these tickets at $29-$49, mark my words on this. If people are spending less time, energy and money getting from Point A to Point B, then they'll have more time, energy, and money to spend at their destinations, and they'll come back more frequently... if you own a business or work at a business that depends on people having time, energy and money to keep your bills paid, you should absolutely and enthusiastically be supporting high speed rail efforts in this country. Even this site would see *vastly* increase revenues as this system nears completion. When true high speed rail hits California over the next few years, the skies over your home will be quieter and you'll be enjoying your backyard more and more. The benefits are huge... embrace the future - or even the past 50 years of technology other countries have enjoyed... nobody who flies often truly enjoys flying.
Rail in USA is subsidized. Routes out west are heavily subsidized. If this was done as a 100% government project, the fares would be $200. Since this is a private/public partnership, the extra $200 goes to the private boys. They gotta eat.. The other $200 is absorbed by John Q. Public, ie, all taxpayers.
They should bring bullet train from Japan or bombardier from Canada They build the monorail and few years later loose the customers , not body will ride on the back of the trip , so go bankcrupsy and sold to lvcc at profit never made money .so today the same they not make profit. If they bring foods .for customers in Vegas will make profit . The charge be 40/55 dlr each ride But greed will stop .. So why get exited opportunity is every day