Tuesday, April 29, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Studies of magnetic rail line approved
By MICHAEL SQUIRES
REVIEW-JOURNAL
The Federal Railroad Administration approved starting environmental studies of a high-speed, magnetic levitation train connecting Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
The approval puts the Maglev project among three in the nation eligible for federal funding. Maglev projects in the other two cities, in Pittsburgh and Baltimore, were the two finalists chosen by federal officials in 2001 to compete for nearly $1 billion for a federal demonstration project.
The federal government hopes to have the rail line completed by 2010.
"The fact that we have a leading federal agency behind us will make things easier for us in obtaining federal funding for construction, and puts us on a par with other Maglev projects around the country," California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission chairman Bruce Aguilera said in a written statement.
The environmental study will focus on a route between Las Vegas and Primm, which backers say will be the first 40 miles of a 269-mile rail system stretching to Anaheim, Calif.
The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission has received a $1.5 million federal grant for the study, which is scheduled to be completed in 12 to 18 months.
Neil Cummings, president of American Magline Group, the private partner of the California-Nevada commission, said a timetable on studying the rest of the route is still up in the air.
"How long it will take depends no how we can streamline the process," he said in a prepared statement.
Maglev trains travel at speeds up to 300 mph, hovering above an elevated track, propelled by magnetic force.
After more than a decade pursuing a maglev project that would connect Las Vegas and Southern California, local proponents have been heartened by support from powerful officials in Washington.
U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, has said he thinks Southern Nevada's proposed magnetic-levitation rail project could be built faster and at a lower cost than the two other proposals under consideration for federal money.
