Brightline West mistakenly cited for violation tied to Las Vegas train station site

Brightline West was mistakenly cited last month by Clark County for what an official believed was the company starting work without a permit as it began grading for its Las Vegas high-speed train station.

Contractor McCarthy Building Cos. was doing grading work on Brightline West’s land on Las Vegas Boulevard between Blue Diamond and Warm Springs roads on July 17 when a building inspector with Clark County made a visit and documented the work occurring, with nearly three dozen photos, according to county records. Grading is the process of reshaping land and readying a site in advance of planned construction.

On the same day, the inspector served Brightline West with a notice of violation, stating that work started on the site without the company obtaining a grading permit from the county. That violation came with a $660 fine attached to it and the county giving Brightline one month to follow up on the matter.

Federal mix up

The matter was resolved on Aug. 6 after David Pickett, legal counsel for Brightline, responded to the county with a letter saying that federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) has jurisdiction over the project, and that Brightline isn’t subject to the state and local permitting processes that regulate most projects, as set forth by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act of 1995.

“In 2007, the STB issued an order confirming that Brightline West is a rail carrier and that this project comes within the STB’s exclusive jurisdiction,” Pickett’s letter read, noting the federal preemption that comes with it. “The STB explained that this means that ‘state permitting and land use requirements that would apply to non-rail projects, such as the California Environmental Quality Act, will be preempted.’ The broad scope of this preemption includes preemption of local permits.”

Clark County spokeswoman Jennifer Cooper confirmed on Tuesday that the matter was resolved and that the inspector served the notice of violation not knowing about the federal preemption afforded to the project.

“The County did not collect the fine from Brightline,” Cooper said in an email.

Brightline’s Las Vegas station plans include constructing the passenger terminal, a parking garage and a surface parking lot.

Other planned work

Aside from the grading work, Brightline is planning to relocate box culvert and sewer lines underneath the property. That work is valued at $1.8 million, according to county records.

The county also noted that Brightline has also submitted a permit application for temporary power to the site and multiple zoning applications.

Brightline West held a groundbreaking ceremony in April 2024 at the Las Vegas station site for the planned $12 billion project. Crews have been carrying out field investigation work along Interstate 15 in Nevada and California, ahead of work beginning on the 218-mile high-speed rail line.

When will work start?

Brightline received a $3 billion grant from the Federal Railroad Administration toward construction costs. The rest of the $9 billion is the responsibility of Brightline and is expected to come from mainly private equity and debt. Earlier this year, Brightline sold $2.5 billion in private activity bonds from both Nevada and California and was in the process of obtaining $6 billion in construction loans for the project, Nevada Department of Transportation director Tracy Larkin Thomason said in March.

It is unclear when work on the rail line will start. Brightline officials have stated they plan to begin heavy construction work sometime by the end of the year.

System details

Plans call for stations in Las Vegas and in California at Hesperia, Apple Valley and Rancho Cucamonga. Riders will be able to transfer to and from Los Angeles and other Southern California cities from the Rancho Cucamonga station via the existing Metrolink passenger rail service. The Rancho Cucamonga station is about 40 miles east of downtown LA.

In the Brightline bond offering it was noted that a standard, one-way ticket on the rail line is planned to cost $119 for a roughly two-hour trip between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga expected to take about two hours.

The project is also viewed as favorable by the federal government, with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in February giving Brightline West’s plans high praise, while noting his disdain for the California Central Valley high-speed rail project. Last month Duffy announced that the FRA revoked $4 billion in unspent federal funding previously awarded to the California Central Valley rail project.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.