LETTER: Will the Brighline train succeed?

I would like to add to the excellent Jan. 20 letter about Brightline by Kirk Rowe, which followed a Jan. 19 Review-Journal article about the subject and pointed out many problems the article didn’t mention.

Among many things, Mr. Rowe noted that construction costs had exploded from $12 billion to more than $21 billion. Does anyone think that isn’t going to continue? How can that not double, at least, the cost of a ticket? That’s not counting all the unforeseen problems and lengthy delays Mr. Rowe mentioned that the builders are sure to encounter. The article mentions the completion date has already been extended from 2028 to late 2029. If betting, I’ll take the over.

Meanwhile, the cost of gasoline is going down, making the cost of coming by car cheaper. Original articles compared Brightline costs to coming by car. That comparison is now impossible with the massive increase in construction costs for Brightline and the price of gas going down.

People coming to Las Vegas from the Los Angeles area, after paying much more for a ticket than originally predicted, have to figure out how to get from home to Rancho Cucamonga with their luggage and board the train. After arriving in Las Vegas, they’ll have to figure out how to get from the station to their hotel, which adds to the cost of their trip. Or, they could toss their luggage in the trunk of their car and drive here for the cost of a tank of gas.

If this were Brightline’s money, no one would care. As Mr. Rowe noted, Brightline officials started this project by bragging they wouldn’t take one dime of taxpayer money. They have since received a $3 billion grant from the Federal Railroad Administration and applied for a $6 billion loan from the federal government. I can’t imagine them not asking for billions more down the line.

It will be an outrage if taxpayers are required to donate any more money to this fools errand by politicians.