When it comes to rail politics, route is filled with twists, withering grades

Before it draped itself in hype and neon, Las Vegas was a railroad town.

Backed by a powerful U.S. senator, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake line was completed in late 1904 and embarked on its first run Jan. 20, 1905. Less than four months later, Las Vegas was born.

Clark County, named for the deal-making copper king and Montana Sen. William Andrews Clark, celebrates its centennial Wednesday. The rail line was eventually folded into the Union Pacific. It was used in November 1966 to secrete Howard Hughes into Las Vegas before the reclusive billionaire went on his unprecedented resort-buying spree. Until 1997, when it was relegated to the sidetrack of history, the Amtrak Desert Wind made stops in Las Vegas.

History aside, can Las Vegas become a railroad town again, if not in the traditional sense, then at least in a meaningful way in the 21st century?

Two major groups vie to answer that question in the affirmative. The American Magline group proposes to use magnetic levitation (maglev) technology to construct a high-speed system from Las Vegas to Anaheim. The DesertXpress is trying to use steel-wheel technology to move trains from Las Vegas to a large station in Victorville, Calif.

Reams have been written about the dream of high-speed train travel between Las Vegas and Southern California, its largest tourist feeder market. Maglev proponents laud its 310 mph speed potential and point-to-point superiority of their plan, while downplaying questions about the soundness of the technology, the prohibitive $40 billion price tag and the fact the route hasn't been secured.

DesertXpress, meanwhile, has positioned itself technologically and politically as the realistic alternative to the maglev dream. Its trains travel at approximately 150 mph on a beefed-up, steel-wheel rail system with proven technology and, relatively speaking, a bargain preliminary cost of $4 billion. As for the Victorville terminus, well, DesertXpress officials call that an acknowledgement of the reality of trying to build a private rail system into heavily populated and multi-jurisdictional Southern California.

While it's impossible to predict the success of either project, especially in this economy, political handicappers began making the DesertXpress a decided favorite after it was publicly supported by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Ironically, this could be a second example of a powerhouse senator helping to make Las Vegas a railroad town. Reid had previously backed the maglev project.

Not that Clark and Reid share many similarities. Clark was a "Copper King" and one of America's richest men who essentially bought his way into office but served only a single term. A Searchlight native, Reid has been in Nevada politics more than three decades. Their careers are very different.

Of course, those differences might be forgotten if we ever awaken one morning to find Reid family members on the DesertXpress payroll or a rail spur jutting all the way out to Searchlight.

In the world of railroad engineering, straight lines and flat surfaces are to be prized, but when it comes to rail politics, the route is filled with wicked twists and withering grades. The public face of DesertXpress is led by longtime Las Vegas resort developer Tony Marnell, company president Thomas J. Stone, and political kingmaker and Republicans-for-Reid supporter Sig Rogich.

After listening to a recent presentation by Marnell, Stone and Rogich, it's hard to imagine a trio more capable of making the DesertXpress case and turning the company's Vegas-to-Victorville dream into reality.

DesertXpress is no shoo-in. It will have to have its final route approved, and part of it cuts through the environmentally sensitive Mojave National Preserve.

The biggest question is whether throngs of tourists will be willing to park their vehicles in Victorville in order to travel by train to Las Vegas. Of course, DesertXpress officials promise consummate customer service, from wet bars and live entertainment to advance hotel check-in, and such comforts could mitigate concerns. If Southern California gasoline again hits $4 a gallon and airline fuel prices skyrocket, DesertXpress surely would win plenty of converts.

For now, we don't have to bet on either side. We only have to watch the rivals closely while each works to secure the billions in loans and guarantees it will take to see their visions completed.

Las Vegas was a railroad town once and, in its way, may be again. It will be intriguing to watch history get made this time.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith/.