LAS VEGAS — The time is ripe to build a magnetic, high-speed train line linking Las Vegas to Southern California cities, including Ontario and Victorville, local, state and federal officials said Tuesday.
The San Bernardino County Sun reported that the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission and its private-sector partner, American Magline Group, joined Germany’s deputy minister of transportation and mayors from four California and Nevada cities along a proposed speed-train route to discuss the project’s status.
“This will benefit not only Ontario, but all of Southern California,’ Ontario Mayor Gary Ovitt said at a round-table discussion at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino.
“Though we are growing fast and if not faster than anywhere in the U.S., we have continual transportation issues and problems.
“We have not come up with any other solutions that work. It does not make sense to expand or double deck our freeways.’
The California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission formed in 1998 to promote the development and issue a franchise to build a 269-mile super-speed train system connecting Las Vegas to Anaheim.
The train, which can travel up to 310 mph, would also make stops in Primm, Nev., Barstow, Victorville and Ontario on the proposed route.
In October 2003, Congress is expected to reauthorize capital funding under the Transportation Equity Act.
Commission and Magline representatives, along with city officials, hope that the project’s first 40 miles will be the first Maglev project in the nation to receive federal funding for construction.
“That’s really what this is about today, kicking off the efforts to show local support, state and regional support to send the message to Washington from California and Nevada that we need to start Maglev now,’ said M. Neil Cummings, president of the American Magline Group. “This is the best investment that the federal government could make, starting with the first 40 miles.’
The starter segment, from Las Vegas to Primm, is expected to cost $1.3 billion, Cummings said.
The Transrapid Maglev technology has been in use in Germany since 1991 and will soon be used in China. There are six viable Maglev projects nationally for which funding is being sought, Cummings said. The California-Nevada Maglev project has received about $10 million in federal funds and $5 million in state and local funds for pre-construction design and engineering work.
The project will receive another $2 million from the federal government for an environmental impact statement later this year, Cummings said.
American Magline officials are hoping to start construction in 2004 and have the first segment completed around 2007, he said.
Construction of the Ontario-Anaheim corridor is now planned to occur at the same time as the Las Vegas-Primm corridor, said Ontario Councilman Alan Wapner, a commission member.
The original plan was to continue construction southward after the first stretch is built.
About $2.1 million in federal funds and $500,000 in local funds for initial environmental, ridership and alignment studies have already been secured for the Ontario-Anaheim corridor, Wapner said.
“Being on the commission, I was able to get them to start at both ends,’ he said. ‘So actually in the next few years, we are going to see construction of a Maglev system in Ontario.’
The Southern California Association of Governments is also tied into the project, Wapner said.
SCAG is planning to build its first Maglev route from Union Station in Los Angeles either to Ontario or Anaheim to connect into the California-Nevada Maglev Train Project, he said.
“We would share a Maglev station in Ontario which serves both SCAG and California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission,’ said Wapner, who serves on SCAG’s Maglev Task Force. Victorville Mayor Mike Rothschild said he was excited about Maglev for the region.
“We are in the 21st century, and we are going to have to look at new transportation or else it will be a scarce commodity in the future,’ Rothschild said. “Maglev is the future transportation because it doesn’t require fossil fuel.’