(The Las Vegas Sun posted the following article by Benjamin Grove on its website on February 28.)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A critical showdown in Congress this year may settle the long fight over $950 million in federal funding for the nation’s first magnetic-levitation, high-speed train project.
Backers of a proposed Las Vegas-to-Anaheim route say the project is still a contender for the cash, despite fierce competition with two other projects and a long history of unrealized dreams.
“All of us totally believe this is the answer to our transportation needs in the United States. We believe that it will happen,” said Richann Johnson, spokeswoman for the California-Nevada Super Speed Train Commission.
“There is no other alternative mode of transportation right now (between California and Nevada). There’s airlines and your car, and that’s it.”
At issue is a magnetic levitation, or maglev, train that floats above a guideway at speeds up to 300 miles per hour, propelled by frictionless magnetic force. The California-Nevada commission for the past 15 years has envisioned the train someday whisking travelers between Las Vegas and Southern California, easing interstate traffic congestion and boosting tourism.
The commission would use the federal money, plus roughly $350 million from private investors, to construct the first 42-mile leg of the route from Las Vegas to Primm.
Maglev technology has been tested successfully in Europe, and U.S. officials have been talking for 30 years about launching a project in this country.
To that end, the Department of Transportation in January 2001 said two projects had the best proposals: a 47-mile, $3 billion route linking Pittsburgh International Airport and Greensburg, Pa.; and a 40-mile, $4.4 billion route linking Baltimore and Washington. The department as early as this spring plans to endorse one project.
“Technically speaking” the Pennsylvania and Maryland projects are the finalists for the money, according to federal law and a DOT rule, said Warren Flatau, a spokesman for the DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration.
But Nevada project officials note that Congress — not the DOT — will have the final say on which project gets the money. And they have key allies, especially in the House.
“Not only do I think that our project is in the running — I think our project is the front-runner,” said Neil Cummings, president of the American Magline Group, a consortium of companies backing the California-Nevada project.
Insiders such as Cummings say the project stands the best chance of securing federal money because House Transportation panel Chairman Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, a friend of Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., wants a maglev project in the West.
“He’s one of our biggest allies, and at the end of the day, that support could make all the difference,” said Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who chatted with Young about the project earlier this month at a national Safari Club International hunters conference in Reno.
Congress is likely to begin the maglev debate this year as it retools a massive spending authorization bill commonly called “TEA-21,” which outlines a six-year plan for transportation projects nationwide. Lawmakers on Young’s transportation panel, including Porter and Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., will have the first crack at drafting the bill.
As the battle over maglev gets under way, lawmakers could take several approaches, observers say. They could award all of the money to one project, in which case Nevada maglev backers would make a play for the whole pot. It’s also possible, but less likely, that lawmakers could decide to split the $950 million, awarding half to two projects.
Under a third scenario, lawmakers could put off spending the money this year because of budget woes and war costs.
In any case, securing money for the Nevada maglev project will be “challenging,” Berkley said. “None of this is easy, given current budget constraints.”
Reid and Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., face a tough road for the maglev in the Senate, even though Reid sits on the Appropriations Committee, which allocates spending for federal projects. Political leaders in Pennsylvania and Maryland aren’t eager to give Nevada a share of the pie.
“It’s going to be a dogfight,” said Rick Alcalde, a lobbyist in Congress for the Magline Group’s Nevada project.
Alcalde for years has been quietly making the case to key lawmakers that the Nevada project’s flat and relatively straight route through the desert is the cheapest and easiest to develop.
But aides to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said she and other Maryland officials intend to continue fiercely advocating the Baltimore-Washington project.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Ed Rendell has criticized Nevada for “coming in late.” Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., told the Associated Press, “I want to work with (Reid), not fight him. But I’m prepared to fight.”
Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., however, was more measured in comments made to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette earlier this month. Santorum said that if Pennsylvania officials ally themselves with Nevada, it could help both projects receive money and “make sure the (Pennsylvania) project goes forward.”
Nevada project backers say that’s a sign Santorum recognizes that Nevada is the likely front-runner. A Santorum spokeswoman was not available for comment.