CLEVELAND, September 27 — In a letter to Ray LaHood, Secretary of Transportation, Teamsters Rail Conference President Dennis R. Pierce voiced strong support for the DesertXpress high-speed rail project between Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
“If properly funded, the DesertXpress/XPressWest project will provide good middle class jobs for tens of thousands of Americans in the Southwestern United States,” President Pierce wrote. “Equally important, the project will help our nation turn the corner in developing a 21st Century transportation system that is efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly.”
DesertXpress/XPressWest would allow passengers to bypass highway traffic, traveling at speeds of up to 150 mph non-stop between southern California and Las Vegas in approximately 80 minutes (compared to an average highway drive time of approximately four hours).
The Teamsters Rail Conference represents more than 70,000 rail workers employed as locomotive engineers, trainmen and maintenance of way workers across the United States as members of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division.
A copy of the letter is available here.