Brightline Potential Route into LA Union Station via Victorville - Palmdale

I was doing some digging, and came up with an item for an alternative to a connection with Metrolink at Rancho Cucamonga (I love saying that LOL!). The instigator seems to be CAHSR, but if Brightline buys in it could be a direct link based on the maps I'm seeing.

Railway Age :

January 26, 2022
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An alternate proposal for Brightline West to connect with Metrolink at Palmdale, on the Antelope Valley Line north of the city (the Palmdale Project), is still under consideration. The High Desert Joint Powers Authority is planning to establish a transit center there, and is expected to announce its specific plans this spring. The under-construction California High-Speed Rail line is also slated to stop at Palmdale, which would allow riders coming from north of Los Angeles to get to Las Vegas over a shorter route that avoids a transfer downtown, and also with a two-seat ride.
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LA.Urbanize.City

Published May 23, 2023
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In addition to plans to push deeper into San Bernardino County, Brightline West could also link with the nascent California High-Speed Rail system through the High Desert Corridor, a proposed 54-mile connector line between Palmdale and the Victorville area. That would provide Brightline trains a direct route to Los Angeles Union Station - a much easier starting point for Angelenos looking to visit Las Vegas. Accordingly, the project's backers estimate that Brightline West would attract roughly 12 million one-way trips each year - nearly one quarter of the 50 million trips that already occur between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
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I was always under the impression that the Rancho Cucamonga routing would be an interim solution, pending CAHSR reaching Union Station, at which point Brightline would construct the Palmdale connection and re-route. Palmdale doesn't make any sense for now, because it's a much more remote location for any Southern California passengers, but it will definitely make sense once the high speed route is built through there.

Love saying "Cucamonga": On Virginia Railway Express we had a conductor who liked to say it. Sometimes he would say, "This is a Fredericksburg line train, making stops at … Brooke, Leeland Road, and the last stop, Cucamonga."

No real new ground broken here, but I'll post anyway: https://la.urbanize.city/post/heres-how ... speed-rail

Here's how Brightline West could connect with California High Speed Rail

A 54-mile corridor separates Palmdale from Victor Valley

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A September 2024 presentation published by the High Desert Corridor Joint Power Agency offers a look at the proposed High Desert Corridor high-speed rail line, which would span a roughly 54-mile corridor between Palmdale and Victor Valley. This would allow for direct service on Brightline West between Los Angeles Union Station and Las Vegas, rather the current route which is to terminate outside of Los Angeles County in Rancho Cucamonga.

Currently in the environmental review phase, the rail line would commence from the proposed Palmdale Transportation Center, which would connect California High Speed Rail and Metrolink's Antelope Valley Line. From there, the High Desert Corridor Line would veer east through mostly undeveloped land in unincorporated Los Angeles County, primarily between State Route 138 and State Route 18.

In the eastern half of the route, approaching Victory Valley, the alignment would cut between the Victorville Federal Correctional Complex and the Southern California Logistics Airport, then cross the Mojave River channel on a large viaduct. Eventually the route would veer north to merge with the Brightline West corridor within the I-15 right-of-way. Transfers to Brightline West would be created by providing a new platform at the Victory Valley Station.
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so they are going to set up HSR to Rancho Cucamonga, then later make it redundant by building the High Desert Corridor? Later, CAHSR is going to pass by Rancho Cucamonga by a few miles?

Brightline needed to guarantee themselves a close-enough terminal and chose Rancho C.

If the High Desert corridor gets built (not on their nickel) it gives them direct access to both BUR/LAX and up the CAHSR R spine.

I doubt they'd ever abandon RC. I can imagine clockface service that runs:
:00 to LAUS
:15 to CAHSR north
:30 to LAUS
:45 to RC

It'll be great.

Who is "they"? Brightline West is not CAHSR is not High Desert Corridor Joint Power Agency (HDCJPA). So it is three different groups (one private, one state, and one joint activity of multiple local governments). As far as I can tell there isn't discussion on the HDCJPA site about what constitutes high speed rail (it could mean a diesel train at 125 MPH covering the connection between Brightline West and CAHSR stations in 1/2 hour or it could mean a direct SF-Las Vegas train service or it could mean something else).

No where are the statements that CAHSR and Brightline West couldn't connect in San Bernardino County or Orange County to provide one seat rides to LA or to San Diego, there is just an absence of planning for that connection at this point (again different "they"s with different objectives).

It is hard for me to imagine any new line in CA being built un-electrified.
And the HD corridor is so very straight, I can't see that they'd not get it rated in the 180 - 220 mph range like the systems it connects to.

The "theys" are the State and its CAHSR and HD entities, collectively in my thinking, and the point is that when it happens Brightline will be an obvious beneficiary, but until it happens Brighline needed a terminus with access to the core of the LA region, and chose RC

Arlington wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 5:26 pm If the High Desert corridor gets built (not on their nickel) it gives them direct access to both BUR/LAX and up the CAHSR R spine.

RandallW wrote: ↑Wed Oct 09, 2024 5:54 pm Who is "they"? Brightline West is not CAHSR is not High Desert Corridor Joint Power Agency (HDCJPA).

All of which suggests that this thread belongs in the California rail forum, not here in Brightline. Yes, Brightline West would benefit from this, no, it would not be their infrastructure, nor would it be for their exclusive use.