Brightline West (XpressWest, DesertXpress) Las Vegas - Victorville - Rancho Cucamanga - LA Proposal

west point wrote: ↑Sun May 07, 2023 11:05 am There is a big problem with the Brightline passenger demands. How can it have enough equipment for Sunday's return traffic to LAX that will not be needed except for traffic to LVS on Fridays?

Brightline's EA states that I-15 carries 85% of the traffic between LA and LV. It also states 50 million passenger trips between these two cities. Meaning the airlines carries 7.5 million passengers per year between these two cities. I doubt half of them take the plane on Sunday. I also doubt half the drivers drive on Sunday.
Brightline West predicts gaining less than 10 million passengers by 2034. If successful, at best in the next 10 years, they will capture 20% of the total market. That still leaves 80% doing what they are doing now. How many from private drivers or from planes will be taken off the roads or skies has yet to be seen.
It is certainly wrong to expect Brightline West to earn 100% market share anytime soon.

The final environmental permitting decision, submitted in November 2021 for the section between Victorville and Rancho Cucamonga, is expected this July. Brightine has already been through public comment for the Victorville-Rancho Cucamonga section, and is viewed favorably by the FRA, which said in its environmental assessment report that the proposed line would not have a significant adverse impact on the environment or low-income or minority populations.
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So everyone is betting on the come Brightline will get environmental clearance. Considering Senator Feinstein and the wind/solar farms proposals in the early 2000s, this is not even a sure thing.

I won’t bet on this until there are rails being laid.

John_Perkowski wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 10:39 am

The final environmental permitting decision, submitted in November 2021 for the section between Victorville and Rancho Cucamonga, is expected this July. Brightine has already been through public comment for the Victorville-Rancho Cucamonga section, and is viewed favorably by the FRA, which said in its environmental assessment report that the proposed line would not have a significant adverse impact on the environment or low-income or minority populations.
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So everyone is betting on the come Brightline will get environmental clearance. Considering Senator Feinstein and the wind/solar farms proposals in the early 2000s, this is not even a sure thing.

I won’t bet on this until there are rails being laid.

Just waiting on the final Record of Decision, I was under the impression the Environmental Assessment is basically done.

This puppy is electrified, right? So no trackside emissions. Will there be any freight trains using the line off-peak? Let the clamoring for infil stations begin!

BandA wrote: ↑Mon Jun 05, 2023 7:01 pmThis puppy is electrified, right? So no trackside emissions. Will there be any freight trains using the line off-peak? Let the clamoring for infil stations begin!

Gotta build the line first. Any major changes (stations, alignment) would push the project back and require the EIS to be modified.

I doubt we'd see any freight rail, especially on an HSR line.

No way there will be freight on this line. HSR lines require an absurd amount of maintenance as is, and having the massive land barges that UP or anyone else would run, would wreck havoc on the HSR tracks.

Freight is a non-issue. Union Pacific already has trackage connecting Las Vegas to everywhere the Brightline proposal would hit. There would be absolutely no purpose in routing freight along the new HSR tracks.

I remember that when the Japanese were planning the first Shinkansen (hard to believe that one of the first trains is now in the museum of transport at York) the thought was to run freight at night but they found that the midnight hours were needed to perform the maintenance necessary to run the passenger service.

Additionally, freight trains dislike steeper than 2% grades, and Brightline West in the median of I-15 will see 4 to 5% grades. No freight train operator will ever want to run trains on such high grades when they have their own tracks with far less grades to use.
Brightline West will build mostly a single track HSR corridor, adding freight trains will force hem to double track most of the corridor increasing the costs to build and maintain much higher. Potentially turning a profitable business into an unprofitable one. Not going to happen!

4 to 5% grade, wow! Those electric motor(s) will have to get up a full head of steam.

BandA wrote: ↑Thu Jun 08, 2023 10:27 pm4 to 5% grade, wow! Those electric motor(s) will have to get up a full head of steam.

Anything but diesel.

Although I'd prefer a more level grade, modern light weight passenger trains and engines will do fine.

The French and the Germans took different approaches to that situation: In general, the French LGV routes go up hill and down dale, with trains sufficiently powered to maintain speed, while for the Neubaustrecken the Germans built tunnels and viaducts as necessary to minimize gradients (through the mountains, not over them -- but over the valleys). It was a choice between lower first cost and higher operating costs versus higher first cost and lower operating costs. Neither is appropriate for freight operation.

STB Approves Alignment Changes: Railway Age

STB Advances $12B Brightline West Project

The Surface Transportation Board (STB) has authorized construction and operation of a modified alignment of the high-speed passenger rail project proposed by private-sector firm Brightline West, subject to environmental mitigation measures.

STB in its Nov. 15 decision (download below) explained that in 2019, DesertXpress Enterprises, LLC, (doing business as Brightline West) “filed a petition to reopen this proceeding, seeking modification of a 2011 condition concerning the construction of an approximately 190-mile rail line for high-speed passenger rail service between Victorville, Calif., and Las Vegas, Nev. (the LV Line)” (see map above). That condition, STB said, authorized construction of a designated alignment, and DesertXpress sought authority for modifications to the previously approved alignment. Among the modifications: relocating the rail alignment on certain portions of the Line from the east side of the I-15 freeway to the median; revising the design of the Apple Valley station to include the passenger boarding and alighting platforms in the median of the I-15 freeway; and raising and moving east a portion of the existing I-15 northbound lanes to provide the necessary footprint and access for these passenger platforms.
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Groundbreaking soon?: news3lv.com

Brightline West teases groundbreaking as new signage for high-speed train pops up in Las Vegas
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The company shared video on social media Monday of new signage and fencing bearing the Brightline West name and train design.
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The video appears to have been taken on Las Vegas Boulevard near Robindale Road, where the Brightline Las Vegas station would be located.

"We're looking forward to breaking ground soon and getting you So Fast to SoCal!" the post states.
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https://x.com/BrightlineWest/status/173 ... 44611?s=20