CAJON PASS, CA. (Pain In The Pass) >> Brightline West formally called XpressWest a Brightline company high-speed rail project, has launched a bond offering of up to $3.2 billion for the initial financing of the $8 billion project.
They are consisting of tax-exempt bond allocations from Nevada ($800 million) and from California ($2.4 billion). This money would go toward financing the approximately 170 miles of tracks between Las Vegas, Nevada and Victorville, California. The project also has $1 billion in private activity bonds from the U.S. Department of Transportation that are not part of the offering.
This is to allow them to begin construction.
California has extended a deadline for Brightline to sell the bonds from September 30 to the end of this year. If Brightline is unsuccessful, the allocated private activity bonds, California would be using the bond for affordable housing, according to Mark DeSio, California Treasurer’s office spokesman. Keep your fingers crossed that the bond will go to Brightline.
Brightline also highlights new plans for an extension from Victorville to Rancho Cucamonga, (using the Cajon Pass). This will also allow passengers to travel into downtown Los Angeles using the Metrolink rails. It plans for the extension to go online simultaneously with the Las Vegas-to-Victorville line in late 2023.
The three segment plan.
- The first part is this high desert segment from Las Vegas to Victorville, that’s 100 percent permitted and is ready to start.
- The second part is the one that would be going up and down the Cajon Pass from Victorville to the Metrolink station in Rancho Cucamonga.
- The third part is to run from Rancho Cucamonga into Union Station downtown Los Angeles.
A future extension is also planned to run to Palmdale, where passengers would also be able to transfer to L.A. via the Metrolink.
Brightline is 100 percent committed to all three segments of those coming online at the same exact time. So launching the financing now allows us to start on the longest of those segments, which is the high desert segment, and that will be followed in the next couple of months with work on the other two parts of that.
The Las Vegas station will be built on Las Vegas Boulevard near Warm Springs Road.
Victorville station will be built off of Interstate 15 Dale Evans Parkway.
Brightline debt is positioned as an Environmental, Social and Governance-oriented (ESG) investment since the trains will be powered by electricity, zero emissions. An environmental study estimates the completed project will reduce carbon emissions by 400,000 metric tons a year. Also removing 3 million vehicles from Interstate 15 per year.
Additionally, Brightline West expects to create more than 30,000 jobs during the project’s construction with another 1,000 new jobs post construction.
A trip from downtown Los Angeles to Las Vegas on the Brightline West may take a bit under three hours and cost about $80 per person. The high-speed segment will be limited to the 169-mile high desert stretch between Victorville and Las Vegas.
The Pain In The Pass website will bring you further project news and construction updates as the project progresses.
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