Brightline West (California's other high speed rail project currently managed by the private company Brightline which has a different currently operating service in Florida between Orlando and Miami) is beginning heavy construction after several years of delays with the first large structure made so far being a parking garage and some type of water drainage systems. The project will connect Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas via a single track system along the I-15 right of way and cost at least $12 billion with half of the funding already secured from private investors, loans, and small federal grants. They claim it will be completed by 2029 but I'd put it at 2032. Travel time is estimated to be 2 hours give or take a few minutes with ticket prices estimated to be $400 for a single trip but this is an overestimation by Brightline as a sales tactic so that whenever the real (lower) price comes out, people won't be nearly as bothered.
This project is going far better than California's other high speed rail project for a few reasons:
- Brightline actually knows what the fuck they're doing given their experience in Florida
- They're not trying to reach top speeds like 220-250 mph which simply can't be achieved when going along highway right of ways unless you deviate a lot (especially around curves and interchanges)
- Brightline is working with a way straighter, shorter, and less invasive path with the station placed at Rancho Cucamonga rather than closer to downtown LA or San Bernardino which reduces costs relating to land acquisition
- Brightline is a private company that works with incredibly tight margins so they cannot afford to fuck around and waste money like how the CHSRA does
Oh also, even using a high estimate like $30 billion for Brightline West still makes it over 2x cheaper per mile compared to California high speed rail which will (adjusted for inflation) easily go over $200 billion.
