Weekend passenger train service between Los Angeles and Las Vegas could be a reality by the middle of the year, according to the Las Vegas-based backers of the project.
United Rail, a publicly traded short-haul management company known for its X Wine Railroad𑁋an LA-to-Santa Barbara “train and wine tour”𑁋said its Las Vegas Xpress subsidiary will run its “X Train” service on existing track owned by Union Pacific and BNSF and will contract with Amtrak for the carriages while construction takes place to convert sections of the route to high-speed service.
“The ‘X Train’ will provide an exciting ‘Las Vegas’ experience throughout the duration of the trip, creating a unique experience for its constituents,” United said.
The service is also reported to include construction in Las Vegas of a supporting 500-room “X Hotel”.
“This project has been under development for eight years and we have invested $50 million in order to secure access to operate. We have assembled the cars, the insurance requirements, haulage company and selected the train station location in Las Vegas,” said United CEO Michael Barron.
Initially, the trip will take around four and a half hours, United said. This will be reduced to three and a half with completion of the double-tracking for high-speed service, which will be built between Las Vegas and Yermo, Calif., a Mojave Desert town east of Barstow.
The service is the second to target Las Vegas in the last year. The first, a proposed high-speed line connecting the city with Southern California, stalled over financing issues, but it’s been revived after the company behind it, Xpress West, was purchased in September by privately held intercity rail operator Brightline, which said it plans to bring have the service off the ground by 2022.
Brightline, which has had success with passenger service linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach—with investors that include Virgin Group—said its high-speed Las Vegas run, rebranded Virgin Trains USA, will take no more than two hours.
