Speaking of new transportation options in Las Vegas.
Environmental approvals for the proposed $4 billion DesertXpress high-speed rail project between Las Vegas and Southern California are taking longer than expected, but executives with the project said Thursday they expect construction to begin this year.
“It’s all just process and working through the details,” DesertXpress Enterprises President Tom Stone said in a media briefing on the project. “No environmental showstoppers have been identified.”
Last year, developers of the 185-mile rail line that would link Las Vegas with Victorville, Calif., said they hoped they would get final environmental approvals by the end of the first quarter of 2010 and that they would be able to break ground by summer. But Stone said the process is running three to four months behind what they had hoped, although they still expect a groundbreaking before the end of the year.
Construction is expected to take four years, meaning that revenue service for the train could begin by late 2014.
I’ve been a mass-transit rider for 40 years, and I consider myself arguably the largest proponent of non-car transit in Las Vegas. Not only that, but I travel back and forth to Los Angeles quite frequently. Las Vegas’ relatively easy access to the LA basin is the primary reason that Vegas doesn’t feel like a completely claustrophobic dirt island.
Most of the “professional” people I deal with are located in Los Angeles, and it’s not uncommon for me to hop a plane to LA in the morning, and jump on one coming back in the evening. God bless the Internet for allowing me to do this less and less often as time goes on. Video conferencing and collaboration with out-of-state folks is another reason I carry a laptop and wireless modem everywhere (hey bedheads, try that on an iPad), but every now and then, I simply cannot avoid a personal appearance. What can I say, people love to bask in the glow that is my presence.
Given that the I-15 is the umbilical cord that ties Las Vegas and Los Angeles together, you would be forgiven for thinking that I would be beside myself with joy at the prospect of a high-speed train that roughly parallels the interstate … and at one point, I was.
When I first heard the talk about a high-speed train many years ago, I naturally assumed that the train would begin at Union Station in Los Angeles, and terminate in Downtown Las Vegas, or possibly connect to a newly constructed train station near The Strip.
When I needed to go to LA, I figured that I would take the new train from here to Union Station, transfer to the Red Line Subway, and get off at Hollywood and Highland. I was going to make this journey 2-3 times per month, and it was going to be brilliant. I would be patronizing the rail system 30 times a year to help keep it in business, I was going to be one less car on the road, and I would be able to use my laptop to work on projects while in transit. It would be win/win/win.
Now that high-speed rail is almost a reality, and will be operational in four short years, I have but one question to ask:
What the F**K happened?
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Seriously, what is this shit?
Dear sweet mother of God, how could this absolute mudhoney of an idea have ever been approved by anyone?
Victorville?!
VICTOR F**KING VILLE????!!!!
I’ve known for over a year that Victorville was the proposed terminus for our new high-speed train, but I never thought it would actually happen. I had faith that someone, somewhere along the way would say “Okay guys, Victorville is not going to work, let’s go ahead and plan a real route.”
Most ideas suck monkey balls in the planning stage. It’s inevitable and it’s forgivable. When you’re tossing pre-opening ideas around, and you float them out to the public, they are usually pretty ridiculous.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one:
Jim Murren, the CEO of MGM Mirage and a transplanted New Yorker, stands in front of the Aria at CityCenter, a project he conceived based on what he thought Las Vegas lacked: a world-class urban gathering place for the city’s residents. “We were missing so many important quality of life building blocks — what I would consider to be not extras but essentials, culturally and medically. The diversity that I grew up with in New York isn’t here.”
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Sure, it sounded ambitious, but I am going to let all of you out-of-towners in on a little secret if you swear on your mother’s life not to tell.
You know us city residents? The one to whom Mr. Murren was referring? Yeah, um, we … never gather at City Center.
Ever.
Ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever.
Remember, let’s keep that just between you and I.
If I had to take a strictly educated guess … okay, not even educated, I can take a Down’s Syndrome guess on this one … this train will be to Vegas transit what City Center is to world-class urban gathering places.
Everybody is going to line up for the maiden voyage, and there will be a huge initial burst of riders. I’ll take it myself at least once round-trip. It will be a thrill ride. It will be interesting. It will be an experience. For 3-6 months, the train will be packed … not because the train is useful, but because it’s there. The media will line up and cherry-pick interviews of regular folks saying “I think this is just the greatest thaaaaang, Las Vegas has needed a train and I’m gonna use it every time I go to Vegas. Vegas, Baby, Wooooo!”
Long-term ridership is not going to happen, though, because the reality is that this train will be USELESS.
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Even though it’s not an “urban gathering place” City Center is still very useful. It has a couple of nice hotels, decent restaurants, and a fine casino. It’s as useless as a third anus for locals, but it’s still a great destination for tourists.
I’ve no idea what the target market for this train will be, however.
How many locals routinely go to Victorville?
How many Victorvillians routinely go to Vegas?
How many of these people do not own private automobiles?
How will these people travel once they get to their destination? Both cities are in the goddamn desert!
As much as I hate driving, not even I can imagine using this train more than once. I’ve made the drive from LA to LV countless times, and once you have climbed up and out of the LA basin and through the Cajon Pass, you have won the majority of the battle. The Cajon Pass is the limiting factor during inclement weather. After that, you’re home free.
Victorville is 20 minutes from Barstow. Barstow is the halfway point of a Vegas driving trip. Getting out and taking the train at this point is like running toward the end zone, stopping at the 10 yard line, dropping to your knees and saying “I’m too tired, someone carry me the rest of the way.”
You’re already suited up, the stadium lights are on, and you’ve already broken free from the pack … for Christ’s sake … keep running you stupid mook.
By the time you park, get your bags out of your car, pay, wait for the train, get on, and ride over here … you would have already arrived in Vegas in your private vehicle. Not only that, but once in Vegas, you will now have to take a cab or rent a car to get to your specific casino.
When you add these costs to the cost of the train ticket, it’s going to be much, much more expensive. At 25Mpg, you are looking at about $22 in gasoline costs between Victoville and Vegas. The more people in your party, the less economical the train.
Initial ticket price estimates for the Desert Express are $50-$55 per person. That’s right, instead of spending the extra $22 in gas for your party of 4, you can spend $200. Nine times as much. What a bargain.
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On the positive side, parking at the Victorville train station will be free, unlike the astronomical self-parking fees the Mandalay Bay currently charges.
This whole thing reminds me of the monorail/cab paradox. It cost more money for 4 people to ride the Monorail from Bally’s to MGM than it cost for door-to-door service in a cab.
How did that work out?
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For those of you keeping score at home, the monorail is officially BANKRUPT.
The DesertXpress group has desertxpressed its desire to eventually connect this train with the city of Los Angeles, but unless they scrap this Victorville nonsense, and make Los Angeles priority #1 … in my opinion, this train will suffer a similar fate.
There simply exists no high-speed rail demand between Las Vegas, Nevada and Victorville, California.