SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The California Department of Transportation is inviting public comment on the agency’s plan to allow Brightline West to build electrified high-speed tracks adjacent to Interstate 15 for 49 miles across Cajon Pass to Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. This would extend its route from Las Vegas, Nev., past a planned terminus at Apple Valley, Calif., into the Los Angeles Basin.
A press release earlier this month announced the comment period and set a deadline of March 23 at 5 p.m. PDT. A complete description of what Brightline West is planning is available within the Federal Railroad Administration’s environmental assessment.
Caltrans had already approved an easement along I-15 between the California-Nevada border and Apple Valley, which is near Victorville, Calif. Scaling and descending Cajon Pass on a right-of-way with grades that will accommodate high-speed trains promises to be a greater engineering challenge.
Although Brightline West has recently inked memoranda of understanding with building trades groups in the region [see “Brightline West, construction unions …,” Trains News Wire, March 10, 2023], financing has not been finalized.
Land was acquired for a station south of the Las Vegas Strip in 2019 and last year in Rancho Cucamonga, which is on a mostly single-track Metrolink commuter rail line from San Bernardino to downtown Los Angeles [see “Rancho Cucamonga, transit agency agree …,” News Wire, Oct. 28, 2022].
Preliminary route engineering has continued and Brightline has received approval from the U.S. Department of Transportation to utilize $1 billion in private activity bonds to help fund the estimated $10 billion project, but the actual borrowing must be done by the states of California and Nevada. A similar arrangement was used to finance Brightline’s Florida operations.
An earlier agreement with California to issue the bonds lapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge now is to issue the bonds in a period of rising interest rates.
Comments may be emailed to Emily Leinen at Caltrans:Emily.Leinen@dot.ca.gov
