WASHINGTON — The Brightline West high speed rail project will receive a $3 billion federal grant, enabling the line between Las Vegas, Nev., and Southern California to begin construction, according to Nevada’s two U.S. senators.
Sen. Jacky Rosen confirmed the grant today (Tuesday, Dec. 5) in multiple social media posts, including one on X (formerly Twitter), and said in a statement that the project “will be a game changer for Nevada’s tourism economy and transportation. It’ll bring more visitors to the state, reduce traffic on the I-15, create thousands of good paying jobs, and decrease carbon emissions, all while relying on local union labor.”
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports President Joe Biden is expected to make an official announcement of the grant Friday during a visit to Las Vegas.
“Bringing high-speed rail to Southern Nevada just makes sense, given the tens of millions of visitors we have each year,” U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement.
Rosen, Cortez Masto, and eight members of the House of Representatives — four each from Nevada and California — wrote Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg earlier this year to support the application by the Nevada Department of Transportation and Brightline West for up to $3.75 billion in Federal-State Partnership Program funds [see “Nevada, California legislators back federal funding …,” Trains News Wire, April 25, 2023]. Private funding, including private activity bonds, will provide the rest of the money for a project projected to cost up to $12 billion.
Brightline West has begun teasing an upcoming groundbreaking for the project, posting video on social media on Monday of new signage and fencing at the planned site of its Las Vegas station.
