Jim wrote on July 01, 2009 10:14 AM: You have GOT to be kidding!

I live in SoCal and by the time I get to Victorville I am already halfway to Vegas! Then I have to spend a $110???
Plus after Victorville, the drive is easy.

This guy is off his rocker! Another huge waste of money.

Are people really this stupid?

Say What wrote on May 06, 2009 08:37 AM: Victorville? I must agree. A train from LA or Orange would make sense. Might as well build a parking lot in a random out of the way spot in the dessert. I guess my car will be safer.

Paul wrote on April 29, 2009 07:12 PM: So it's a choice between a 300mph mag- lev train that can reach LA in 50 minutes or a Desert Xpress train that takes 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to Victorville. Is this guy smoking crack?

If we had a mag-lev train local people could actually commute to California and bring money into our economy. Who in their right mind is going to get a train to Victorville and then hire a car? I'm sure if he greases enough palms, he will get the contract to build this disaster.

docholly wrote on April 29, 2009 03:29 PM: What a brilliant idea!! To spend 4 BILLION dollars and end up in
Victorville??? There is only 1 Amtrak train that goes from Victorville at 438AM to downtown LA. This is more laughable than the rarely used monorail from the MGM to the Sahara. Doesn't anyone THINK these things through?? We have Existing track.. retro fit them and MOVE on into the part of California that gives Vegas the visitors. As it is, this project might as well stop at Stateline.

Chalk up another one for the brilliance of planning with the population in mind.

John Harding wrote on April 29, 2009 11:19 AM: Advance purchase one way tickets on Southwest Airlines between LAS and LAX or ANA are $49 (not including fees and taxes). And DesertXpress wants to charge $50 just to Victorville!

Spokker wrote on April 29, 2009 10:29 AM: "NO seriously I love to see the High Speed Train, but we all know this 4 Billion Dollar project will line someones pockets and end up costing 12 Billion."

Yes, it's a private project, so it should line someone's pockets.

John Harding wrote on April 29, 2009 09:03 AM: Free Nevada wrote on April 29, 2009 "Electric box-cars going over Mountain Pass at 6200' elevation" Mountain Pass is at 4750'. Are you proposing a 1450' high trestle?
"This one involves barreling over three steep mountain passes (all other railways bypass them in favor of the flatter Southern Route through Blythe and Indio into Ontario" Wrong again! The much shorter Union Pacific route from Las Vegas follows Cima Pass at 4196' through Barstow and Victorville thence over Cajon Pass at 4190' to the LA Basin.

Mike wrote on April 29, 2009 08:11 AM: "and then heading straight out through Indio into Ontario along side existing infrastructure and towns that badly need this economic boost. Again, it's a long way, so we need to go much faster and we need to do it with clean electric power so we do need the mag-lev.)...etc, etc"

Do you plan on doing this with private money, and who is this "we" that needs to do all these things?

Free Nevada wrote on April 29, 2009 02:07 AM: (Clarifying, there are some freight and military rails that go around the three steep mountain passes into Barstow and Victorville. But there are no towns along those routes worthy of train service so little economic gain except to Vegas, which is unacceptable for this kind of investment, so we would want our mag-lev to head South from Primm (or from Henderson if we're not going to eventually build Ivanpah Airport) down to Blythe, swerving a bit to grab passengers in (possibly Searchlight), Laughlin, (possibly Needles) and then heading straight out through Indio into Ontario along side existing infrastructure and towns that badly need this economic boost. Again, it's a long way, so we need to go much faster and we need to do it with clean electric power so we do need the mag-lev.)

Electric box-cars going over Mountain Pass at 6200ft elevation --I can't even imagine that! If they are involving Dubai World and other critical players in that kind of investment pitch, we need to go round them up and stop them before they ruin our credibility. All four Sun City developments are filled with SoCal aerospace engineers who can do the math for you and will gladly do so for an evening's worth of casino comps.

Free Nevada wrote on April 29, 2009 01:35 AM: > No other project in the country has gone this far.

BS.

This is not the Right high-speed train proposal. This one involves barreling over three steep mountain passes (all other railways bypass them in favor of the flatter Southern Route through Blythe and Indio into Ontario --not Victorville) which is a non-starter, especially when it's snowing! The longer route to the South will serve more people, but because it is longer, it needs to go faster. Because we can't burn fossil fuels for this (coal is killing humanity and oil is getting too expensive), our only option is a mag-lev. Transrapid has mag-lev tech that can have 10,000 shovels in the ground in under a year if we cut them a check, but the latest chart I saw from the White House (last week) says the route is #244 on the national list of priorities.

The other problem with DesertXpress' plan is that Californians, especially the critical Asian clientele in Orange County, will never go for park-n-ride in Victorville over Southwest or just staying on the freeway. A mag-lev departing Anaheim Stadium park-n-ride is "walk on/off" convenience after a short (10-20 minute) drive from your driveway. Anyone whose heavily traveled the route knows that if you make it all the way up to Ontario (45-75 minutes away), you're going to either keep pushing through or get off and fly (which takes the same amount of time due to airport delays on both ends).

I can't imagine who is funding this thing. Same who wanted to build skyscrapers at the base of ancient volcano in Ring of Fire at a time when we're expecting a 300 year "megaquake"? They want to run electric trains through the volcano's multiple sub-freezing mountains?

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