High-speed rail line between Las Vegas, Los Angeles area breaks ground [Video]

A new $12 billion rail system connecting Nevada to Southern California is officially breaking ground.

Brightline West’s 218-mile system will run within the median of Interstate 15 with zero grade crossings. The route will have stops in Las Vegas as well as Victor Valley, Hesperia and Rancho Cucamonga, California. 

The project is touted as the first true high-speed passenger rail line in the nation, designed to reach speeds of 186 mph, comparable to Japan’s Shinkansen bullet trains.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement that the project, expected to start boarding passengers by 2028, is predicted to bring “thousands of union jobs, new connections to better economic opportunity, less congestion on the roads, and less pollution in the air.”

Brightline, whose sister company already operates a fast train between Miami and Orlando in Florida, received $6.5 billion in backing from the Biden administration, including a $3 billion grant from federal infrastructure funds and approval to sell another $2.5 billion in tax-exempt bonds. …