X Train keeps getting worse

Connor Nelson, Los Angeles

Friday, July 5, 2013 | 2 a.m.

So now the much-anticipated X Train will build its train station in North Las Vegas; 6.3 miles from downtown/Fremont Street and 11.3 miles from the Strip. While the X Train promise is of a party train that delivers you direct to the Vegas experience, now a transfer will be involved, because nobody is partying at Craig Road and Interstate 15.

Instead of leaving from Los Angeles, X Train’s only Southern California station will be in Fullerton — 26 miles south of downtown Los Angeles. Don’t get me wrong, downtown Fullerton is cool (albeit overrun with frat boy types), but this train needs stations in both Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Finally, the start date keeps getting pushed back — from 2012 to New Year’s Eve 2013 ...now to sometime in mid-2014. Mind you, they are not building new train tracks, they are using existing ones. As they are using an existing train station in Fullerton, they are only building one train station.

I’m afraid the X Train folks are not going to be able to maintain any excitement for their project, as the start dates continually become more distant and the details a bit less grand. If it ever does open, it also is going to be a bit less convenient than originally promised, which is the one detail that could keep this project from being successful.