Wednesday, May 12, 2021 | 2 a.m.
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One sign that Las Vegas is climbing out of the coronavirus pandemic is that miles of cars are stacking up every weekend on Interstate 15 at the Nevada-California border.
But while these jam-ups speak to our community’s enduring ability to attract visitors, they also highlight the need to ease congestion on the highway and improve the travel experience between Las Vegas and Southern California. And if you think things are bad now, just wait until crews begin work May 27 on a four-monthlong project to repave the interstate between Jean and Primm.
There isn’t much to do about these short-term issues but bear with and learn from them. Fortunately, though, long-term relief could be on the way via funding for rail projects in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan.
Last week, members of a House transportation subcommittee heard that despite pandemic-related setbacks, contract negotiations were moving forward on the proposed Brightline West high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and California. A Los Angeles County transportation official told the panel that construction could begin in the next 12 months. Construction is expected to take three years.
That’s encouraging to hear, and we trust Nevada’s congressional delegates will do all they can to ensure the project is specifically included in Biden’s infrastructure package.
Meanwhile, Brightline CEO Michael Reininger offered the subcommittee suggestions on a few congressional actions that could move up the timeline. Among them was to increase a cap on private activity bonds, a type of tax-exempt municipal bonding designed to develop private-sector projects. Entities like Brightline can currently borrow up to $15 billion through these bonds, but Reininger suggested raising the cap to $30 billion.
Reininger also encouraged Congress to earmark more funding to the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing loan program, which provides direct loans of up to 100% for construction of railroad projects with repayment periods of up to 35 years and no prepayment penalty. Congress has invested a meager $6.2 billion in these programs over the past 20 years, and none of it has gone into high-speed rail.
These are changes worth exploring, not just to facilitate Brightline West but to spur other high-speed rail projects. These and other rail lines, including a new Amtrak link between Las Vegas and Los Angeles that could become a possibility under Biden’s infrastructure plan, would not only update and improve the nation’s transportation system but would help address climate change.
Brightline West, for example, would operate electric trains that would carry an estimated 10.8 million passengers. The company said the project would remove 3 million cars from the road and save 400,000 tons of CO2 from entering the atmosphere per year.
Would there be room in the market for both Brightline and Amtrak? Time will tell, but Reininger is on record saying he would welcome a second rail line between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Amtrak or otherwise.
Certainly, if one or two rail options were available, they would look like attractive alternatives to many of the people who’ll be sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 15 in coming months.
Let’s not delude ourselves, either, by thinking we can solve this problem by widening the highway. New and wider roads simply generate more traffic, as proven in study after study.
Passenger rail makes sense, and Biden’s infrastructure plan offers a prime opportunity to build at least one line in Southern Nevada. Fortunately, Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is an ardent proponent of rail and is working to get funding for projects serving Las Vegas. We trust others in the Southern Nevada delegation are on board.
And while Senate Republicans are opposing Biden’s infrastructure plan in favor of their own drastically scaled-down version, the GOP plan also includes rail. We can hope there’s a bipartisan pathway to getting funding for rail here. Certainly, Nevada’s only Republican member of Congress, Rep. Mark Amodei, should support it.
The more convenient we can make it for travelers to get between Las Vegas and California, the better for our community and for the economic health of the entire state.
