The project is now delayed, costs are rising and Brightline's parent company is fielding bankruptcy loan bids for a different project as it awaits a crucial step, a $6 billion loan from the Trump administration.
Do you think this will be the same disaster as the high-speed rail project between L.A. and San Francisco?
Brightline West’s public statements emphasize that contract execution and development continue “as planned” while they work with federal/state/local partners on financing. Some enabling work (Las Vegas station area, field investigations, design) is active.
Let’s face the truth here. If it happens, it will be delayed by many years, and the costs will at least triple. I wish that train would actually go all the way to L.A. Union Station.
I would bet all my life savings on that.
That said, I hope it will eventually happen and ease traffic.
Not as bad since it would run between the I-15 for most part. It won’t happen without the funding even so some construction is already happening.
That’s not even a question.
Was there ever a project that was on time and kept the promised budget? California seems to be the worst state when it comes to that.
Brightline keeps putting out the same “everything is on track” press releases, but the reality on the ground looks different. The $6B federal loan is still not locked in, the parent company is shopping bankruptcy financing for its Florida operations, and the cost estimates keep climbing quietly.
I’ve watched the CA HSR project for 15 years, same pattern of optimistic timelines followed by multi-year slips and cost explosions. This one is shorter and mostly private land, so it has a better chance than the SF-to-LA mess, but I’m not holding my breath for service by 2028 or even 2030.
If they ever do open, I just hope the trains actually reach a real downtown LA station instead of stranding people in Rancho Cucamonga.
It’s a shame that this is the new „normal“. We shouldn’t get used to those things.