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Brightline high-speed train
Photo: John Raoux / AP
The first real high-speed rail line in the USA is to connect the megacity of Los Angeles and the gambling metropolis of Las Vegas from 2028. "We are building the first high-speed train line in the history of our country. And it starts here," US President Joe Biden said on Friday during a visit to Las Vegas. The U.S. was supposed to get the "fastest, safest and greenest rail transport in the world."
The express trains of the Brightline West will cover the more than 400 kilometers between Las Vegas in the state of Nevada and the greater Los Angeles area in the state of California in two hours and ten minutes – about twice as fast as cars. The line is to be operated by the private rail company Brightline, which already offers a new rail connection between Miami and Orlando in the state of Florida on the US East Coast.
You can read a detailed report about the Florida Line here: New express trains in Florida – can America become a railway country?
The government of rail fan Biden wants to subsidize up to three billion dollars (2.8 billion euros) for the Brightline West project. The track is scheduled for completion in 2028, in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in the same year.
Biden: Train service takes three million cars off the road
Eleven million passengers are expected each year. Biden said Friday that the express trains would take three million vehicles off the frequently congested highway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
A high-speed train line is also planned between Los Angeles and San Francisco. However, the project has been repeatedly delayed and experienced an explosion in costs – and is now also to be advanced with three billion dollars in federal funds.
In total, Biden unveiled $8.2 billion in funding for 2021 major rail projects in the country on Friday. The money comes from an infrastructure package passed by Congress in 66, which provides a total of $<> billion for rail transport.
Currently, passenger trains in the U.S. run slowly and quite irregularly, for decades priority has been given to cars and airplanes. In the fight against climate change, the U.S. government wants to change that and double the number of passengers by 2040.
Biden himself, in his 36 years as a U.S. senator, was an avid rail traveler, commuting by train between Washington and his home in the state of Delaware. That's why the 81-year-old U.S. Democrat has the nickname "Amtrak Joe" based on the name of the Amtrak railroad company.
oka/AFP