A high-speed rail line between Southern California and Las Vegas moved one step closer to reality Monday when ground was officially broken to mark the start of construction on the project.
12 billion dollars for a train line hundreds of miles long and possibly rebuilding some bridges is pretty cheep. And it isn’t like casinos waste a lot of water to run compared to other economic activities.
And, honestly, Las Vegas isn’t that unsustainable except for the heat and we already have ways of dealing with it.
Yeah, in my area, we were quoted ~$1B for a train line extension of like 10-20 miles, on largely existing track. And that’s wasn’t high speed rail, but light rail.
Trains usually cost more in the short term, and cost less longer term. So $12B today is expensive, but it also means we don’t need expensive expansions to i-15 and can easily increase people moved by increasing the frequency of train runs.
12 billion dollars for a train line hundreds of miles long and possibly rebuilding some bridges is pretty cheep. And it isn’t like casinos waste a lot of water to run compared to other economic activities.
And, honestly, Las Vegas isn’t that unsustainable except for the heat and we already have ways of dealing with it.
Yeah, in my area, we were quoted ~$1B for a train line extension of like 10-20 miles, on largely existing track. And that’s wasn’t high speed rail, but light rail.
Trains are expensive. Roads are expensive ($1.5-7.7M/mile according to this site). These costs also don’t include ongoing maintenance.
Trains usually cost more in the short term, and cost less longer term. So $12B today is expensive, but it also means we don’t need expensive expansions to i-15 and can easily increase people moved by increasing the frequency of train runs.