Future derailed

At a recent forum held at University of Nevada developers were presented with new concepts for a very fast train from Las Vegas to Los Angeles.

By taking the wheel off the vehicle and putting it into a support ring and taking the rail off the ground and putting it onto the train Tubular Rail Inc claim to have revolutionised transport systems.

The second proposal was one in which you and your car travel on trains that never stop. AVT-Solar Trek has taken the concept of dual mode transportation and produced a system using solar powered conveyors running on magnetic leviatation and powered by linear induction.

The third proposal is the America's Sunlight Bullet Expressway. The promoters, a consortium of transport and energy bodies, claim that

it is not a single purpose train, but a complete National Transportation System. When completed, it will include the worlds largest solar system, stretching from coast to coast, with high tension transmission lines and sub stations to supply cities, towns and the Nation, electrified highways for electric cars and commercial vehicles.

Pretty exciting concepts and on first appraisal my money is on the simple and tidy Tubular Rail concept.


Magnetic levitation, or maglev to insiders, is the choice for the Nevada-California Super Speed Train Commission. However, after 30 years of meetings support has dwindled

..lack of progress on maglev that frustrated Sen. Harry Reid enough to make him switch allegiance earlier this year to the DesertXpress

The DesertXpress will probably use European technology of electric multiple unit (EMU) on traditional steel wheels and rails.

Whether these or any other concepts ever get off the ground, so to speak, is dependent on government money

The Federal Railroad Administration has received applications from 24 states seeking $50 billion for high-speed projects, more than six times the available funds.

..Joseph Szabo, Federal Railroad Administration administrator, said state interest in the high-speed rail program "far exceeds the funds available today, or next year or over the next five years."

DesertXpress claim that they will not be relying on "tax payer dollars" or stimulus funds however there is scope for tapping low interest government funds

Financing of construction and ongoing operations will be completed ...using a combination of private equity and long term debt, either private or public, possibly including federal loans dedicated to new railroad construction.

..Federal loan programs that already exist are not part of the stimulus package and are not direct grants. They are existing federal loans that are repaid to the government with interest.

Federal loans are not assured which is why political support is crucial. Recent polling revealed a showdown between the maglev and the DesertXpress with a slim majority not in favour of either

Taxpayers are feeling squeezed, especially in Southern Nevada. I think they would clearly rather see the money spent on schools and roads rather than a train to Disneyland

If DesertXpress gets the nod there remains one major flaw to its operation, the route is from Las Vegas to Victorville, which is 81 miles NE of LA. This has left critics free to dub it the "train to nowhere" saying

Honestly, why would anyone spend billion on a high speed rail line that terminated in the middle of nowhere? Look at dedicated high speed rail lines around the world, and they all connect two destinations. I can see getting onto a train at Union Station in LA and going to Vegas, but why would anyone want to drive all the way to Victorville in the middle of nowhere to get the train?

QED