There are exciting plans for a proposed High-speed rail service to run 170 miles from Las Vegas to Southern California have taken many forms for a decade now. Plans have come and gone with Virgin Trains being involved and currently sitting with a company called Brightline who are the only privately run train operator in the country and currently operate in Florida between Miami and Orlando.
The proposal is that the service will be electric trains travelling up to 200 mph that will run every 45 minutes from 06.00 – 00.00 daily. Passenger capacity will be around 500 per journey, the intention being that CO2 emissions will be cut by the fewer car journeys. Journey time is going to be 90 minutes.
Sounds great doesn’t it? Except where on earth is Victorville – CA? This proposal is to travel between Las Vegas and the Victor Valley, so how do you get from Victorville to Union Station Los Angeles? I looked at Amtrak and there is currently a service from the rural town at about 04.00 in the morning arriving into Downtown Los Angeles about 08.00. The Metrolink in Los Angeles currently has a station at San Bernadino or Palmdale which are at least 40 miles from Victorville and at least 100 miles from Los Angeles.
What I don’t understand is why is Victorville a consideration for such ambitious plans. Still we wait with baited breathe to see if the project reaches fruition it will be at least 2023 before operations commence.
Here is an article of previous connections between the cities and it is noticeable how short their service lasted.
USA Road Trips by Max 
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