(CN) — The Biden administration awarded $6.1 billion to two high-speed rail projects in California and Nevada, including the the Brightline West rail project that will connect Las Vegas with Southern California.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority will receive nearly $3.1 billion for construction in the Central Valley, supporting the overall end goal of connecting San Francisco to Los Angeles, Governor Gavin Newsom said Tuesday.
"California is delivering on the first 220-mph, electric high-speed rail project in the nation," Newsom said. "This show of support from the Biden-Harris Administration is a vote of confidence in today’s vision and comes at a critical turning point, providing the project new momentum.”
The state's long-promised bullet train between Northern and Southern California has been plagued by massive cost overruns, and the project is currently focused on just the first segment, under construction in the state’s agricultural center.
When California voters first passed Proposition 1A greenlighting the project in 2008, the initial price tag was pegged at about $33 billion with a completion date of 2018. The cost estimate has since climbed to $128 billion and the completion year has been pushed from 2033 to no certain date.
The federal government previously approved starting the project in California's Central Valley to avoid right-of-way issues and spark economic development in economically disadvantaged areas with poor air quality. But even the segment connecting Merced to Bakersfield could cost between $3 billion and $10 billion to finish.
The $3.1 billion for the California High-Speed Rail Authority is the single largest grant for the program, Newsom said, and it comes from President Joe Biden’s historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen, a Democrat representing Nevada, on Tuesday welcomed the funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that will allow construction to start on the project on the Brightline West project.
“This historic high-speed rail project will be a game changer for Nevada’s tourism economy and transportation," Rosen said. "It’ll bring more visitors to our state, reduce traffic on the I-15, create thousands of good paying jobs, and decrease carbon emissions, all while relying on local union labor.”
This 218-mile passenger rail service will operate from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, California, about 40 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, with 96% of its alignment within the median of the I-15 highway, according to the Brightline West, the privately owned developer of the project.
Brightline already operates a rail system in Florida where it runs 32 trains a day between Miami and Orlando.
The company estimates that the high-speed rail line between Las Vegas and Southern California will remove 3 million cars from the I-15 annually, cut more than 400,000 tons of carbon emissions each year and create 35,000 jobs. Brightline West earlier this year announced agreements in California and Nevada for the project to be built and operated by union labor.
About 50 million trips are made each year between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, according the company, more than 85% of them by car over the often-congested I-15 through the Mohave Desert. Brightline West expects to serve more than 11 million one-way passengers annually.
The project, the company has said, is near shovel-ready and expected to break ground in early 2024.
Biden has touted the $1 trillion, 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law as the largest investment in public transit in the history of America. The law has provided funds to upgrade the country's aging ports, bridges and highways, as well as to build new metro and rail networks.
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