" Brightline West, the private intercity passenger-rail company, held an official ground-breaking ceremony on what will become a 218-mile, high-speed rail line connecting Las Vegas to Southern California.
"will run within the median of I-15 with zero grade crossings. The system will have stops in Las Vegas and Victor Valley, Hesperia, and Rancho Cucamonga, California.
" zero-emission, fully electric trains capable of speeds of 200 mph.
Wonderful everyone wants to go to Rancho Cucamonga. 
At least they didn’t end the line in Victorville.
Andy
I read somewhere that’s about 40 mi from downtown LA. In LA I suspect a big parking lot is much more important than going downtown.
Looks like it could be a high traffic route. Wishing them much success. If so maybe good things will follow.
Route down the middle of a freeway with no grade crossings sounds like a good idea. I wonder how many overpasses will have to be rebuilt. And do passengers get to the stations?
Will have to check it out when done.
I agree Paul it is exciting but just wish they would have gone to the coast but I am sure that costs are a problem. But you can fly from Las Vegas to San Diego for about 40 dollars so it will be hard to compete with that.
Andy
They’ll get a lot of curiousity business at first, and if the seats are wide and plush, rather than ridiculously tiny as most airline seats are these days, there might be a sustaining business there.
I do wonder why they’re only aiming for 200mph. There are trains that run a third again faster. Is topography an issue, or are they afraid of kids putting pennies on the tracks or something?
The Ceo is claiming that ticket prices might be 400 dollars.
Brightline to Launch High-Speed Train from L.A. to Vegas - AFAR.
Andy
I wonder what fares are like Washington DC to NYC by Acela.
Eastern Airlines used to have a shuttle that flew every hour I think.
Do you want to ride airport to airport or downtown to downtown? And I’ll bet the fares have quite a differential.
Brightline West chooses Siemens to build/maintain train sets
In this case, it’s downtown to 40 miles outside of downtown.
Two of my kids so far have ridden Brightline in Florida and have reported good things about it.
In LA i would think downtown would be disaster. Congested. Hard to get to. Why bother. Better highways to suburbs and more space for parking. But not necessarily airport. New space with easy access should be fine.
I think the question is total ridership. If you live in LA (or Long Beach or any suburb of LA), you will have to battle traffic going east to the station. Let’s say you get lucky and only an hour of traffic (and it could easily be much more), then you have to deal with parking in a large lot, then either walk or take a shuttle to the train station, then the train to Vegas. Many people will say “screw it, I’ll just take the plane”. Especially if someone else in their household needs the car during that time. If they need a ride to the train station, that could take 2 to 3 hours of someone driving them! I wonder how much an uberlyft from LA to Rancho Cucamonga costs normally?
We have the same issue here in South Florida. There are stations in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and West Palm Beach. That’s 20 to 30 miles between stations, so you have to drive a reasonable distance to get to one of them. Heck, when I took my kid to the station, we opted for a further station rather than a nearer station because the Brightline fare was much lower from the further station.
But that was your thesis, downtown to downtown.
They have been trying to get this train built for decades, I hope it gets done, and at least it’s better than the previous plan where they were stopping in Victorville.
Andy