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The Bear Growls: Another boondoggle — Desert Xpress, train to nowhere
By LVBear | April 20, 2011
Politicians thinking out loud: Gee, let’s boost tourism. Why don’t we build a high speed train? Let’s run it between Las Vegas and Victorville, California! No, this is not a joke.
Victorville is a gang-infested, lower-middle class California high-desert community about 35 miles from Barstow, and 110 miles from Los Angeles. It is literally “in the middle of nowhere.” But the promoters of a train from Las Vegas that dead-ends in Victorville somehow have gotten the support of Senator Harry Reid and other politicians to spend billions of dollars on this boondoggle. Ah, yes, someday there is supposed to be another pie-in-the-sky rail line built between Victorville and Palmdale, California, that’ll connect to Los Angeles. From Los Angeles, a Las Vegas-bound visitor would first have to go to Palmdale (many miles out of the way), then to Victorville, then on to Las Vegas. Would this be three separate trains? Who knows. The plan is so absurd it’s amazing that it’s gotten anything but laughter.
If this ridiculous project ever actually happens, I predict another bankruptcy in short order, just like the poorly thought out, ill-fated Las Vegas Monorail. Of course, the promoters of the Monorail siphoned off millions for themselves. The Desert XPress is next. How can this stupidity be explained other than that there are forces at work that act out of the public eye?
All aboard the Bankruptcy Xpress!
Topics: Government Corruption, Las Vegas, Nevada Politics, US Congress, US Government | 1 Comment »
One Response to “The Bear Growls: Another boondoggle — Desert Xpress, train to nowhere”
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April 20th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Politicians who can influence the awarding of construction contracts are clearly going to be in favor of the scheme. Promising the taxpayers some sort of later payout from additional projects is probably sufficient to ram the project through.
The First and Last mile is expensive, the route through the desert is cheaper but real estate interests in Victorville are probably happy.
By the time the train system from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is completed, the nearest casino to Los Angeles will be located in Santa Monica, CA.