[Vegas Joe]

It has been many years since the last train rolled out of here for good. The city has changed and grown quite a bit since. We always hear talk about things like the return of Amtrak and The X train and the super speedy Los Angeles HSR train and this and that. Does anybody think we will ever see any rail service here ever again?

[Danknee]

Not in this financial climate. Existing East coast train routes have to be subsidized to stay running, building one from scratch tacks the full infrastructure cost on top of that.

[dynimagelv]

I doubt it.....our "Adminstrations" From BO all the way back to Dwight Eisenhower have seen fit to decimate the American Rail system.

[cecnj]

DesertXpress: Is this train ever going to leave the station? - VEGAS INC

Interesting update and opinion piece on high speed rail project.

[dynimagelv]

remembering that in Las Vegas, projects are proposed, renderings delivered and THEN money accepted from investors....and mever seen again.

[cecnj]

Originally Posted by dynimagelv

remembering that in Las Vegas, projects are proposed, renderings delivered and THEN money accepted from investors....and mever seen again.

Sounds like New Jersey, and New York, and Florida, and....

[dynimagelv]

yep....but then they came here cause we were making money

[Vegas Joe]

Originally Posted by cecnj

DesertXpress: Is this train ever going to leave the station? - VEGAS INC

Interesting update and opinion piece on high speed rail project.

I'd be happy with a normal speed train to Los Angeles.

[Buzz123]

In 1970 when I worked at the Union Plaza Hotel, the train station was in the back end of the hotel. Of course, the Union Plaza, now the Plaza, got it's name from being built on the site of the old Union Pacific train station. The trains from LA would stop there and a bunch of old folks would get off and go to the nearest slot machines with brown paper bags of coins they had saved up for years, probably for a rainy day. Instead of selling their silver dollars for $3.00 which they were worth back then, they would play them in the dollar slots and the hotel would make three times as much money on them.

I got to ride a train out of the original UP station back in about 1964. My buddy and I rode up to Delta, UT. It took all day. People standing along the tracks out in the middle of nowhere would flag it down and ride into town. Most of them had brought picnic baskets of food, and we didn't realize we'd be gone all day with nothing to eat.

Trains are boring to me, but I might ride a high speed train if it went all the way to LA.

BTW: How is Harry's interstate to Phoenix coming along, or is that idea off the rails too. I've been asking why Nevada didn't offer to pay for at least half of an interstate to Phoenix since I-15 was completed in the late 60's. Makes since we'd want those 4 million people to have easy access.

[Willy702]

The interstate to Phoenix is doing well, just have to deal with cranky Boulder City now. Its a much faster trip now with the bridge and lots of 4 lane stretches in Arizona. The parts heading north of LV have work to do but aren't used that much yet anyways. As with all highways the real sticking points are what to do when you get to the cities.

As for rail, sad to say but that train has left the station LOL. Rail everywhere these days is about commuter and light rail and LV seems to want no part of either. Interstate rail just won't make it in the US outside of the NE an perhaps a few dense areas if high speed ever comes.