Yet another high-speed rail line could be headed to California and Nevada, an area that has waited for decades for high-speed rail infrastructure and is now beginning to experience something of a bullet train windfall, KTNV Las Vegas reported.
The new line would connect Palmdale, California, to Apple Valley, California, but could also eventually connect with Brightline West, a privately owned high-speed rail line that will connect Las Vegas with Southern California.
The Palmdale-to-Apple Valley line would be both state- and privately funded and is being called the High Desert Corridor High Speed Rail Project. The project's board just signed two agreements with union labor representatives, stipulating that the project would create thousands of jobs to construct, operate, and maintain the project, generating around $12 billion in the region.
All of that is in addition to the long-awaited California High-Speed Rail project, sections of which are currently under construction.
Data has shown that high-speed rail is the most environmentally friendly method of long-distance travel. It creates far less planet-overheating air pollution per passenger than cars or airplanes while taking up much less space than highways and minimizing noise pollution.
The extremely car-centric United States, however, has lagged far behind other countries — most notably, China — in terms of developing a high-speed rail network. But on the West Coast, at least, the ball has really started rolling.
These projects are not without challenges, though.
"Two trains are set to share a single track through the middle of a desert, leaving it susceptible to high heat and wind throughout much of the year," UNLV engineering professor Hualiang Teng wrote. "High-speed rails in the Middle East have been constructed under similar extreme conditions, so it is possible, even if all the worst conditions seem to be coming together to make construction more difficult."
Still, as Teng pointed out, these engineering challenges can be surmounted — and assuming they will be, that will mean extremely fast, safe, affordable, convenient, and environmentally friendly travel options for the West Coast and its visitors.
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