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Speed train from Disneyland to Vegas?

by Catherine Bodry (RSS feed) on Feb 27th 2008 at 8:40AM

The drive from Los Angeles to Las Vegas is one of those legendary road trips, made famous for me by Hunter S. Thompson and my own college road trip with my girlfriends. I was so excited when I could actually quote (and I paraphrase), "We were somewhere around Barstow when the drugs set in." But -- ahem -- I digress.

That trip might become even more legendary, as the site of a 300 mph speed train that would whisk tourists from Disneyland to Vegas -- i.e., from one amusement park to the next. What would be the nation's first magnetically levitating train needs approval from Congress to get off the drawing board, and now it has competition. A less exciting, slower train, the DesertXpress, wouldn't so much "whisk" passengers as it would sort of roll them at 125 mph out of Victorville, CA (1.5 hours north of L.A.). Amtrak already tried running a train between the two cities, and it closed the route down in 1997 due to low ridership.

Even though the diesel-electric DesertXpress isn't as flashy as the MagLev, it has millions of dollars in private funding and is gaining ground as the MagLev stumbles through financial roadblocks.

With 10 million Californians making the 250-mile drive between the two cities, it might be time for Amtrak to get back in the game.

Filed under: North America, United States, Transportation

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bill Reals Feb 27th 2008 4:23PM

Here is the only way any train is going to work. Let's take the Maglev OUT of the equation for now.

The train would work if it leaves from population centers, kind of like what an airport does. So, our train would need to go from LA, Orange County or San Diego and go directly to Las Vegas. In this case, DisneyLand is a great starting point, it's central to all three.

"The privately funded DesertXpress would whisk riders to Las Vegas at 125 mph from the Mojave Desert town of Victorville, Calif., some 1 1/2 hours northeast of Los Angeles. Total travel time, including the drive to Victorville: three or four hours."

Victorville to Vegas, are you kidding me? You might as well just drive to Vegas at that point and keep your car.

The drive is about 5 hours, so if I'm only saving 90mins (best guess) , why would I bother with this program? You are still driving 90 mins to Victorville, so it's not that much better for the environment.

Ish from L.A. Feb 28th 2008 3:39AM

Let's build a maglev from Mex to Canada, with stops along mayor cities on some days and fewer stops on others

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