Thread by @infrstrctreweek

With Brightline West breaking ground, I want to go over why the nation’s first operational HSR (250+ km/h) will include two stops in the relatively unpopulated desert & not quite make it all the way to LA, as it’s a good lesson about building in the US today🧵

https://twitter.com/berkie1/status/1782475944378106347

Victor Valley is a testament to the ridiculous environmental laws in the US. XpressWest, who originally started the project, only wanted to go from Vegas to here, w/a huge P&R for riders. When Brightline bought the project, the environmental process was underway w/that plan

Brightline thought a P&R in the desert wouldn’t fill trains & that they needed to bring the line over the Cajon Pass. However, removing Victor Valley would have required restarting environmental work. This would’ve been so costly it was cheaper to keep Victor Valley

The end result is that Brightline West is technically 2 projects: a line from Vegas to Victor Valley and a line from Victor Valley to Rancho Cucamonga. Unless an exception or agreement is reached, all trains will have to stop at Victor Valley for at least 1 minute

Hesperia is an ode to how localities & smaller organizations add their pet projects to a larger project in exchange for their support & pledge not to sue. Hesperia has wanted a commuter rail link to either LA or the Inland Empire but BNSF wouldn’t allow it on their existing track

Brightline was hoping for a quick permitting timeline for its Victor Valley to Rancho segment, & Hesperia saw this as an opportunity to get its rail link. Hesperia pledged its support for the project if Brightline built a commuter rail station on its ROW through the city

Hesperia never threatened to sue, but both parties knew the city could drag out the timeline by a few years at least. Hence, Brightline agreed to build the station & worked out an agreement to only have select rush hour trains stop there

The western terminus will be Rancho Cucamonga, ~40 mi from downtown LA, because US infrastructure ownership is fractured & no one wants to cooperate. From I-15, the ROWs into downtown are I-10 (Caltrans), San Bernardino & Alhambra Subs (UP) & San Gabriel Sub (SCRRA aka Metrolink)

Caltrans would rather die than convert one of its 12 lanes to rail. UP hates pax trains more than any other freight operator in the US. And Metrolink said it wouldn’t give Brightline space until it had the capacity to run 15 min headways. Nice aspirations but where’s the realism?

Given Metrolink was the least hostile, Brightline explored how much the cost would be to expand the San Gabriel Sub to permit 15 min Metrolink & 45 min Brightline to LAUS. Even just to the El Monte busway, it would’ve been multiple billions w/the ROW constraints

The overall lesson here is that building infrastructure in the US is not straightforward, & doing a project cost-effectively like Brightline requires some significant compromise. Brightline West’s station locations reflect that reality