Brightline West: Rail Revolution or Waste of Time?

High speed rail from Las Vegas to LA --- and by "LA" I mean Rancho Cucamonga -- cleared another big hurdle recently, so let's dive into the service and figure out how much it's going to change transportation dynamics between one of the US' busiest city pairs for travel.

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Images
- Thanks to Brightline for making lots of assets available!

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CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (YouTube music library)

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[silver_bowling]

Brightline has actually changed their plans to an hourly service rather than every 45, so that they can offer a timed transfer to the metrolink san bernardino line

[Westlander]

I actually like the idea of the freeway median rail line from an aesthetic perspective. Imagine sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and seeing the Brightline zip right past you at 180mph. Would be pretty good advertising, I imagine.

[JarrodBaniqued]

I for one would be skeptical about a Brightline-Cheesecake Factory partnership for the dining cars, but it would certainly be apropos given the endpoints

[LoveStallion]

Bear in mind the traffic in LA itself is hardly the biggest hurdle. Weekend traffic to/from Vegas can turn I-15 in the middle of the Mohave Desert into a parking lot.

[cogspace]

As a Vegas resident originally from LA who loves trains (and chilaquiles) this video is disturbingly well-targeted to me specifically, and I appreciate that. Very excited for Brightline West to get shovels in the ground. It may not be much faster, but taking a train is just so pleasant and stress-free compared to driving or flying.

[Bartzyx]

This feels like a worst-case scenario for Brightline. Hopefully, the local metrolink and other transit services would rearrange their services to facilitate people getting to the location of the Rancho Cucamonga terminus.

[paulkoza]

180 mph works wonders over highway travel. I frequently take Amtrak's NE regional from my home north of Richmond to NYC. It is a 6 hour run. Then I have another 30 or so minutes on the C-train to my daughter's in Brooklyn. Driving direct is about 6 hours but I don't have the luxury of taking a nap at the wheel, plus tolls and gas usually make it more expensive than Amtrak. If Amtrak was able to raise its average speed to 120 over the DC to NYC sector, the transit time would be markedly reduced. I'm definitely a fan of high speed rail for short distances between major US cities. You profiled this once before, if I'm not mistaken.

[nicolasblume]

They should extend it via an upgraded and electrified commuter rail line, like the caltrain corridor

[RobertBloomquist]

I'm skeptical any HSR project that doesn't go downtown-to-downtown, and this video does a great job of explaining why.

Having easier access to an airport than the train station just reeks of policy failure.

[kidtrunks]

Thank you for the video! Interestingly, the city of Rancho Cucamonga is planning on converting the Victoria Gardens Lifestyle center into a mixed-use development neighborhood by infilling all of those parking lots you see in the aerial view. Also, the Brightline station in Rancho will be located in a new mixed-use neighborhood the city is planning around the station called the HART district. Tenatively, this district will connect to ONT airport via an underground people mover, and above ground it will connect to a new BRT line planned for the district. It's worth noting that the Inland Empire also has a huge chunk of the region's young population, and so it's a hot spot for people who go to Las Vegas. For these reasons, I find the project very interesting and full of potential, despite not connecting directly to LAUS. Cheers.

[LoveStallion]

As an Orange County native, I'm still miffed they canceled the light rail project that would have gone from Fullerton to Anaheim's core area, through the Santa Ana civic center, down to John Wayne, and eventually out to the Spectrum. Having rail straight from John Wayne to the Platinum Triangle would be so, so good.

[theotheronethere]

The problem with rail (not only HSR) in the US is that in the end cars are still required for parts of the trip. Unlike in Europe where it is very possible to go around completely without cars (public transportation within a city, train in-between cities), US city design makes it nearly impossible to do so. Even if you arrive at a station downtown, it is very likely that the location you want to go to in the city requires a car to get to too. So, if it is car --> station --> train --> station --> car, people might take it is easier to simply have one mode of transportation.

The odd thing about why having a train to Disney World in Florida makes sense is that Disney World has an entire transportation system of buses, trams, monorail and boats that transports folks around the park, making a car obsolete. I like how Americans think that having public transportation in a theme park is critical but having one in their city is useless.

[tayzonday]

It’s might be useful if you want to not pay state income taxes (Nevada) and still have affordable access to Los Angeles.

[Whatneedsbsaid]

It's disappointing that even though Metrolink owns (most of) the track from Rancho Cucamonga to LA union, they don't plan to do electrification for through service. Brightline could pick up the Slack and try to get dual-mode rolling stock to access Union station on certain trips, but one can only dream.

[Dangermouse]

The thing about Brightline, is they very clearly did not cut any corners regarding the overall experience. Everything from the kiosks you can use to book your ticket in the stations, to the bathrooms, to the USB chargers and free-wi fi, to the overall design, to the customer service. Everything feels clean and like you are traveling first class. It doesn't feel chaotic or stressful at all like an airport.

[Katthewm]

The advantage of Brightline is that with better public transit within LA the time to reach the station will radically decrease. The highways and airports will basically never get faster at this point.

[greasher]

One thing to consider is that even if brightline never makes it to LA, the inland empire is the 12th largest metro area in the country at 4.6 million people ahead of San Francisco, Detroit, and Seattle. So there is still a lot of people that will be served.

[GeorgeP-ujxc]

I suggest comparing the current brightline seating with what you get on one of those spirit flights. To say brightline is more comfortable than flying would be the understatement of the century.

[RaDriver]

Love the freeway median trains! Cars going slower in traffic as the train zips by will get the idea

[mcphersonsound]

earlier this year I got stuck in gridlock traffic trying to get out of Las Vegas. Took me 7 hours before I had my turn-off to go to Bakersfield. So I hope Brightline help resolve that because it was such an awful experience.