Harry Reid Abandons Maglev for DesertXpress

[bananas]

From the cahsr blog:

Harry Reid Abandons Maglev for DesertXpress

Some VERY welcome news from the LA Times:

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and an ardent supporter of high speed rail systems, said today he no longer favors construction of a maglev -- or magnetic levitation -- train between Anaheim and Las Vegas.

Instead, the Nevada Democrat said he now favors a conventional high speed train between Victorville and Las Vegas -- a privately funded venture that is farther along in the planning process and cheaper to build than the maglev proposal, which has been studied for almost three decades.

“I”ve been working on this for 30 years," Reid said. "We’ve gotten nowhere. Maglev projects have been abandoned around the world. It’s time to stop talking and start doing something.”

<snip>

The DesertXpress will only go to Victorville.
Hopefully they'll use a system compatible with the California high-speed rail,
so they can eventually be connected together.


Vegas is also getting a new airport between Primm and Jean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivanpah_Valley_Airport