Construction begins on bullet train between Las Vegas and Southern California

• Las Vegas bullet train is under construction.
• It will connect Sin City and Southern California.
• The train will reach speeds up to 186 mph.

Private rail company Brightline has begun construction on a $12 billion high-speed rail project connecting Las Vegas and Southern California.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined company leaders and other officials for the start of construction in Las Vegas on Monday, the Department of Transportation confirmed.

Brightline West benefits from $3 billion in federal funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.

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Construction begins on Las Vegas Bullet train

Brightline West officially broke ground on the nation’s first true high-speed rail system which will connect Las Vegas to Southern California. The 218 mile system will be the greenest form of transportation in the world, with zero emission, fully electric trains reaching 200 mph. pic.twitter.com/KBYNZjkxpx

— Brightline West (@BrightlineWest) April 23, 2024

The trains could begin running in early 2028, in time for the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Travelers have a lot to look forward to. The electric trains will leave every 45 minutes from a station in Las Vegas, south of the city’s famous Strip

They will connect to a station in Southern California, in Rancho Cucamonga, a suburb of Los Angeles located about 40 miles east of the city center, according to infobae.

The Brightline West trains, which travel at speeds of up to 186 mph — faster than any other train in the United States — will make the 217 mile journey in about two hours and 10 minutes.

Joe Biden on the new bullet train

«We are finally building the first project railway high-speed train in the history of our country,» said Biden on Brightline West in December. «We have been talking about this project for decades. Now we’re really doing it.»

Other high-speed railways that would carry passengers at 200 miles per hour and faster are in the pipeline in California, Texas and the Pacific Northwest.

“You’ll be sitting there flying in Brightline looking at all those brake lights on the highway and thinking. ‘It sucks to be you,’” Jim Mathews, CEO of the Railroad Passengers Association, said Friday.

“That’s what’s going to happen to all those people trying to get from the Los Angeles metropolitan area to Las Vegas.”