Brightline West Won't Produce 400,000 Tons of CO2

 

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The machinery is in place for the construction of Brightline West, a high-speed train running down the right-of-way of I-15 between Rancho Cucamonga, CA and Las Vegas, NV. This article in the Orange County Register takes a skeptical view of the project from a variety of angles, particularly the financing, which is typical, private entities cash the checks initially, the public pays for failures later. 

Meant to replace the substantial automobile traffic between SoCal and Sin City, the electric-powered private railroad won't produce the 400,000 tons of CO2 annually that moving the same number of people by car would. This is because the juice used to propel the train would be generated by "renewable" fossil fuel free means. In addition to the required track infrastructure, that of the renewable energy sources will need to be built as well. Travel time one way is supposed to be a little over 2 hours but there's no guarantee that travelers will foresake their cars, even EVs, to ride the Brightline West.

There's already a privately owned Brightline train running between Orlando and Miami with 5 stops in between. Currently a round trip ticket between the 2 costs $208 for the economy version and $298 for the luxury voyage of about 7 hours both ways.  Unlike the planned California trains the Florida Brightlines are powered by Siemens Charger SCB-40 diesel electric engines.