Wes Edens has broken ground on Brightline West, his $12 billion Las Vegas-to-SoCal railway, aided by billions from the Biden Administration. But building more high-speed lines like this one won’t be easy.nder a blazing morning Las Vegas sun, billionaire Wes Edens and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg threw a party this week to mark the start of construction of Brightline West, the first private high-speed railway in the U.S., driving yellow spikes into a section of track.
Wes Edens, center left, and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, center right, hammer ceremonial railroad spikes to mark the start of Brightline West construction in Las Vegas.“I believe that when this project is complete it's going to open the floodgates for American expectations around high-speed rail,” Buttigieg told. “This is important because it establishes that it can be done here and it can be done here in the United States of America.
But Edens may not easily find another high-density intercity route that can be done with the same favorable circumstances working in Brightline West’s favor. A group of private investors first conceived of the rail project in 2005 as DesertXpress, and spent years securing land and routing approval to run trains along Highway 15 through the Mojave Desert. But even though they were backed by Ray LaHood, the transportation secretary under Obama, and former U.S.
In 2007, Fortress also bought a freight rail line in southern Florida that gave rise to Brightline’s first passenger railway. Last year, the company added new dedicated tracks from Orlando to Miami that allow trains to run up to 125 mph – the lower range of what’s typically thought of as high-speed rail. It expects 4 million people to use the Florida service this year and 8 million annually from 2026.
The 218-mile project, including double tracks in some sections to allow trains to pass each other, will require first laying 2.2 million tons of gravel and other ballast materials. Then the company will layer on top 700,000 rail ties and 63,000 tons of steel rails sourced from U.S. suppliers.