Biden Administration Announces New High-speed, Electric Train Connecting L.A. and Las Vegas

High-speed rail in the United States may soon be a reality.

The White House recently announced the allocation of $8.2 billion in funding for several key rail projects including a Las Vegas to Los Angeles corridor; a Raleigh, North Carolina to Richmond, Virginia, route; new service throughout California’s central valley; and more. The investment is a component of President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” Agenda. 

Pete Buttigieg, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, told Travel + Leisure he was impressed with Japan’s train infrastructure when attending the G7 Hiroshima Summit earlier this year. “You come home thinking, ‘Why can’t we have something like that?'” Buttigieg said. “Especially knowing that they’ve had high-speed rail in some form since the 1960s. And it’s not just Japan, which is famously cutting edge in these regards. In places like North Africa and the Middle East, we’re seeing levels of rail service that are beyond what the U.S. has been able to deliver. So we know we’ve got to change that — and that’s what we’re doing.”

Buttigieg said that the lack of investment in new rail services over the last several decades is a trend that is now being reversed and that while change won’t happen overnight, travelers will see improvements within a few years. 

“What’s really exciting for us is that this is a chance to lay out in detail what a future rail network could look like, and put dollars behind developing those routes,” Buttigieg told T+L. “The broad vision is to make sure that Americans have excellent choices when it comes to passenger rail travel in a way that we frankly haven’t for, for most of our lifetimes, there was a time when the U.S. led in rail just as we have in aviation and other forms of surface transportation.”

While high-speed rail has been a popular wish among travelers for many years, the funding helps put the project in motion, with one administration official sharing with Travel + Leisure that the Las Vegas to Los Angeles route could be completed in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Over 35 rail projects were named as part of the funding announcement, including: 

• Las Vegas to the Los Angeles metro area: This 218-mile route will take two hours with a high-speed train and is expected to provide transit for 11 million people annually. 
• Dallas to Houston: This will be a new high-speed service connecting two of Texas’ most populous cities. 
• Raleigh to Richmond: This would be a new route and help save passengers 90 minutes. 
• New York City to Scranton, Pennsylvania: This route will be updated on an existing track that has been dormant and provide easier access to New York City.
• Fort Collins, Colorado to Pueblo, Colorado: This new route will connect two parts of Colorado not previously served by rail. 

The new projects allow people “safe, comfortable, and climate-friendly travel options,” said the administration in a new release provided to T+L.

“Giving people an option to go downtown-to-downtown without having to go through airport security, or be behind the wheel of a car is something that, again, when you have a comparable geography in other parts of the world — especially Europe, or Japan — it would be a no-brainer,” said Buttigieg. “So let’s make that a no-brainer here.”