Brightline West: Rail Revolution or Waste of Time?

there are over 50 million trips between Los Angeles and Las Vegas every year on a typical Friday there are 80 flights out of five different Southern California airports but the vast majority of people make this trip by driving on I-15 while bright Line West the high-speed rail service that's going to connect these two cities got another step closer to reality this month so today we're going to dig into what we know about the service we'll talk about station locations competing airport locations how la polycentric development pattern and truly horrendous traffic make every mode of travel worse and we're definitely going to talk about this nation's finest dining establishment all about bright Line West and cheesecake coming up next this is City nerd weekly content on cities and transportation viewer suggested topics always welcome and this is one I've gotten a lot of requests for but if I'm being honest this video was coming either way okay so first let's talk about what's new with bright Line West because the idea of a high-speed rail line connecting greater LA to Las Vegas has been around for years for a long time the line was planned to run from Vegas to Victorville which is a pretty underwhelming Terminus well the service Transportation board has now approved a modified alignment that runs in the median of I-15 and terminates in Rancho camanga which is also not optimal but at least gets you well into the Inland Empire and is planned to terminate right at a Metro Link station I'm not going to spend much time quibbling over the freeway median alignment it isn't going to be optimal from an operations perspective but it does mean minimal property acquisition which means faster timeline to opening and also unlike the Florida Bright line no atg grade Crossings the result is bright Line West is likely to be this country's first true High-Speed Rail Project to open the initial segment of California highspeed rail from Merced to Bakersfield is showing 2030 as the earliest possible opening date but but bright Line West is expected to break ground imminently and take 4 years and I can understand if you're skeptical about that timeline but I just point out that the Florida Bright line Orlando segment did open sooner than I think anyone reasonably expected keep in mind there is no rail service between LA and Las Vegas today the Amtrak Desert Wind which stopped in Vegas in the middle of its run between LA in Salt Lake City was discontinued in 1997 not exactly a high-speed service made the run in about 7 hours and if you wanted to take the train to Vegas on a Sunday Monday Wednesday or Friday you were just playing out of lack so bright Line West intends to improve on the Desert Wind just slightly according to the service Transportation board decisioned on November 15th 2023 current plans are to operate 50 trains a day 25 in each Direction between Las Vegas and Ranch ukam manga basically every 45 minutes between 5:30 a.m. and around midnight and they'll operate at speeds up to 180 M an hour making the run in 2 hours 10 minutes which is something like twice as fast as the typical drive time on I-15 between those two points so what I would usually do here is set up a race between three people who are traveling from a specific location in the LA area to Vegas by air by car and by Rail and compare their overall experiences costs and travel times kind of as a real world illustration of the Dynamics and my triangle diagram but this one is different because of how polycentric and spread out the LA metro area is and because of the location of the proposed bright Line Station because one of the great benefits of High-Speed Rail should be that unlike an airport the station is usually right in the center of the city but as proposed the bright Line station is actually going to be further out from Central LA than any of the five airports that serve the region so to analyze how all this plays out I want to look at trips leaving the LA Metro area at the most popular time to head to Vegas which is after work on a Friday so I'm calling that 5:00 p.m. Pacific time for our destination I wanted something right in the middle of the Vegas Strip so I'm calling that Caesar's Palace choosing starting points in SoCal is a bit more tricky I wanted to test a variety of locations in the LA Inland Empire combined statistical area and I wanted to be able to talk about all five airports also I wanted to randomize the locations somehow so I wasn't giving preference to any particular mode of travel so what it did was divide the area into five sectors organized around the five airports and within each sector I wanted to find the precise location that was most reflective of the refined tastes of the type of person who had head to Vegas on a Friday evening so once I settled on that concept everything fell into place pretty easily I really just needed the highest rated Outlet of America's Premier fine dining establishment in each sector honestly doing this research was a bit of of a chore because there are a lot of locations and I had to Grapple with the fact that there are actually people who don't leave a five-star review of this place the Chile kees were mid imagine living in Southern California and having such little appreciation for authentic Mexican food people don't appreciate top-notch service either but luckily management has the good sense to just ignore the haters okay let's start with location one in the LAX sector this is Redondo Beach the highest rated location in the whole region to Liles is not withstanding so a few recurring themes here just about any route you take from anywhere in the metro area driving to Vegas is going to take you out the goone pass on I-15 and just about all the worst traffic you encounter on the whole trip is going to be within the LA metro area itself I just want to pause for a moment and point out that there was a time when La was considered a paradise of unfettered automobility an expansive network of inter connected freeways with tons of capacity so everyone could easily go wherever they wanted whenever they wanted well it's 2023 now and if you want to go to Vegas from Redondo Beach plan on 5 to 7 hours next let's talk air travel but first I need some kind of assumption about how early to get to the airport to account for getting through security and walking to the gate Airlines themselves are super conservative and we'll tell you to arrive 2 hours early for a domestic flight which seems like kind of a waste of time even if you're checking a bag I know some people go as low as like 40 minutes I think that's courting disaster so I'm going to say an hour and a half for LAX because that airport is a nightmare and an hour 15 for the other four this is important to know because you can't just show up at an airport and get on the next plane you have to choose your flight and book in advance so for everything I'm going to talk about here we're going on Friday March 1st and choosing the first flight that we can reasonably expect to make for our location in The Lax sector that's going to be a Spirit Airlines flight at 7:35 getting into the gate at Harry Reid International at 8:39 p.m. on the arrival end of the trip I'm saying 20 minutes to disembark and summon a ride while you're walking to the ride Hil waiting area and then plan on 25 minutes to get to Caesar's so you're arriving at the hotel at 9:24 p.m. note that you can take transit from the airport but the trip takes longer and it runs in kind of an abysmal frequency I've got thoughts on that but I just be repeating myself for the train we also have to do some planning ahead because you will almost certainly want to buy advanced tickets for this I'm going to take the service Transportation board documentation at face value and assume the trains run every 45 minutes all day starting at 5:30 a.m. if we're being literal then our departures of Interest out of Rancho cucam manga are going to be 5:30 6:15 7:00 7:45 and 8:30 p.m. unlike the airlines bright line says show up 15 minutes before your departure so that's going to help but the problem is getting to the station from just about anywhere in the greater LA area if you're going to drive from Redondo Beach plan on up to 3 hours you'd hope there was a Transit option that bypassed all the congestion but this is La it's also going to be 3 hours and involves a local bus the jline brt and the San Bernardino Metro Link second largest city in the world's largest economy and it takes 3 hours to get to the train station 10 out of 10 no notes anyway you're going to end up on the 8:30 train which gets you into the Las Vegas bright Line Station at 10:40 p.m. the Las Vegas station doesn't get you exactly to the heart of the strip but it's reasonably close and it's going to be very quick to disembark and catch a ride hail so I've got 25 minutes overall to get to Caesars putting you there at 11:05 p.m. okay let's go to Koga Park in the San Fernando Valley plan on up to 6 hours 40 minutes if you want to drive to Vegas note though that if you're in the valley you have a pretty good alternate route North through Santa Clarita for this location I'm going to assume flying out of Burbank although LAX could be a better choice just because there are more flight options it's up to an hour 10 to drive to the Burbank Airport and a bit longer for Transit of course so the earliest flight you can get is a Southwest at 810 that'll get you into Harry Reid at 920 and to your hotel at 10:05 so almost certainly better than driving for the bright line it's up to 3 hours to drive to the station and the transit is just comically bad it's three different buses just to get to the Cal State LA Station East of downtown and then the Metro Link but either way you'll end up on the same train that ultimately gets you to Caesars at 11:05 let's move to ceritos south of La driving gets slightly better and now you're looking at a top end of 6 and 1/2 hours so 11:30 p.m. flying the good news is you're fairly close to Long Beach Airport and I'm showing a 24-minute drive at most Transit over an hour I'm not even mad at this point either way you're going to be on a Southwest flight at 7:55 and that's going to get you to Caesars at 9:45 to catch the train it's up to 2 hours 20 minutes to drive there and to the surprise of absolutely no one Transit takes longer but the shorter driving trip will actually get you on an earlier train the 7:45 and that puts you at Caesars at 10:20 p.m. so you might be able to pick up on a theme Here bright line is going to be faster than driving because nearly all the driving trips to Las Vegas have to go through Rano cucamanga anyway and the train is much faster from that point incidentally did you know there's a kahone pass rail Fanning location now you do let's go the happiest place on Earth and by that I mean the world's finest restaurant driving same as ceritos 4 half to 6 and 1/2 hours for flying it's a 14 to 26 minute drive to John Wayne Airport or an hour 16 on Transit so you're probably going to want to drive if you want to catch the 725 Southwest flight which will get you into harri arita at 8:35 p.m. and to Caesars at 9:20 to get to the bright Line Station plan on 2 hours 20 minutes driving which will put you on the 745 bright line that gets you into Vegas at 955 and to Caesars at 1020 if you insist on taking transit to Rancho cucamanga that's almost 3 hours on a variety of Transit vehicles and you're going to end up on a later train okay in a minute I'm going to get to a couple of very interesting cases the finest restaurant in the Inland Empire which is located very close to the bright Line station and downtown LA which sadly lacks an outlet of this particular fine dining establishment but theoretically should be Ground Zero for Inter City rail service but first brief reminder to click on all the usual stuff comments my current policy is Thursday morning I read and respond to whatever YouTube displays at the top of the comments section and in keeping with Theo of this channel I only read the top 10 connect on the apps and consider becoming a patron if you want to support directly and also if you care about improving passenger rail in the US this holiday season consider becoming a member of the rail passengers Association they do good advocacy work on Capitol Hill and with the various agencies and they are toward expanding the US passenger rail network and frequencies membership even comes with a couple perks and you can gift one just saying and just so you know I'm not getting compensated for doing this promo unless you count feeling good about yourself as compensation okay so the story here is kind of straightforward if travel time is your primary consideration you're going to fly out of all the locations we talked about so far and driving to Vegas is going to be your worst option there are other reasons you might drive like if if you really absolutely need a car while you're there I guess that's a consideration although I've visited Vegas more times than I can count and it has never once occurred to me to rent a car since driving there is terrible and the self-parking at all the resorts is a total cluster but also if it's Group Travel it might be economical just to all drive up in a single car I'm not judging but you are talking about upwards of 6 hours of having to sit there paying attention to the road being annoyed by traffic and not really being able to pre function at all and that's probably where bright line is going to compete it's going to be much faster than driving between the kahone pass in Vegas someone else is going to be doing the driving and I imagine there's going to be a bar car okay with that in mind let's look at our last sector basically the Inland Empire where our top rated restaurant location is actually right on Main Street in the Victoria Gardens Lifestyle Center in ranch ukam manga this is going to be by far our best location for driving to Vegas because this is the one place where you don't have to fight through all the LA traffic just to get to the Cahone pass because you're already there drive time to Caesars is going to be up to 5 hours which actually starts to sound competitive with the other options for air travel you're going to fly out of Ontario International just a 10 to 20 minute driveway or you can take transit which is any guesses oh yeah it's three times as long either way though the first flight you can catch is the 740 Southwest which is going to get you into Harry Reid at 8:45 and to your hotel by 9:30 p.m. probably not really faster than driving okay so now maybe the bright line finally has its moment because Victoria Gardens is literally a 15-minute drive to the station miraculously Omnitrans Route 82 is also 15 minutes but you have to wait 40 minutes for it so I am going to say you can catch the 5:30 p.m. bright line which gets into Vegas at 7:40 and you're at your hotel a bit before 8:00 p.m. so now finally the train beats the other two options by like an hour and a half but this does raise the question do you literally have to live at the Victoria Gardens Lifestyle Center for the train to come out on top when it comes to travel time well to help answer this let's go to the one place that should be the most competitive possible location for High-Speed Rail and that's the Region's main Transit Hub La Union Station this is going to be very bad for driving it's not as far west as a couple of the other occasions we looked at but because of where Union Station is situated you have to fight through all the downtown traffic on your way out to the Cahone pass so it ends up being a 6 and 1/2 hour drive to Vegas flying Burbank airport is going to be easier to get to and shockingly your best bet probably is going to be Transit the 508 metr link Ventura County Line will get you there at 5:38 in plenty of time to catch the 700 p.m. Southwest flight landing at Harry Reid at 8:05 and getting you to Caesars before 4 9:00 p.m. for bright line you could drive but that's going to get you into Rano ccam manga much later than if you just took the metr link San beradino line which runs an Express at 5:26 getting you into RC at 6:30 p.m. that puts you on the 700 p.m. train to Vegas arriving at 9:10 and getting you to Caesars a little after 9:30 p.m. so on travel time that's not going to beat flying out of Burbank what would beat flying is if you could get to the bright Line Station in time to catch the 615 train which seems doable if metr link ran a dedicated non-stop right at 5:00 p.m. or really every 45 minutes to sync up with the bright Line schedule or even better Electrify the line so bright line can run all the way into Union Station but I don't know if there are any plans to do that I will say that if you live east of downtown LA and your location is convenient to the San Bernardino line the bright line is going to be pretty competitive especially the further you get from Burbank Airport okay so is bright Line West and optimal High-Speed Rail service it isn't going to run at 200 M an hour it's going to have some slightly wonky geometry due to being constructed in a freeway median but it is going to hit 180 for long stretches do I wish it went all the way into Union Station sure but this is the us we just don't want to do that many good things all at once there is a plan to connect bright Line West to California High-Speed Rail the connection is called the high desert Corridor which would get you to Palmdale and then into Union Station whenever that segment of California ipeed rail actually gets built it's still going through environmental so maybe next Century so in the near term bright line to the Inland Empire is going to be the thing that actually exists is it going to beat flying on travel time not for most locations but if you're like me you're probably going to prefer the high-speed rail travel experience to Flying is the travel time going to be better than driving which is how 85% of LA to Las Vegas trips happen today yeah yeah bright line is going to be better basically anywhere you're coming from are people going to use the service well I do think we are actually going to find out which is exciting in itself but also it does seem like bright line is betting on it as well and that's a reason for optimism okay that's your glass half full take on LA to Las Vegas highspeed rail thanks for watching and thanks as always to the patrons for your direct support it really helps keep this channel humming along keep the great topic suggestions coming I'll be back with a new episode next week and I'll see you then

Channel: CityNerd

Views: 242,465

Keywords: urbanism, urbanist, urban, urban talk, urbanism sociology, urban exploration, urbanism as a way of life, urbanism architecture, urbanist exploring cities, urbanist session, urban planning problems, urban planning, city planning, urban design, public transit cities skylines, american cities, strong towns

Id: 11Noo855zyA

Length: 18min 59sec (1139 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 29 2023