Desert Xpress

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Desert Xpress is a proposal to build a privately funded passenger train from Victorville, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada, using off-the-shelf high speed rail technology.

The proposal was initiated to provide an alternative to automobile travel between the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas along Interstate Highway 15. This highway, the most direct automobile route between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas, is frequently snarled with traffic, especially on weekends, with a trip sometimes taking as long as eight hours.^{[citation needed]} Currently, there is no passenger train service to Las Vegas. Amtrak last operated passenger train service to Las Vegas in 1997 on its Desert Wind route.

The city of Victorville was selected as the location for the west most terminal since it is within a one-hour drive of 12 million people, and extending the train line further into the Los Angeles basin through the Cajon Pass would most likely be prohibitively expensive.^[1] Victorville is about 40 miles (65km) from Riverside, where a station is proposed for the California high-speed rail line.

The train would travel up to 125 miles per hour and would make the 190-mile trip from Victorville to Las Vegas in about one hour 45 minutes, shaving over two hours off the travel time^[2]. The backers of the project are currently in the process of raising funds for its construction, estimated at $3 Billion.^[3]