I am glad to hear this is getting built but there is some very deceptive marketing and reporting happening with this update.

There is still the connection issue between Rancho Cucamonga and the greater LA area to deal with. I’d ride the train from Vegas to So Cal. But would have to figure out how to get to my final destination in Anaheim, Ventura, or Long Beach. If it’s an auto train, then sign me up. Otherwise let me know if there will be connections to other parts of So Cal or to the train system feeding the state

[link:https://www.hsrail.org/brightline-west/|]

It looks like this will be hear when all the inter connections are done. But of this first run is the only part, I think ridership will suffer.

Funny how that highway is the one Sammy Hagar can’t drive 55 on. But traffic has changed through the years. You do the trip early enough, on Xmas morning, and the trip could be made in three hours by car.

Probably because the actual "urban" portions are not going to be "high speed" (due to a variety of reasons not unlike here on the east coast where the "high speed" Acela is not "high speed" in and just outside of the cities along the Northeast corridor), nor are part of that contract.

It's just like if I fly to Cincinnati, OH from Philly, I am NOT landing in Cincinnati, OH, I'm landing in Covington, KY. which could be considered "deceptive" perhaps?

Constructing a high speed rail line through the roughly 40 miles between RC and DTLA would undoubtedly require far more money and time than what is needed to build it between RC and LV.

Let’s say you live west of DTLA. Would you rather drive the ~1 hour to RC and catch a train to LV or would rather fight the traffic to drive to LAX to hop on a short flight to LV?

This project is great for San Bernardino and Riverside counties but less so for those in LA and Ventura counties and maybe a wash for those in Orange County.

We have similar here where there is an auto-train going down to Florida along the east coast. But that train boards from the D.C. area, so people here in Philly would need to drive the 2.5 (or more if going the speed limit ) hours from Philly to D.C. and then load the car onto the train.

I had mentioned in a thread on a potential Texas bullet train project here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143222802

where you have those "speed/segment" issues in and around the urban areas along the 450+ mile route of the Amtrak Acela on the east coast along the Northeast Corridor http://www.realtransit.org/nec7.php

I am sure they are going to do connecting portions (probably not this company). But for whoever gets the contract for the urban parts/connectors in both CA and NV, I'll just say good luck!!!!

The this connects the Vegas train to the system that services SoCal from LA to San Diego, I don't think they need anything else.

As long as there is some kind of connecting line...

It's just like before I retired and early on (before I started driving down to D.C. metro for meetings/training) I caught Amtrak to New Carrolton past Baltimore and then connected with the D.C. Metro "Orange Line" to Metro Center, where I could hop the "Red Line" (or other lines) from there to where I needed to go in the D.C. metro area (vs going all the way to downtown D.C.'s Amtrak Union Station.

I haven't been on the L.A. systems but have been on the San Francisco metro area BART.

Takes an hour-ten, hour-fifteen.

Weekends, eight trains per day serve Rancho Cucamonga in each direction.
 
https://metrolinktrains.com/globalassets/schedules/timetables/2023/web_alllines_23-11-06_spreads.pdf

to cover the 40 urban miles to get to the station from downtown LA. Getting around the vastly spread out LA area is it's own challenging adventure so I doubt they have the investment capital to build there.

https://www.brightlinewest.com/overview/project