The idea has been kicked around for years -- a high-speed train to zip passengers from SoCal to Sin City and then boomerang them back, bypassing the sea of brake lights flooding the highway to and from Las Vegas.
Originally, even the most farfetched scenarios didn't include Victorville -- a desert pit-stop for thousands of gamblers en route to Las Vegas -- as the starting point for such turgid dreams.
But with plans for a magnetically levitated bullet train between Anaheim and Nevada still on the drawing board after nearly two decades of research, a private group proposing a Victorville-to-Las Vegas train has been gaining some credibility with transportation officials in California and Las Vegas.
"There's still work to be done," said William A. Mosby, a district deputy director for planning and public transportation with the California Department of Transportation. "But Caltrans thinks it's a very realistic proposal. It doesn't look like it's pie-in-the-sky thinking at all. If any of the projects move forward, I think it will be this one."
And with growing frustration over Interstate 15 congestion, escalating gas prices and airport delays, some see a train as the only way a spontaneous weekend Vegas spree from Southern California will be possible in future years.
The plan, pitched by Thomas Stone of the Las Vegas-based DesertXpress Enterprises, calls for electric-diesel hybrid trains to make the 190-mile trip every 20 minutes. The construction wouldn't use federal or state funding; the hope is that investor funds, which have yet to be raised, will cover the estimated $3-billion cost. The train would top out at 125 mph, making the one-way trip in about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
"Millions of people use Interstate 15 to get to Vegas, and it is getting too congested," said Stone, who has worked as a consultant for transit projects in China and the Las Vegas Monorail -- which currently faces dire financial straits. "We will have trains to carry that demand every 20 minutes."
Stone and his group are betting that Los Angeles and Orange County residents would be willing to drive to Victorville -- about 80 miles from Los Angeles or Anaheim -- to hop on the train.
But the Victorville terminus is seen by others as a major drawback.
"That's one of the concerns of ours," said Kent Cooper, Nevada Department of Transportation's assistant director of planning. "Typically, one of the major congested areas is Victorville to the Los Angeles Basin. So in some points, you're avoiding one of the problem areas that need to be addressed."
