Brightline gets another big boost from Biden to build Vegas line
Thomas Simonetti for The Washington Post via Getty Images
The administration approved $2.5 billion in private activity bonds, making the private rail company the biggest user of the low-interest infrastructure loans.
A private company looking to build high-speed rail between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles suburbs got another big boost from the federal government Tuesday, with a $2.5 billion low-interest loan that comes on top of billions of dollars the Biden administration has already committed to the project.
“Today, the Biden-Harris administration takes the next step to fulfill the promise of high-speed rail in the American West, with $2.5 billion in private activity bond authority to lay tracks, create jobs and connect American cities,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement.
The government bonds will help Brightline, a Florida-based company, build a 218-mile line along a highway median. The electric trains, which are capable of reaching 186 mph, are expected to make the journey between Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga in two hours, or half the time it takes to make the journey by car. Brightline West, as it is known, is a separate project from California’s state-backed high-speed rail line, which is under construction in the Central Valley.
This is the third time the Biden administration committed massive amounts of money to help the Brightline project. President Joe Biden traveled to Las Vegas last month to tout the initiative, after his administration committed $3 billion in grants to the Nevada Department of Transportation to build the rail line. The administration also extended $1 billion in private activity bonds to the development in 2020. That amounts to $6.5 billion in federal grants and loans for the $12 billion project.
“As the first true high-speed rail system in America, Brightline West will serve as the blueprint for connecting cities with fast, eco-friendly passenger rail throughout the country,” said Wes Edens, Brightline’s founder and chairman. “We appreciate the confidence placed in us by DOT and are ready to get to work.”
Edens, the billionaire founder of Fortress Investments Group and co-owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, also helped build Brightline’s existing Florida service between Orlando and Miami with government financing.
Brightline is far and away the biggest user of private activity bonds, which allow private companies to use low-interest loans to build infrastructure. The companies pay back the bonds. Between the Florida segments and the Las Vegas routes, the company has used nearly $4.2 billion of the $17 billion authorized by the federal government. The bonds announced Tuesday will increase that to $6.7 billion.
The second-highest user of the private activity bonds is Pennsylvania, which used them to finance a public-private partnership to replace aging bridges.
The Brightline West project is moving quickly, with the company looking to hire up to 11,000 people for construction work by summer. Brightline wants to finish construction by the time Los Angeles hosts the Olympic Games in summer 2028.
Daniel C. Vock is a senior reporter for Route Fifty based in Washington, D.C.
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