A longstanding plan to build a passenger rail system between Southern California and Las Vegas has a new financial backer, a company operating a privately funded rail project in Florida.
Miami-based Brightline, whose rail service will connect Miami to Orlando by 2022, said Tuesday it had acquired XpressWest, the high-speed rail project that failed to get off the ground over the last decade. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The company said it would operate between Victorville and Las Vegas on a new track along the 15 Freeway by 2022. Construction would start next year.
“Brightline is changing transportation in our country by connecting heavily trafficked corridors that are too long to drive and too short to fly,” said Wes Edens, co-founder and co-chief executive of Fortress Investment Group, which backs Brightline. “Our experience in Florida is proving that private-sector investment has a meaningful role to play in developing transportation infrastructure.”
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