Company Plans High-Speed Train
A computer created this image of a Brightline train to show how it might operate.
There’s good news for travelers who get bored on long car trips. A company is building a high-speed rail line between Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Los Angeles, California, area, making the trip between the two places a lot shorter.
The company, called Brightline West, began construction on the railway on April 22.
“This is a historic project and a proud moment where we break ground on America’s first high-speed rail system,” said Brightline founder Wes Edens.
The United States already has a couple of fast trains. One of them runs between New York City and Washington, D.C., and the other connects Miami and Orlando, in Florida. But neither of those trains is as fast as high-speed trains in many other parts of the world.
Brightline’s new train will be able to travel up to 200 miles per hour (320 kilometers per hour). This will allow it to complete the 218-mile (351-kilometer) trip in just over two hours. That’s pretty fast. The same trip takes about four hours by car.
© Brightline West
Brightline says the project brings other benefits, too. One of them is new jobs. The company is hiring thousands of people to help plan and build the rail line. Another benefit is that the train will run on electricity, which produces a lot less pollution than cars. And, if people decide to take the train and leave their cars at home, there will be less traffic on the road between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles area .
The high-speed rail line is scheduled to be completed in 2028, the year Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympics.
