Is the MagLev Train to Las Vegas a Ghost Train?
Which project will actually be a reality? The MagLev or DesertXpress (pictured above).
Ever since last week's hyped announcement of federal funding for the MagLev project, an extremely fast train between Anaheim and Las Vegas, there's been a lot of talk and some updates.
First, "the Federal Railroad Administration has made neither an award nor an announcement with regard to funding for maglev development in Nevada," according to spokesman Mark Paustenbach on Thursday, the day after Governor Gibbons made his announcement about receiving funding.
Despite that, a Gibbons spokesperson said the "package isn't going to arrive until [this] week, but this deal is done."
However, earlier this year, the all-so-powerful Senator Harry Reid dropped his support of the MagLev project for the DesertXpress. "Maglev has been talking about it for 30 years, but they have not made any progress on it," a Reid spokesman said. "It's the reason he changed his support to DesertXpress. They've made more progress the last couple years than maglev has in the last 30."
Then yesterday, Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith dived into the debate calling the MagLev a ghost train. "While the amazing, colossal desert ghost train remains an illusion, its troubles are very real," Smith wrote. "Now that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has publicly endorsed the rival DesertXpress project despite its substantial shortcomings -- most obviously its unintentionally comical Victorville-to-Vegas route -- maglev has lost its political purchase."