Brightline hopes to begin operating high-speed trains between Las Vegas and Los Angeles by 2028.
Brightline West, Siemens
Brightline West, billionaire investor Wes Eden’s 218-mile rail project to connect Las Vegas to suburban Los Angeles with electric bullet trains, is raising $2.5 billion from private investors with a tax-exempt bond offering as it seeks to launch passenger service by late 2028.
The funding push, backed by infrastructure bonds provided by California and Nevada, comes on top of a $3 billion grant Brightline received from the Biden Administration last year. The company marked the start of construction in April 2024 in Las Vegas, though the focus so far is prep work for the Mojave Desert-adjacent railway. Miami-based Brightline, which operates the U.S.’s only private passenger railroad in Florida, said in an investor presentation it expects at least $1.4 billion of revenue and 8.6 million passengers by 2031.
“Full-scale construction should get underway this year,” Ben Porritt, the company’s senior vice president for corporate affairs, told Forbes. It’s to happen simultaneously at four separate construction sites in Nevada and California.
The new offering, combined with the federal grant, additional infrastructure bonds and bank funding the company is seeking are to cover the estimated $12.4 billion needed to complete the line. It will run from Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga, a city about 40 miles east of Los Angeles that’s connected to it via an existing commuter railway, with two stops at the desert cities of Victor Valley and Hesperia. And though Brightline hoped to have trains running in time for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, its target date to launch the service is now December 2028.
The Vegas train is a gamble for Edens, the Fortress Investment Group cofounder and chairman who Forbes estimates is worth $3 billion, but could be a gamechanger finally bringing high-speed trains to the U.S. Its target opening date is years ahead of when California expects to open the first portion of the state’s publicly funded bullet train that’s expected to cost more than $100 billion to connect San Francisco to Los Angeles. It will operate at up to 200 miles per hour, much faster than Amtrak’s Acela line which tops out at 150mph on runs between Boston and Washington, DC. Even after upgrades–new tracks and trains funded by Biden’s Infrastructure Law–Acela’s maximum speeds will only rise to 160mph.
Brightline West
Brightline’s project is dramatically cheaper than California’s 500-mile project as it’s a shorter route on a right-of-way that was secured decades ago. It will also mostly run down the center of U.S. Interstate 15. Operating trains at grade with an existing roadway eliminates the need for costly bridge-like viaducts California is building for its system. The Brightline West route also avoids suburban streets and intersections that Brightline’s Florida trains contend with, which hold down its speeds and have occasionally lead to collisions with cars and even emergency vehicles.
The company expects a trip between its Las Vegas station and the Southern California terminus to take about two hours, or half as long as a car trip under ideal conditions.
Morgan Stanley is leading the sales of the Brightline bonds, which aren’t yet rated.
