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By Alan Kandel

Word is, the California High-Speed Rail Authority Board has unanimously agreed to apply for the high-speed rail stimulus money Florida Governor Rick Scott rejected - $2.43 billion in all. “The federal government recently announced that states can apply for Florida’s funding. Applications are due April 4,” Sacramento Business Journal. Staff writer Melanie Turner wrote. As I understand it, California HSR has $5.5 billion allocated to it already.

So, if awarded the entire $2.43 billion (it seems unlikely California will get it all), this would bring to $7.93 billion, the amount of stimulus money available to California HSR. Apparently, this is enough to construct not only the starter line between Merced and Bakersfield, but also trunk line track beyond those points, either towards Palmdale across or through the Tehachapi Mountains or from Chowchilla west toward San Jose via Los Banos and Gilroy.

Meanwhile, “Nevada Senator Harry Reid and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently publicly announced the Federal Railroad Administration's final environmental impact statement for the $6 billion high-speed DesertXpress project, which will connect Las Vegas to Southern California. The release of the statement represents a significant moment in President Obama's transportation initiative, making the construction of high-speed rail within the United States one step closer to breaking ground,” according to Reuters.

DesertXpress is receiving more and more attention these days due to irritating and frustrating traffic congestion that often plagues Interstate 15, and in particular the stretch between Vegas and the Southern California city of Victorville. The 200-mile line accommodating trains reaching speeds of 150 mph, if built, will once again bridge by passenger train these two cities. Start of DesertXpress line construction, incidentally, is projected for year’s end 2011. California HSR, on the other hand, isn‘t slated to begin construction until fall 2012.

Here’s the $64 million question: Considering Las Vegas wants and is dependent upon tourist dollars and Victorville and Palmdale aren‘t that far apart, why not instead build the DesertXpress to Palmdale, where a direct link-up between it and the California high-speed rail line could be facilitated? A strategic alliance between the two independent systems seems only natural.

Imagine boarding a 220 mph high-speed train in, say, Merced, in the Central Valley, journeying to Palmdale and, after arriving in this high-desert community, catching a DesertXpress train to the Vegas strip. What is now normally an 8-hour and quite possibly longer automobile trip, could be had in half that time or less. Not only this, but how about a future DesertXpress or high-speed train run from Vegas to Phoenix, Arizona or beyond? There is serious talk of this too. That way, the desert southwest would be high-speed-rail-connected. Accomplishing this would not only free up limited freeway space but emissions would be cut at the same time.

Getting this achieved and on a fast-track schedule will demonstrate sooner rather than later the efficacy of high-speed rail here in the U.S., that HSR is a viable mode (after all, millions, and perhaps billions of Europeans and Asians can’t be wrong) and that it has a future, and as well, has the potential to open doors for other such lines to additional destinations to get built and become operational that much faster.

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Alan Kandel is a concerned California resident advocating for new, improved and expanded freight (and passenger) rail service. He is a retired railroad signalman previously employed by the Union Pacific Railroad in Fremont, California.