On January 27th, 2021, Brightline West conducted a briefing with representatives from SBCTA, San Bernardino County, the City of Rancho Cucamonga and local stakeholders to outline their proposed plans to extend their high speed rail access from Las Vegas to Rancho Cucamonga.
Currently, Brightline West is completing the final approval processes for their Las Vegas to Victorville project and plans to begin construction later this year. Brightline is a privately operated express inter-city passenger rail system which began operating in Florida in January of 2018. It is currently the only privately owned and operated inter-city passenger railroad in the United States, and operates between Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Plam Beach, with an expansion to Orlando under construction.
Talks between SBCTA and Brightline began in early 2020 and the SBCTA Board of Directors approved a Memorandum of Understanding with Brightline to progress discussions of extending their high speed rail line from Victorville to Rancho Cucamonga, including consideration of station locations, design concepts and alignments, but did not include any funding from SBCTA. The potential project would follow Interstate 15 down the Cajon Pass and then connect to location near the existing Rancho Cucamonga Metrolink station. This would not only provide access to residents of Southern California to high speed rail to Las Vegas, but also access to residents of the High Desert rail access to job centers in the San Bernardino Valley and greater Los Angeles, potentially helping to remove thousands of commuter vehicles from Interstates 15 and 10.
Brightline is hoping to begin service to Las Vegas by 2024.