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City of Palmdale shows support for Virgin/Brightline rail project

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Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer and City Manager James Purtee were invited to tour the Siemens rail car plant in Sacramento. [Contributed]
PALMDALE – Palmdale Mayor Steve Hofbauer and City Manager James Purtee traveled to the State Capitol in Sacramento earlier this week to provide testimony and support at the TEFRA (Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act) hearing for the infrastructure development bonds for the Virgin/Brightline trains planned to provide high speed rail service from Las Vegas to Victorville and Palmdale.

Also on hand to provide support were representatives from Victorville, Apple Valley, LA Metro, SanBag (San Bernardino Association of Governments), Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger’s office, San Bernardino County Supervisor Robert Lovingood’s office, Siemens, Morgan Stanley, and Virgin Trains.

“Both the executive director of the bank and the bond manager hearing officer commented that they couldn’t remember a hearing with such a large show of support,” Hofbauer stated in a news release. “Everyone realizes the magnitude and importance of this project to the long term economic and quality of life future of our region.”

Last fall, Brightline, a Florida based private passenger rail company, acquired Xpress­West, the high-speed rail project with an approved corridor between Las Vegas and Vic­tor­ville, with plans to con­tin­ue to Palm­dale. In November, it was announced that the internationally known Virgin Group partnered with Brightline and rebranded the project as part of Virgin Trains USA.

After the hearings, Hofbauer and Purtee were invited to tour the Siemens rail car plant in Sacramento. Siemens currently employs 1,500 people at their light and heavy rail manufacturing plant.

“It was fascinating to follow the light rail and heavy rail equipment through the various fabrication and assembly processes,” Hofbauer said.

[Information via news release from the city of Palmdale.]

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9 comments for "City of Palmdale shows support for Virgin/Brightline rail project"

  1. I do not want to see any taxpayer money used to build this. All money should come from the private sector without any tax incentives.
    And yes the 14 highway needs to be widened by two more lanes on each side first. Commuters should have their commute make safer and easier then it is now before any train to Casino Land is built.
    Whatever happened to that train that was suppose to be built along the 14 highway down to LAX ? Why is the Palmdale Airport a lifeless structure ? So much to do before a Casino Train to fun land. And do not get me going about the high speed train from San Francisco to LA that was a waste of taxpayers money.

    • Widening the 14 makes no difference, since the problems of the commute start in the Newhall Pass and it is beyond the point where further widening would make any difference. Diminishing returns is a real thing.

      By the way, why should other tax payers have to foot the bill for making things better for commuters? It seems more fair to put a toll booth in the Newhall Pass to raise the funds from the people who get the benefits.

    • Should the 14 freeway expansion be done with taxpayer dollars? A train will make the commute many times safer and easier. Of course, there have to be competent people working on any project so they don’t waste billions like they did on the California HSR.

  3. Many people from Los Angeles city and beyond will be coming up to Palmdale to take the train to Vegas I suppose…. the 14 freeway is already crowded enough. Are there any plans to widen it out? Hello, first things first.

    • If they’re smart, Virgin could make a deal with Metrolink that would allow a Metrolink ride to Palmdale from Los Angeles with a transfer to the Las Vegas line. That would help greatly with traffic.

      • Metrolink from LA to Palmdale takes way too long. I commute to Union Station and if I lived in the LA area I would drive to Palmdale then ride to Vegas. Someday they should extend fast rail to Los Angeles or make major improvements to Metrolink. High speed rail would get to LA in 30 minutes which is a huge improvement over the 2 hour ride on Metrolink.

        • We have idiots in charge of our transportation future. Lancaster is working against Palmdale and our regional voice is not united. Our leadership from Palmdale is afraid of the Lancaster money changers and do their bidding thinking we don’t know what is happening, we do and it is wrong. Sad state of leadership.

          • Palmdale leaders are just inexperienced and lack the moxie to stand on there own, they are still team players. We don’t get hurt too bad if they just go along. Those Lancaster people are super aggressive and could hurt us if we don’t go along. Remember to work for the best AV.