The Las Vegas Sun today took a look at three passenger rail projects in their region and discovered that maglev is stalled, DesertXpress is moving forward, and the Vegas monorail is having woes that are rather appropriate to the current California HSR discussion.

• DesertXpress: Tom Stone, president of DesertXpress, plans to break ground sometime in 2010 on a train to link Victorville to downtown Las Vegas. DesertXpress is enthusiastic about CHRSA plans for the LA-Bakersfield segment that make a Palmdale-Victorville link viable:

The other big news for DesertXpress is that representatives of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, seeing the opportunity of connecting the Las Vegas-Victorville link with that state’s planned rail system, are seeking stimulus money for links for Palmdale, Calif., Los Angeles and Anaheim. The logical next step would be to work on a track between Victorville and Palmdale, a process that could take years since it would require an environmental assessment.

But because the California group is pressing ahead on the Palmdale link, there’s optimism that there would be a coordinated effort to speed up a Victorville-Palmdale route.

Still unclear is the source of funding for DesertXpress, which intends to get its construction capital from the private sector.

• Maglev: Whereas DesertXpress appears to be “on track,” the vague plans to build maglev from Anaheim to Vegas are facing a bureaucratic hurdle that shows no sign of resolution:

Last July, the Federal Railroad Administration approved the Nevada Transportation Department’s scope of work for the use of $45 million authorized by the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users legislation. Cummings said required matching funds have been committed by American Magline Group and the money would be used to obtain environmental approvals, raise construction spending and begin work on the Las Vegas-Primm segment.

The state Transportation Department is awaiting the issuance of a contract by the Railroad Administration, and in August Administrator Joseph Szabo wrote a letter to Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, a key member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, indicating that the contract would be issued “very soon.”…

The Transportation Department and Cummings haven’t heard anything from the Railroad Administration since.

Although the explanation for the delay is unclear, Senator Harry Reid switched his support last June from maglev to DesertXpress. There’s no evidence that Reid is holding up the maglev contract, but neither is there any evidence Reid is working to release it. I’m OK if this contract is never bid – maglev is worth studying, but there’s no need to proceed with any actual plans, and construction of Anaheim-Vegas maglev remains far in the distance.

• Monorail: Finally, the article talked about the Vegas monorail, which might not seem relevant to California HSR – until you read what the article has to say about the monorail’s financial situation:

The only good news about the monorail is that it makes enough money to pay for all its operational expenses. But the bad news is that it can’t pay the debts on the money borrowed to build the 3.9-mile system. That point was driven home Jan. 13 when the monorail company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its finances.

This is similar to Taiwan, where HSR has no problem covering its operating expenses, but is having significant problems paying back the cost of construction. Further, the Vegas monorail is complicated by poor route choices made to satisfy NIMBYs – which included the all-powerful casinos:

The only good news about the monorail is that it makes enough money to pay for all its operational expenses. But the bad news is that it can’t pay the debts on the money borrowed to build the 3.9-mile system. That point was driven home Jan. 13 when the monorail company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its finances….

Monorail spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman said the focus of the monorail is to operate the system as efficiently and as effectively as it can. That doesn’t include any kind of plan to extend the monorail to McCarran International Airport, which, most critics agree, would make the system far more functional and possibly build enough ridership to make the debt payments.

But for now, survival is the objective, not growth, and construction isn’t in the cards. That’s unfortunate, since I have long maintained the reason the Las Vegas Monorail isn’t successful is because it’s a transportation system that isn’t finished yet. The airport link is the crucial piece that isn’t in place….

People complain the monorail route is along the back side of the properties on the east side of the Strip; Broadbent was hoping to route it down the center of the Strip, but met resistance from casino companies. Critics also complain the monorail doesn’t go to the airport or downtown; Broadbent wanted the train to go to both places but didn’t have the financial support to pull it off.

Compromise molded the monorail route to what it is today. Now, Las Vegas is living with that compromise.

What does this mean for California HSR? I think it’s pretty clear. For the system to be financially viable, we have to build the route that was promised to voters in November 2008 – SF Transbay Terminal to LA Union Station and Anaheim RTIC via the Caltrain corridor, and the downtowns of Gilroy, Merced, Fresno, and Bakersfield. We need to resist the temptation to make “compromises” in the route in order to mollify this or that NIMBY group or because of funding shortfalls. If we don’t have the funding to build it out completely, then we need to go out and get it, without hocking the system to private investors the way Taiwan did.

Those who argue for implementations that compromise the planned and promised route are the ones putting the project in financial jeopardy, and it’s therefore up to them to find the funding for their pet route or tunnel or station design.