Passenger Trains > LA - Vegas service starting New Year's Eve?

Okay, who here is responsible for this?

This looks a little unlikely, but I post it here for your entertainment:

http://www.vegasxpress.com/

so is this supposed to be 12-31-09 or 12-31-10??

Either way, ooooookayyyy.

This is actually a serious operation.

it would be interesting to kow how they pulled this off since the UP doesnt even want Amtrak to run on their railroad to Vegas!!

aside from that i would have expected to hear in the rumor mill of the railroad that something like this was in the works, along with bids going out for operating crews!!!

On closer inspection, yes, it's supposed to debut New Year's Eve 2010.

Either way, it reminds me of this site: http://trainshares.com/cardata.cfm#hideaway

"Schedules are subject to change and are an estimate of arrival and departure times. Actual times may vary. Estimated service start date is New Years Eve. 2010."

Is today April 1st? If you read the fine print at the bottom, this is likely nothing more than a pipe dream.

Likely being funded by a Nigerian banker.

There will be a Gary Harold and Archer Travel train heading out to and back from Vegas in the next few months. I think the door is open on UPs side. I hear the only thing thats keeping it oprn is CASH. This person sounds like a priv. person looking to start a kinda Snow Train for LA to Yegas. Sounds fun... You can sing me up....

What? I seem to recall mention of considerable effort, time and expense on UP's part to accommodate Amtrak trains on the Vegas run. That was not derailed by the railroad.


AmtrakHogHead Wrote:
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> it would be interesting to kow how they pulled
> this off since the UP doesnt even want Amtrak to
> run on their railroad to Vegas!!

So their web site says there hasn't been service in almost 40 years... Hmmmm, it seems I took the Desert Wind from Fullerton to Vegas in 1992.

HH

Fullerton departure implies BNSF agreement too.
An odd departure point, the Fullerton station parking is at capacity most weekdays and arriving at Fullerton at midnight leaves no rail connections further into the metroplex (but maybe a Thruway bus?)
I'd hate to drive 40 miles to get home after that journey, in fact I would be a menace to public safety!

KevinLA Wrote:
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> Okay, who here is responsible for this?
>
> This looks a little unlikely, but I post it here
> for your entertainment:
>
> http://www.vegasxpress.com/

Here is the person responsible for Xtrain.

http://www.rocketradionetwork.com/Bands___Interviews.html

It is the Xtrain radio link from the above mentioned website. Doesn't strike me as a serious railroader.

The midnight return arrival time is really appealing. Why not leave Las Vegas a few hours earlier for a decent return time?

There are a lot of late evening airline departures from Las Vegas. I was surprised at how many people were on my 11pm flight to Newark, and how many others were waiting for flights to other places.

Party all day and evening, fly all night, go to work tomorrow morning....

andersonb109 Wrote:
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> The midnight return arrival time is really
> appealing. Why not leave Las Vegas a few hours
> earlier for a decent return time?

Because its Vegas....?

Dave

I think it will crash and burn. Problems:

1. Marketing will be expensive and eat profit away. You can drop $100k+ very quickly and still not see results.
2. Skipping Los Angeles loses a large portion of potential customers
3. Looking at a minimum of $30,000 to move the train, not including rolling stock and staff.
4. Rolling stock lease/charter fee will be $700-$1500 a day per car.
5. Scenery is not great and the trip long.
6. Market they are going after is already addressed by the tour bus groups which can do it a lot cheaper and faster. Southwest does a nice job of servicing Las Vegas from Southern California Airports.
7. Fare is probably based on hotels subsidizing the train which may or may not come through. If the train can't fill lots of seats the hotels are not going to participate.
8. There is a different clientele in Northern and Southern California. Just because it works in the Bay Area doesn't mean it will work in Southern California.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

Looks like a "proof of concept" website to show prospective investors, etc.

(That bad disco music in the background is enough to turn me off, btw)

Well, maybe this is a NEW and INVENTIVE way to get service started up?

Instead of the constant "we can't do that" attitiude, and trying to leave it up to bumbling government officials to try to start something, this guy is actually a breath of fresh air.

Get folks excited about it, get the hotels excited about it, get the railroad excited about it, make this a POSITIVE thing that people want and will support. And then, maybe it will actually happen for a change.

I am also excited to see that this is (at this point) a NON-AMTRAK venture. If this comes to fruition, and does end up being successful, I hope other ventures out there will follow suit, and have Amtrak shaking in their boots. Finally, some competetion for the big bad government run Amtrak.

Also, I'm sure this train will be happy to accomodate PV's on the rear to Vegas and back (for a fee of course). I'm sure this would make many PV owners happy! The charter opportunites I'm sure would be bountiful.

sfericsf Wrote:

> Instead of the constant "we can't do that"
> attitiude, and trying to leave it up to bumbling
> government officials to try to start something,

The problem is passenger train service is not profitable. You can't make money off of transporting people by rail and is the reason that the US and virtually every other railroad passenger transportation system around the world rely on subsidies. The ones that make it work are short distance lines such as the Grand Canyon Railway.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com