The route would get huge daily commuter traffic within the greater LA area, as well as enabling significant economic development in Vegas. Not just tourism, but business relationships outside of the stereotypical casinos and theme parks.
The old model of oil-fueled family cars providing almost the personal transport within and between nearby cities will not be economically and environmentally viable much longer.
Of course, some politicians can't resist trashing public support for any project attached to the name "Disneyland," as if anything associated with a theme park is just some silly children's plaything.
Theme parks are multi-billion dollar businesses, attracting tens of millions of Americans each year. And the biggest ones are not located in random, sleepy little burgs, but within some of the most dynamic local economies in the nation.
So, build the darned rail system! And give us one to San Francisco, too. I'd much rather see billions go to employ hard-working Americans designing and building these rail systems than to prop up the stockholders of the nation's zombie banks. We need somebody to spend some money to get our economy going again. I'd rather we all get something useful for that investment.
That's my $.02. Debate continues in the comments, if anyone's interested. Weaving theme parks into the conversation earns brownie points. :-)
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There are many people who would like to see a rail system in California that works, but who would use it?
(Btw, I live in Southern California, and have used the rail systems in Manhattan and Boston and love them... I just don't have any answers to a Californian version)
Build the damn rail!
Another thing they may want to look at is the connection from Universal to Hollwood. The buses linking with the metro don't run late enough to make it viable. We tried it and it's another example of non-joined-up thinking. So the only alternative is to drive.
I applaud the movement for the new cross rail link. It makes good sense.
Let's say this thing gets built. Who is going to ride it? Obviously the company running it has to make money. How much will a ticket cost? Tickets for the Acela Express run at cheapest around $100 for one way. Surely this would be more. How many will pay that much? This is not economic stimulus, it is Harry Reid's favorite pork project that he wants to pass while he can.
http://gawker.com/5153361/harry-reids-disneyland-train
They are now talking about changing the route, which would cost a lot of money, but would eliminate the biggest obstacle in the road . Since it's become part of a statewide bullet train project, it may happen soon.
I've recommended this book a few times on TPI. It's an interesting read about Disney World and it's relationship with the city of Orlando and the state of Florida. It's called "Married to the Mouse." There's even a chapter of the book that talks about the bullet train project.
I don't think that projects like these are the solution to our economic problems. While they would help with problems like traffic congestion, oil consumption, and pollution, they would also be run by the government, the same government that got us into this mess in the first place. A cardinal rule of doing business is to not waste money, and to cut loose bad or unproductive employees. If the business of government was a publicly traded company, they all would have been fired or put in jail a long time ago. They can't even tie their shoes without spending a million dollars of our tax money, so why should I put them in charge of a multibillion dollar lightrail system.
If CA and Vegas want to build this, let those two states pay for it out of there own taxes and don't saddle the rest of the country with the bill!!
And since CA cant pay there bills as it is and is billions in debt with its bloated government there is no reason at all to send taxpayer money from all over the country to pay for this.
We need to be lowering federal spending as all of the debt we are incurring is going to cause major inflation problems down the line.
We need to let banks/auto companies fail if they aren't run properly or cant compete in the global economy. The recession will run its course and the federal government cant get out us out of this by just turning on the printing press's as these bill will have to be paid some day. FDR'S spending didn't get the country out of the depression and neither will the current policies. This country has weathered past recession's without blindly spending money and this one will also pass, but lets do so without leaving our kids/grand kids trillions of dollars to pay off, and that doesnt include the coming money woes with SS/Medicare/Medicad.
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I'm saying a triangle for the purpose of connecting the Orlando and Tampa for the theme parks as well as cutting back on the I-4 traffic between Tampa and Orlando that happens daily because of the jobs on either end. Connect Orlando to Daytona to add to the tourism excitement of visiting the Theme Park World in Orlando as well as being able to go to Daytona's famous beaches. Again this would cut back the traffic during rush hour between the two areas as well as create more opportunity for those that are not able to afford driving themselves every day back and forth and spending $10 just to go there and back daily instead of lets say spending $2 back and forth daily.
Then add Miami to the equation and you have a dream network for not only Tourists but also for businesses and their workers that is much more affordable than driving one self and less of a hassle than setting up a carpool as well as being more economically friendly.
Now it will cost to build and take time to build it but I think it would be a wise investement in a number of the large economic centers of the United States.