Disneyland to Vegas Maglev Receives Funding, or does it?

I saw a great headline that the much needed Maglev line between Anaheim’s resort district and the Las Vegas area had received federal funding to get started on the first phase. It was only $45 million toward a potential $12 billion project, but it was an indication the line would eventually be built.

Since phase one was to run from Las Vegas to the Nevada/California Stateline (aka Primm, where all the casinos are owned by MGM Grand, who must have some great lobbyists) I hopped on over the the Las Vegas Review Journal website to see what they had to say.

Guess, what. There’s no official announcement about the federal funding and lots of confusion about which of two competing projects to fund. If you’re interested in political infighting check out the story in the LVRJ.

But what I want to know is as a travel consumer which would you prefer? A 300-mile an hour MagLev train that gets you to and from Anaheim and Las Vegas in 1.5-2 hours with a minimum of stops along the way? Or 150-mile an hour train that makes more stops in the smaller communities and requires a transfer to make it to the Anaheim area from Las Vegas. It would take 4-5 hours for this option.

For the record, I’ve driven from Disneyland to Las Vegas in less than 4 hours. So I think the faster option is much better even if it is more expensive. Sometimes you have to pay to get the options that would make the service desirable to the consumer. Plus, we need at least one MagLev project in the United States as proof of concept to help get them, and other high speed rail systems, going. Might as well be Anaheim to Las Vegas since it’s a high traffic route and relatively easy to develop in terms of navigation.

What do you think?