In 2023, the Brightline West project seemed a surefire thing.
The 218-mile-long rail project shuttling passengers between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, with stops in Victorville and Rancho Cucamonga, California, had just gotten a $3 billion loan from President Joe Biden’s administration. A groundbreaking was held a few months later, breathing life into the seemingly Sisyphean effort to build a high-speed rail line between the two communities.
Years later, the project is now delayed, costs are rising and Brightline’s parent company is fielding bankruptcy loan bids for a different project as it awaits a crucial step — a $6 billion loan from the Trump administration…