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[The Rainmaker]

City gets ready to ink deal for Victorville-Vegas line
High-speed train revs up to be first built in California

By Tatiana Prophet

VICTORVILLE -- It looks like a 5,000-acre master-planned community
nestled in the shadow of Quartzite Mountain is becoming more than
just a glint in the eye of city leaders -- and at its heart could be
the first high-speed train built in California.

Victorville City Council members are getting ready to sign a deal for
a master-planned agreement with three development companies located
in the Northern Triangle, just past Stoddard Wells Road up Interstate
15.

In the center of the community is a high-speed train station pointing
to Las Vegas. Built around it is planned a mixture of residential,
office and industrial properties to support the rail center as a
destination in its own right.

"As we began to walk through the benefits of the train with the
station being there with kiosks ... I think everybody began to
realize that there was a huge potential for using the southern
terminus (of the Victorville-Vegas line) as a magnet to attract some
really upscale residential condo commercial development," said Mayor
Terry Caldwell.

If all goes as planned, the council will vote to ratify the agreement
at tonight's Tuesday City Council meeting, at which coordinators are
planning to show a film on the project.

The city's development director, Bill Webb, said the community will
have a capacity of 80,000 living units, 130 million square feet of
commercial space and 9 million square feet for industrial use.

Tom Stone, president of DesertXpress <http://www.desertxpress.com>
Enterprises Inc., is expected to sign the agreement along with
development partner Transit Real State Development LLC. Stone said
the $3 billion project is moving forward, with an environmental
impact statement under way.

"It's going very well," Stone said. "We're in the middle of the
EIS ... and so all the details, environmental studies and traffic
and noise studies and air quality and all that is ... pretty much
according to schedule."

Stone has said that Vegas-bound travelers can drive to Victorville,
check into their hotel at a satellite-front desk, board the high-
speed train and be in Sin City in little more than an hour.

The reason the line does not start in Los Angeles is simply one of
practicality: Stone wants to get the project built, and at this
point, costs to put the rail up the Cajon Pass -- especially for a
totally privately funded project -- are prohibitive. He has not,
however, ruled out an L.A.-Victorville extension in the future.

At this point, plans for groundbreaking are in late 2008, Stone said.
Ticket prices would be most likely $110 round-trip, Stone said.

Although Victorville has said that no public funds would be used for
the train project itself, the agreement calls for half of the tax
revenue generated from the project to be used in the form of a bond
issue to fund the project's infrastructure.

The city and its development partners, which include Newport Beach-
based Inland Energy, are in the process of acquiring land north and
east of Southern California Logistics Airport.

The agreement calls for buying property for fair-market value,
Caldwell said, after negotiations with the owner. In rare cases where
the purpose of a particular parcel is for public use, the use of
eminent domain would be allowed, according to the draft resolution of
the agreement.

"The only time we might consider using it is if it can be
demonstrated that the owner of the land has been dealt with fairly
and objectively and has been dealt a fair-market value ... and the
piece of ground in question is so important and so essential that the
concept of the development could not go on without it," Caldwell said.

All about the high-speed train

Funding: $3 billion of private investment

Technology: Steel-wheel-on-rails

Power: Diesel-electric

Miles covered: 190

Fare: Not yet set, but most likely $110 round-trip

Schedule: Set to run every 30 minutes

Speed: 125 mph

Timetable: A draft EIS should be ready in 2007. Opening day is
projected for 2012.

Stations: Victorville -- 60 acres with room for 10,000 automobiles
along the west side of I-15 between the two Stoddard Wells Road
exits. Las Vegas -- three possible locations including near the south
end of the Strip, center section of the Strip, and downtown.

Maintenance facilities: Maintenance, storage and operations facility
on 50 acres in Victorville within the Victor Valley Economic
Development Area. It would include a fueling station, train washing
facility, repair shop, parts storage and operations center -- all
employing 400 people.

video train
http://www.kqed.org/quest/television/view/113