By 2031, Angelenos could be among the 8.6 million annual passengers shelling out $119 for a one-way ticket to whisk them on a two-hour high-speed rail ride from the Inland Empire to Las Vegas at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour.

Those are just some of the details unveiled in a $2.5 billion bond offering presentation by Brightline West, the subsidiary of Miami-based Brightline that is developing the high-speed rail line.

The bond offering was split into two parts: $1.85 billion to be sold by California’s Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank and $625 million to be sold from Nevada’s Department of Business and Industry.

The project has already received a $3 billion federal funding commitment and plans to raise most of the remaining $6.9 billion through a mix of a bank facility and a future $1.5 billion bond sale.

Late last year, Brightline West began surveying and conducting geotechnical work along the planned rail corridor, which mostly runs in the median of the 15 Freeway.

According to the bond presentation, the project is slated to begin construction late this year, with a revised target construction completion date of the end of 2028, months after the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Los Angeles. Brightline West originally planned to have the project completed in time for those Games.

Metrolink connection plans detailed

Importantly for residents and businesses in Los Angeles County, the bond presentation spelled out for the first time some of the details of the crucial connection with the Southern California regional rail network known as Metrolink at its Rancho Cucamonga station to carry Angelenos the rest of the way to downtown L.A.’s Union Station.

According to the document, the partnership arrangement will include:

• Synchronized scheduling and transfers
• A single ticket covering both train rides
• Express and additional weekend trains between Rancho Cucamonga and Union Station

Currently, one-way travel times on Metrolink between Rancho Cucamonga and Union Station average about 1 hour 20 minutes; the addition of express trains could speed that up significantly. Nonetheless it will likely still take at least three hours to get from Union Station to the Las Vegas Strip and vice-versa.

The bond document did not give an indication of the single combined-ticket pricing and how much less it would be than purchasing the two tickets separately. Currently, a one-way ticket from Rancho Cucamonga to Union Station aboard Metrolink costs $8.

As for fares aboard the high-speed rail train, the basic one-way economy fare is listed at $119 in the bond offering presentation, with premium fare running at $133 one-way.

The trains themselves would be all-electric and run at hourly intervals, with a total of 35 departures per day from both Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga. Standard trains would have 440 seats spread among seven cars (four with standard seating, two with premium seating and one lounge and bar train car). At peak times, trains could be coupled to double the capacity to 880 seats.

According to the bond offering presentation, the fares compare favorably with the average air fare of $260 and the estimated $120 operating cost of a passenger vehicle. And the roughly two-hour train ride is listed as the shortest travel time of the three transportation modes, with air travel (including arriving at the airport early for screening) taking 2.5 hours and vehicular traffic taking 3.5 hours during non-peak times.

However, the Brightline West fares and travel time do not include the Metrolink connection.

Contractors unveiled

Munchen (Munich), Germany-based Siemens is building and supplying the rail cars and train control systems. Other contractors revealed in the bond offering documents include:

• Kiewit Corp. (Omaha, Nebraska) for highway work and grading
• Skanska (Stockholm, Sweden) for highway work and grading
• McCarthy Building Cos. (St. Louis) for the Las Vegas and Rancho Cucamonga stations
• Clark Construction (Bethesda, Maryland) for the Rancho Cucamonga station
• Acciona (Madrid) for paving
• Security Paving Company Inc. (Westlake Village) for paving